Difference between revisions of "Lesson:10 Questions for Robin Williams"

Revision as of 18:11, 17 September 2013

Grammar

Read the following sentences aloud.

Thanks for helping me organize my closet.
Thanks for allowing me to sleep over.
Thanks for sending her the email.
Thanks for the help.
Thanks for your support.
Thanks for coming.

Vocabulary

Learn the definition of the following words then write sentences with them.

poke
lay waste
depth
therein
impending
shelter
deflect
midsts
comprise
crucible
core
scatter
spooky
dare
commune
thrilling
humbling

Picture Gallery

Explore the gallery and associate the images and words.

Asteroids
Crucible

Video

Watch the video.

Listening comprehension

Answer the following questions according to the video.

What is the suggestion given by Dr. Tyson for solving the educational problem in the areas of physics and mathematics?
Why does Dr. Tyson say children are born scientists?
In what way do scientists and engineers react to impending disaster?
Why does Dr. Tyson say he feels big?
What kind of questions did Sir. Isaac Newton ask?

Conversation

Answer the following questions to the best of your ability.

Did you enjoy the video?
Are you any good at math and physics?
Were you very curious when you were a child?
What did your parents do when you were playing with something that could break?
What things keep you awake at night?
What would you do if an asteroid was headed for the earth?
Do you feel it's important to be ready for disasters?
How do you feel in relation to the universe?
If you could meet and talk with any scientist who’s ever lived, who would it be and why?
Is there an author that helps you commune through time?

Reading practice

Read the transcript.

Transcript:

I'm not gonna lie. When I get hungry, I get stupid. 12 years back I screwed up, ok? I follow the scent, I took a bite and then a tranquilizer dart comes from out of nowhere and I wake up in Bagdad. So, that was depressing!

Belinda: Hi, I'm Belinda Luscombe. This is Time Magazine's 10 questions. Today, we are asking our questions with Robin Williams. Hello, Mr. Williams.

Robin Williams: Welcome, miss Luscombe.

BL: So, in your new play, "The Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo", you're playing the tiger.

RW: Yes.

BL: How does one prepare to play a tiger? Prowling?

RW: A little pacing, biting whenever possible... and basically playing the soul of a tiger so I don't have to do a lot of tiger behavior - except for that. But it's pretty much a two-legged tiger cause I'm in a cage in the beginning and I treat it more like jail. But it's, you know, the essesnce of a tiger with not a lot of- no costume except for these beaten-up clothing.

BL: This is your Broadway debut in a serious broadway play...

RW: Yeah, when I did "Godot", it was under Broadway. That was about 20 years ago, actually. So, yeah, this is probably debut.

BL: And you left Julliard in what, 1975?

RW: 5, yeah. I left school, I fell in love and went back to live in San Francisco.

BL: Ahm, this is actually a serious play... (RW: Uhum, very!) and does your appearance in the play reflect any personal feelings you have about the Iraq war?

RW: You know, I've been there 5 times; Afghanistan, 6... my feelings are more about- I mean, I'm still wondering "where are the weapons of mass destruction?" Even though they had Hussein- they had the guy himself who you'd think out of everybody knew... "Saddam, where is it?" "I'm not telling." Too late, he's gone! How weird is that? Crazy. But my feeling about the war is the blablabla of ghost, specially. I mean, this war is... I was just there recently and, you know, they're winding down. In quotes. They're supposed to be out of there by Christmas next year so... What do we come back from? What's the damage to the Iraqi? What's the damage to us? What do you leave from there when it just ends? You know, like you said, in the lines in the play about "You americans think when something dies, that's it, it's over." But when you go to the Middle-East you realize that there's a real sense of "thing stay around".

BL: You did a stand-up tour in 2009: "Weapons of Self-Destruction". If I went to the right club on the right night, might I find you? Would you still have a...

RW: I haven't been able to go out yet, since I've started the play. But I think I'm gonna have to start to go out again cause it's about time. Now that I've got the gig, I can start to go out, you know, do shows, maybe on the weekends. Just to, I... cause I've started to, you know, I'm starting to get the urge to go back in again. And it's important to go out and do it, cause there is just so much to talk about. The fact that Donald Trump wants to see Obama's birth certificate is kinda - I want to see his hairline first!

BL: Absolutely! Why did you stop?

RW: I believe the hair is actually him! I believe at night he walks into a small room, sits down and the heir goes (-makes squeaky noises-) "Who should we marry next?", "We're going out." ,"Put your name on that building."

