103. There’s a Lot More Coming Your Way

Without a shadow of a doubt, the new normality we’re supposed to go back to has quite a few twists and turns. Great uncertainties, along with great possibilities, surround our daily tasks. By now, many of the readers of this blog would agree that the uncertainties must be clarified, while the range of possibilities must be explored.                         Google Images

“Count your blessings”, the saying goes. If you are one of those who visit the blog often enough, you must have already realized that glimpses of a way of thinking can be detected between the lines and within the strings of words that make up each text, pointing to self-reliance, freedom and independence. Entrenched expressions such as “when there’s a will there’s a way” represent, at the same time, encouragement and an underlying statement: seize the moment.

“If not now, then when?”

As I said in previous posts, some of the nooks and crannies of resonating with the English speaker’s worldview lie in a mental model of the mind, poured – so to speak – into the competent speaker’s expression. Just as an example, have a look at this excerpt from Roy D’Andrade[1], in which the author speaks of cognitive schemas. These are subject to constraints on human short-term memory, which limit the elements we can hold in mind at any one time. Even if we know a large number of specific terms related, say, with the scenario of buying and selling, those elements are highly unlikely to come in bulk to our mind when we are asked to perform (i.e., to produce oral or written text):

With this in mind, and eager to know more and more, there’s that new “lot” coming your way!

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[1] D’Andrade, R. A Folk Model of the Mind. In Cultural Models in Language and Thought. Cambridge University Press, 1987

32. Directed Dreaming

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It's time to apply everything you took in up till now about dreams, that is, articles, tests, and video and put them to work while listening to the audio which inspired the gap-filling exercise below.

Listening practice: Directed Dreaming

[adapted from New Success at First Certificate,

by Robert O’Neill, Michael Duckworth & Kathy Gude]

The interviewer is asking the psychologist about the kind of 1. ___ they are doing in their department. The doctor says that they are trying to find out about an area of 2. ___ ___ to them at the moment, namely 3. ___ ___.

In order to explain the notion, the psychologist gives the example of the quite common experience humans have  of 4. ___ ___ in the middle of the dream and 5. ___ ___ to the dream when they go back to sleep. 

Unlike such random instances, 6. ___ ___ are trained people who are able to 7. ___ the contents of their dreams almost 8. ___.

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Research aims to find out whether everybody may develop the ability in a similar degree to that of the three 9. ___ dreamers they work with.

One of the experiments they are currently carrying out consists in asking these very 10. ___ subjects to dream about 11. ___ ___ each other while they are sleeping.

Their task was to go – in the dream – to a 12. ___ down by the river that they knew and 13. ___ ___ each other.

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On the following day, during separate interviews, the two male subjects told the psychiatrist that they 14. ___ ___ a dream and could remember it; that in their dream, they had met down there, and had had a talk, but that they hadn’t 15. ___ the woman. 

Surprisingly, the female subject said she hadn’t 15. ___ of anything at all that night or, that she couldn’t remember anyway.

Directed dreaming

The Pharaoh (see the extract from Genesis in the previous post) asked for help. It was Joseph who explained – or, shall I say, interpreted – the dream for him. That’s how the Pharaoh became sure that his dream was the premonition of the seven bad years to come. How much of a myth does the story contain?
Yet again, what do you think you could achieve by becoming a directed dreamer?

9. Power, Glamour, and Language Traps (I)

First things first:

Who could the woman in the restaurant be?

How would you describe her character?

At the time Harry Patterson (as Jack Higgins) wrote the novel, Marilyn's short, intense life "wasn't exactly news any more," or at least this is what the male character says. What do you think about it?

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There's a second conversation the man and the woman had - this time on the phone. We are not told what happened after all, but we do have the privilege of hindsight, albeit because we were born after the events recounted in the novel.

You must have already noticed there's a gapped text for Use of English inserted in between the two conversations in the previous post; here's the full version:

<<'You had better decide quickly whether you want the letters or not,' she said. I took another sip/drink of my champagne, and said nothing.

