Lifestyle

Lifestyle

  • Submitted By: ielts
  • Date Submitted: 02/06/2014 7:54 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 951
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Magazine – Awards
Introduction You can listen to a recording of this article at: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/magazine-articles/awards This support pack contains the following materials: • the article that you can listen to • a comprehension activity based on the article Read the article Awards by Chris Rose The Nobels are the originals, of course. Alfred Nobel, the man who invented deadly explosives, decided to try and do something good with all the money he earned, and gave prizes to people who made progress in literature, science, economics and – perhaps most importantly – peace. Not all awards are as noble as the Nobels. Even though most countries have a system for recognising, honouring and rewarding people who have done something good in their countries, there are now hundreds of awards and awards ceremonies for all kinds of things. The Oscars are probably the most famous, a time for the (mostly) American film industry to tell itself how good it is, an annual opportunity for lots of big stars to give each other awards and make tearful speeches. As well as that there are also the Golden Globes, apparently for the same thing. But it’s not only films – now there are also Grammies, Brits, the Mercury Prize and the MTV and Q awards for music. In Britain, a writer who wins the Booker prize can expect to see their difficult, literary novel hit the bestseller lists and compete with "The Da Vinci Code” for popularity. The Turner Prize is an award for a British contemporary artist – each year it causes controversy by aparently giving lots of money to artists who do things like display their beds, put animals in glass cases or – this year – build a garden shed. Awards don’t only exist for the arts. There are now awards for Sports Personality of the Year, for European Footballer of the year and World Footballer of the Year. This seems very strange – sometimes awards can be good to give recognition to people who deserve it, or to help people who don’t make a...

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