BL: Ok, leading on from that question - that answer, (RW: ... leading on to that...) is being funny sometimes a hinder as to social interaction?

RW: Example, I was once walking in an airport and a woman came out to me and said "Be zany". Big time!

BL: But what about with say, family. Do you sometimes...

RW: Oh, no! It's... years ago, my... I was reading a story to my daughter, I was doing voices and everything and she turned to me and said: "Just read the story."

BL: Ouch! Snap!

RW: Yeah, and just stay to the main points.

BL: Please, no voices.

RW: No voices, yeah. "Thanks, dad."

BL: How often does someone else make you laugh?

RW: Oh, big time!

BL: Is it kids or is it... ?

RW: No, kids do. Comics of, comedians who make me laugh, Chris Rock, Louis C. K., Patton Oswald. And I've been hanging out with Mort Sahl and that's been a gift! Being hanging out with him is two things: It's history but it's also just he's amazingly funny and still has everything going in all cylinders which has been wonderful!

BL: So, you can, hen you get older as a comic, you stay funny? You can still.. What do you need to...

RW: (in an old man voice) You try to stay funny as you get older as a comedian - and then you get to this point going (in electronic throat voice) "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, nice to have you here and thank you for coming to my show." You try to stay funny, yeah? I mean when you see like, Don Rickles or like, Mort and you see these guys who are just still doing great... that's what keeps them alive, I mean, it's what keeps them going!

BL: Ahm, Billy Cristal has said that "stand up is how comedians process things that are painful" (RW: Yeah.) but, does that mean we have to wish more painful things on you?

RW: You don't have to, I find them! I was filming in, you know that's kinda a bit... Tourette's is the thing when people say kind of nasty things. Is there... is there, another thing of like, a positive Tourette's "THAT DRESS IS BEAUTIFUL! YOUR LEGS ARE NICE!" Where everything is wonderful: "YOU REALLY ARE LOVELY!" "Nice, nice eyes. NICE EYES!" So, your teeth are beautiful... "YOUR TEETH ARE BEAUTIFUL! ALL OF THEM!"

BL: Why does it have to go the other way?

RW: Well, I think, actually because it's the subconsciuous creeping out but, then you think: Is that a nice idea? Subcoscious is going "I really like you!" Não faço a menor ideia do que ele disse no fim dessa resposta, sério mesmo!

BL: You are sort of unique among comedians, I don't think you've actually written a book...

RW: No, I hope not to! (BL: You hope not to?) Specially a biography. I mean, I have a lot of friends who are authors who are great! I just don't have the discipline to do it. The learning, somewhat. But the discipline as to really sit down and write a book... maybe... cut to a 5 years from now: "I'm here with my new book... so that's the way you like it...". But I don't think so.

BL: Yeah, you can just talk into a tape recorder and someone would just type it up for you. We do that here at Time!

RW: Well, then I should do a book!

BL: I got, you've gone through all my questions!

RW: We did it. Every question! Good job!

