Quiz televisivi

Unit 3: The audiovisual media

Lesson 3 – Cinema TV and quiz

Cinema

• A DVD holds 4.7 _______ of _________ - seven times as much as a CD-ROM.

• On average, a film makes about five times more from its DVD sales than at the cinema box office.

• The first film to be shown to the public was made by Auguste and Louis Lumière in 1895.

• The largest cinema in the world is Radio City Music Hall in New York. It opened in 1932 and seats almost 6,000 people.

• Hollywood’s first full-length film was The Squaw Man, released in 1913.

• The longest kiss in a movie is in Andy Warhol’s Kiss. Rufus Collins and Naomi Levine kissed for the entire 50 minutes of the movie.

• The movie with the most extras was Gandhi, made in 1982. It featured 300,000 extras.

Television

• The first daily broadcast was started by the BBC in November 1936.

• The first regular TV transmission was called A Woman to Remember, and began its run on February 21, 1947.

• With 200 million, China has the most TV sets in the world.

• US citizens watch the most TV. By the age of 65, an average American will have watched nine years worth of TV.

• The 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II was the first major international TV broadcast.

Cartoons

• The first film animation, called Humorous Phases of Funny Faces, was made in 1906.

• The Walt Disney company was founded in 1923. In 1927 Walt came up with the idea for an animated mouse called Mortimer Mouse. His wife, Lillian, convinced him to change it to Mickey Mouse.

• The cat and mouse partnership Tom and Jerry were created in 1939 by Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera.

• Mel Blanc, who was the voice of Bugs Bunny, was allergic to carrots.

• Jack Mercer was the voice of Popeye the Sailor for 45 years.

Video and DVD

• The Japanese company JVC introduced VHS in 1976.

• 85% of DVD players are made in China.

• The first pop video was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, released in 1975.

Actors and actresses

• Kirk Douglas, father of Michael Douglas, was born Issur Danielovitch Demsky.

• The actress with the most Oscars for Best Actress is Katharine Hepburn, who won four golden statuettes in 1932, 1967, 1968, and 1981.

• Julia Roberts is still the highest-paid Hollywood actress. She can ask for at least £20 million per movie.

• Anthony Hopkins, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Richard Burton were all born in Wales.

• Al Jolson was the first person to speak in a movie. The Jazz Singer, released in 1927, was the first movie to use sound.

Exercise 17

Fill in the blanks with words or phrases chosen among the ones in the following glossary.

TV and Cinema Quiz – Glossary

• Allergic adj. affected by an allergy: I'm allergic to nuts.
• Animation noun [U] animated films, or the process of making them.
• Broadcast verb [intransitive or transitive] to send out messages or programmes to be received by radios or televisions: The BBC will be broadcasting the match live from Paris.
• Carrot noun [C or U] a long hard orange vegetable that grows under the ground.
• Cartoon noun [C] a film or TV programme made by photographing a series of drawings so that things in them seem to move.
• Come up with phrasal verb to think of something such as an idea or a plan: Is that the best you can come up with?
• Convince someone verb [transitive] to persuade someone to do something: They tried to convince him to buy a cheaper car.
• Coronation noun [C] a ceremony at which someone officially becomes a king or queen.
• Create verb [transitive] to make something new exist or happen: He was only 22 when he created this masterpiece.
• Data noun [U] information in a form that a computer can use: data storage/processing.
• Extra noun [C] someone who has a very small part in a film.
• Find /found /found verb [transitive] to start an organization or institution: The newspaper was founded in 1909.
• GB abbreviation / gigabyte.
• Introduce verb [transitive] to bring something into existence or use for the first time: City schools have introduced stricter rules for dealing with drug users.
• Partnership noun [C] a company that is owned by two or more partners.
• Release verb [transitive] to make a film, video, or CD available for people to see or buy: They have just released their second album.
• Run noun a period of time when something continues: The play is enjoying a successful run on Broadway.
• Seat verb [transitive] to have places for a particular number of people to sit: The new stadium will seat up to 80,000 people.
• Soap opera noun [C] a television or radio series about the imaginary lives of a group of people.
• Sound noun [C] something that you can hear: The sound of voices/laughter/footsteps.
• Transmission noun [C or U] the process of sending electronic signals such as radio or television signals, or a signal that is sent in this way: New telephone lines allow faster data transmission by fax or modem.
• TV set noun [C] a television.
• VHS noun [U] video home system: a system for recording television programmes at home.

Exercise 18

Here are the answers to some questions. Prepare appropriate questions.

1. The BBC. Example: Who started daily broadcasts in 1936?
2. February 21, 1947. Example: On what date/When did the first soap begin its run?
3. 200 million
4. Mortimer Mouse
5. Lillian
6. Tom and Jerry
7. Carrots
8. For 45 years
9. VHS
10. Bohemian Rhapsody
11. 4.7 GB
12. 6,000
13. 1913
14. 50 minutes
15. 300,000
16. Kirk Douglas
17. Four
18. £20 million
19. Wales
20. The Jazz Singer

Grammar Note: Interrogatives and Question Tags

Interrogatives

There are three main question types: Yes/No questions and Wh- questions. Then we have Indirect Questions that involve both the first and the second type.

Yes/No questions

Yes/No questions require yes/no answers and, for accuracy, the repetition of the auxiliary.

Example: Is Joan chatting with her boyfriend? (Yes, she is / No, she isn’t)

Has my e-mail arrived? (Yes, it has / No, it hasn’t)

Does your sister write e-mails? (Yes, she does / No, she doesn’t)

Can’t he swim? (Yes, he can / No, he can’t)

Look! Yes/No questions normally contain words like any, anyone, anything and not words like some, someone, something:

Someone sent me an e-mail yesterday. Did anyone send you an e-mail yesterday?

They need some paper to print. Do they need any paper to print?

But... Look at these questions:

Did someone send me an e-mail? (I was expecting an e-mail)

Haven’t I seen this notice somewhere before? (I’m quite sure I have)

™ These questions almost certainly require Yes answers, so they contain some- words instead of any-words.

Wh- questions

Wh- questions require information in the reply, something the speaker didn’t know before. These questions are introduced by the so-called wh- words:

• Who/Whom
• Whose
• What/Which
• When
• Where
• Why
• How

Who (subject pronoun) You want to know about a person or some people. Who’s that girl? Who is it?

But... Who works at this project? Who goes to that University?

™ When who is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs.

Whom (object pronoun) It is the object pronoun form of who and it is formal. With whom did you go to the meeting? With my colleagues (formal).

Whose (possessive pronoun or determiner) You want to know who something belongs to. Whose e-mail is this? It’s mine/it belongs to Bob.

But... Whose decision represents a turn-over in this agreement?

™ When whose is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs.

What (pronoun) You want to know about something and not a person. What are they typing? What sports do they practise?

But... What provoked this reaction?

™ When what is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs.

Which (pronoun / determiner) It is used instead of who (for people) and instead of what (for things) when the range of possibilities to choose from is limited.

Which of Congreve’s comedies have you seen? (pronoun) Which book are you bringing with you? (determiner)

But... Which competition takes place on Sundays?

™ When which is the subject in the question, you do not use auxiliary verbs.

When (adverb) You want to know the time at which something happens. When did my cousin graduate?

Where (adverb) You want to know what place. Where has your girlfriend parked the car?

Where have you been (to)? (motion to a place)