'$100,000 is nothing to pay for them. They're Marilyn's letters! Marilyn Monroe's letters! I can prove that she wrote them!' Her voice was getting/becoming louder and louder. She seemed to have forgotten her fear/suspicion/anxiety that someone might be listening to us. I thought about what/everything she had said. If the letters really were Monroe's, they could be worth that much money or even more. It all depended on what was in them, of course.

   I told her I would have to see the letters first and that I wanted a handwriting expert to examine them as well.

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  'All right,' she answered. I waited for her to continue. She did. 'But only on one condition.'

'  'What's that?' I asked.

   'I want $10,000 in cash, before anyone sees the letters!'

'I'll have to think about that,' I said.

She got up to go. She had taken only a few bites of the salmon she had ordered.

'All right. I'll get in touch/contact with you tomorrow at your hotel. If you haven't made up your mind by then, the letters go to someone else!'



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After/When she had left, I asked the waiter if he knew her name.

'Didn't she tell you?' he asked.

'I wouldn't be asking if she had,' I answered.

'Really? Then obviously she didn't want you to know, did she?' he said, casually waving/holding/dropping the bill in front of me.>>

Had it not been for the implications the canons of beauty have in our daily lives, this "old" topic would have stopped right here; but it seems that beauty and the desire to be forever young deserve some more attention as topics of the 21st century. At least that's what turns out from Norma Jean's intense existence, and that's why the title of this blog entry tries to suggest more: that the Marilyn myth is still past forgetting.

Looking forward to your comments from the perspective of the generation gap.

8. Forever young: the Marilyn myth

The following passage is from the radio adaptation of a novel called Dark side of the street which takes place in Los Angeles.

[Now, what is amazing indeed is that Harry Patterson, the writer, is a prolific author of some sixty best-selling thrillers published under pseudonyms like Martin Fallon, Hugh Marlowe, James Graham, Jack Higgins, and himself. Dark side of the street belongs to the Paul Chavasse series in his Jack Higgins authorship].

The Woman without a Name

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A man and a woman are sitting in an expensive restaurant in Beverly Hills, not far from Hollywood.They are looking at a photograph of two people, which the woman has brought  with her.

A: You know who she is, I suppose.

B: Of course. And the man? Who's he?

A: Carl Earlham. Ever heard of him?

B: No, I'm afraid not.

A: He was one of her favourite photographers. He was her friend...he spent a lot of time with her just before she died, in '62.

B: Where is he now? What's he doing?

A: He's dead. He died last year. I knew him well. Very well. Do you understand?

B: I think so.

A: Well? Are you interested?

B: In what?

A: In using the information in the book you’re writing about her, of course. You are doing some research into her death, aren't you?

B: Yes, but . . . I'm not sure. How did you know I was writing such a book?

A: Someone told me.

B: Who?

A: Just a friend. I have a lot of friends.

B: What's the name of your friend?

A: That doesn't matter! The only thing that matters is whether you want the information or not.

B: What information?

A: It's all in the letters.

B: Letters? What are you talking about?

A: She wrote Earlham several letters before she died. She told him all about things like her relationship with someone very . . .

B: Look. A lot of people say they've got letters like that. And just about everyone in Hollywood can tell stories about what happened just before she died.

A: What I've got isn't a story. I'm not making it up! It's the truth. In her own handwriting. I can prove she wrote the letters. And what's in them is dynamite. Pure dynamite.

B: Are you sure? It isn't exactly news any more, is it? It happened more than 25 years ago.

A: It's still dynamite.

B: How did you get hold of these letters?

A: I told you. I was Earlham's friend. We were . . . very close. He gave me the letters before he died. Well? Do you want to see the letters?

B: That depends.

A: On what?

B: On what you want in return.

A: Money, of course.

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B: I thought so. How much?

A: $100,000.

B: That's a lot of money.

A: Yes, and it's worth it! Every penny. Look, I hope you understand what I'm offering you. Letters. Her letters. Some of which she wrote only a few days before she died.

B: Yes.

A: Yes? Yes, what?

B: Yes, I understand.