Exercises

Lesson:10_Questions_for_Neil_deGrasse_Tyson/ExerciseA1

@@ Line 81: / Line 81: @@
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 <br>
-:'''Interviewer''': We're here with Doctor Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist at Manhattan's American Museum of Natural History, and host of PBS's NOVA ScienceNOW for TIME's 10 Questions.
+I'm not gonna lie. When I get hungry, I get stupid. 12 years back I screwed up, ok? I follow the scent, I took a bite and then a tranquilizer dart comes from out of nowhere and I wake up in Bagdad.
+So, that was depressing!
-:'''Interviewer''': Neil, thanks for being with us today.
+Belinda: Hi, I'm Belinda Luscombe. This is Time Magazine's 10 questions. Today, we are asking our questions with Robin Williams. Hello, Mr. Williams.
-:'''Tyson''': I'm ready for ya.
+Robin Williams: Welcome, miss Luscombe.
-:'''Interview''': What should be done about the fact that our kids lag woefully far behind children in other countries in the areas of physics and mathematics?
+BL: So, in your new play, "The Bengal Tiger at the Bagdad Zoo", you're playing the tiger.
-:'''Tyson''': You know [what] my first reply is, as a parent? Get out of their way. When you're a kid, you're born a scientist. What does a scientist do? We look up and say "I wonder what that is. Let me go find out. Let me poke it. Let me break it. Let me turn it around. This is what kids do. You can't let a kid alone for a minute without them laying waste to your house. Ok? Because they're grabbing stuff off the shelves. So what do we do? We prevent that. We prevent these depths of curiosity from revealing themselves even within our own residences. And so, I swore that when I had kids, and I do have kids, I got an eleven-year-old and a seven; but when they were young, and still today, if they see something they want to experiment with, even if they might break it, I just let it go. Let the experiment run its course. Because therein are the souls - is the soul of curiosity that leads to the kind of mind you would want as a scientist.
+RW: Yes.
-:'''Interviewer''': So you talk about events that can cause the end of the world. Does this knowledge keep you awake at night?
+BL: How does one prepare to play a tiger? Prowling?
-:'''Tyson''': Yes! Yes...It might keep me awake in a different way than others. There are many people who when faced with disaster, impending disaster, they say to themselves "Ok. Let me buy emergency food. Let me find a shelter to go to. Let me alert the autho... Let me..." Ok. When you're trained as a scientist or an engineer, that's not the first thing you think of. The first thing you think of is "How can I prevent the disaster?"
+RW: A little pacing, biting whenever possible... and basically playing the soul of a tiger so I don't have to do a lot of tiger behavior - except for that. But it's pretty much a two-legged tiger cause I'm in a cage in the beginning and I treat it more like jail. But it's, you know, the essesnce of a tiger with not a lot of- no costume except for these beaten-up clothing.
-:'''Interviewer''': Right.
+BL: This is your Broadway debut in a serious broadway play...
-:'''Tyson''': Here comes the asteroid, you’re gonna, like, run away from it? Or are you gonna say “how can I figure out how to deflect it? That’s why you want scientists and engineers in your midsts. Otherwise, you’re just running away from every possible disaster that could affect life on earth. What kind of life is that?
+RW: Yeah, when I did "Godot", it was under Broadway. That was about 20 years ago, actually. So, yeah, this is probably debut.
-:'''Interviewer''': What is the most astounding fact you can share with us about the universe?
+BL: And you left Julliard in what, 1975?
-:'''Tyson''': The most astounding fact is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on earth, the atoms that make up the human body are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures. These stars, the high mass ones among them, when unstable in their later years, they collapsed and then exploded scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy. Guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself. These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems: stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself. So that when I look up at the night sky and I know that, yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but, perhaps, more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us. When I reflect on that fact I look up -- many people feel small, because they’re small and the universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.
+RW: 5, yeah. I left school, I fell in love and went back to live in San Francisco.
-:'''Interviewer''': If you could meet and talk with any scientist who’s ever lived, who would it be and why?
+BL: Ahm, this is actually a serious play...  (RW: Uhum, very!) and does your appearance in the play reflect any personal feelings you have about the Iraq war?
-:'''Tyson''': Isaac Newton. Isaac Newton! No question about it. Isaac Newton. The smartest person ever, ever to walk the face of this earth. You read his writings; the man was connected to the universe, in spooky ways. The most successful scientists in the history of the world are those who pose the right questions. If I asked you “at what temperature does the number seven melt? What’s the square root of a pork chop?” These are meaningless questions, maybe philosophers will run with them, but scientific -- they’re scientifically meaningless. Abandon them - go on to the next problem. Newton, his questions, reached into the soul of the universe and he pulled out insights and wisdom that transformed our understanding of our place in the cosmos. Somebody said “Isaac why is it that Planets orbit in the shape you call ellipses rather than circles, why that shape?” and he says “you know, I’ll get back to you on that, I’ll get back to you.” [He] goes away for a few months [and] come[s] back “here is the answer, here is the answer, here is why gravity produces ellipses for orbits.” The guy says, “how did you finally figure that out?” “Well, I had to invent this new kind of mathematics to do it.” He invented calculus! Most of us sweat through it for multiple years in school just to learn it. He invented it practically on a dare. He discovered the laws of motion, the laws of gravity, the laws of optics, then he turned 26. Ok?
+RW: You know, I've been there 5 times; Afghanistan, 6... my feelings are more about- I mean, I'm still wondering "where are the weapons of mass destruction?" Even though they had Hussein- they had the guy himself who you'd think out of everybody knew... "Saddam, where is it?" "I'm not telling." Too late, he's gone! How weird is that? Crazy. But my feeling about the war is the blablabla of ghost, specially. I mean, this war is... I was just there recently and, you know, they're winding down. In quotes. They're supposed to be out of there by Christmas next year so... What do we come back from? What's the damage to the Iraqi? What's the damage to us? What do you leave from there when it just ends? You know, like you said, in the lines in the play about "You americans think when something dies, that's it, it's over." But when you go to the Middle-East you realize that there's a real sense of "thing stay around".
-:'''Interviewer''': I’m with you.
+BL: You did a stand-up tour in 2009: "Weapons of Self-Destruction". If I went to the right club on the right night, might I find you? Would you still have a...
+RW:  I haven't been able to go out yet, since I've started the play. But I think I'm gonna have  to start to go out again cause it's about time. Now that I've got the gig, I can start to go out, you know, do shows, maybe on the weekends. Just to, I... cause I've started to, you know, I'm starting to get the urge to go back in again. And it's important to go out and do it, cause there is just so much to talk about. The fact that Donald Trump wants to see Obama's birth certificate is kinda - I want to see his hairline first!
+BL:  Absolutely! Why did you stop?
+RW: I believe the hair is actually him! I believe at night he walks into a small room, sits down and the heir goes (-makes squeaky noises-) "Who should we marry next?", "We're going out." ,"Put your name on that building."
+BL: Ok, leading on from that question - that answer, (RW: ... leading on to that...) is being funny sometimes a hinder as to social interaction?
+RW: Example, I was once walking in an airport and a woman came out to me and said "Be zany". Big time!
+BL: But what about with say, family. Do you sometimes...
+RW: Oh, no! It's... years ago, my... I was reading a story to my daughter, I was doing voices and everything and she turned to me and said: "Just read the story."
+BL: Ouch! Snap!
+RW: Yeah, and just stay to the main points.
+BL: Please, no voices.
+RW: No voices, yeah. "Thanks, dad."
+BL: How often does someone else make you laugh?
+RW: Oh, big time!
+BL: Is it kids or is it... ?
+RW: No, kids do. Comics of, comedians who make me laugh, Chris Rock, Louis C. K.,  Patton Oswald. And I've been hanging out with Mort Sahl and that's been a gift! Being hanging out with him is two things: It's history but it's also just he's amazingly funny and still has everything going in all cylinders which has been wonderful!
+BL: So, you can, hen you get older as a comic, you stay funny? You can still.. What do you need to...
+RW: (in an old man voice) You try to stay funny as you get older as a comedian - and then you get to this point going (in electronic throat voice) "Good evening ladies and gentlemen, nice to have you here and thank you for coming to my show." You try to stay funny, yeah? I mean when you see like, Don Rickles or like, Mort and you see these guys who are just still doing great... that's what keeps them alive, I mean, it's what keeps them going!
+BL: Ahm, Billy Cristal has said that "stand up is how comedians process things that are painful" (RW: Yeah.) but, does that mean we have to wish more painful things on you?
+RW: You don't have to, I find them! I was filming in, you know that's kinda a bit... Tourette's is the thing when people say kind of nasty things. Is there... is there, another thing of like, a positive Tourette's "THAT DRESS IS BEAUTIFUL! YOUR LEGS ARE NICE!" Where everything is wonderful: "YOU REALLY ARE LOVELY!" "Nice, nice eyes. NICE EYES!" So, your teeth are beautiful... "YOUR TEETH ARE BEAUTIFUL! ALL OF THEM!"
+BL: Why does it have to go the other way?
+RW: Well, I think, actually because it's the subconsciuous creeping out but, then you think: Is that a nice idea? Subcoscious is going "I really like you!" Não faço a menor ideia do que ele disse no fim dessa resposta, sério mesmo!
+BL: You are sort of unique among comedians, I don't think you've actually written a book...
+RW: No, I hope not to! (BL: You hope not to?) Specially a biography. I mean, I have a lot of friends who are authors who are great! I just don't have the discipline to do it. The learning, somewhat. But the discipline as to really sit down and write a book... maybe... cut to a 5 years from now: "I'm here with my new book... so that's the way you like it...". But I don't think so.
+BL: Yeah, you can just talk into a tape recorder and someone would just type it up for you. We do that here at Time!
+RW: Well, then I should do a book!
+BL: I got, you've gone through all my questions!
+RW: We did it. Every question! Good job!
-:'''Tyson''': And I own everything he’s ever written. Most of which is written in his day. I commune through time as I read Isaac Newton, transporting me into a time and a place where people were just figuring out how this universe worked. And for me that’s thrilling and humbling.
 </div>
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