A vida é para ser compartilhada

Recebido por e-mail do Élio:

A operadora de telefonia celular T-Mobile, que atua na Europa e nos Estados Unidos, organizou uma ação muito bacana na Liverpool Street Station, uma grande estação de metrô em Londres. O intuito era gravar uma propaganda com o lema “Life’s for Sharing” (A vida é para compartilhar).

Cerca de 350 dançarinos profissionais fizeram uma performance de três minutos apresentando vários ritmos musicais. Muita gente que estava na estação dançou junto. A operadora anunciava uma ação em seu canal no YouTube, sem dizer exatamente o que aconteceria. Por isso, várias pessoas se programaram para ir ao local acompanhar.

As cenas foram gravadas na quinta-feira passada (dia 15) por câmeras escondidas na estação. O resultado lembra as performances do grupo americano Improv Everywhere, que no início do ano passado organizou uma ação em que uma centena de pessoas se fingiu de estátua numa estação de Nova York.

Why English is so hard

We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,

But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.

Then one fowl is goose, but two are called geese.

Yet the plural of moose should never be meese.

You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice.

But the plural of house is houses not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,

Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?

The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,

But the plural of vow is vows not vine.

And I speak of a foot, and you show me your feet,

But I give you a boot – would a pair be called beet?

If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,

Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth.?

If the singular is this and the plural is these,

Should the plural of kiss be nicknamed kese?

Then one may be that, and three may be those,

Yet the plural of hat would never be hose.

We speak of a brother and also of brethren,

But though we say mother, we never say methren.

The masculine pronouns are he, his and him,

But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim!

So our English, I think you’ll agree,

Is the trickiest language you ever did see.

Anon.

It’s alive! The Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus

But it is no evil thing. It is a wonderful tool to learn new words and interact with them. Yes, interact with the words. They are given life before your eyes and it is impossible not to play with them.

Remember the old days (like yesterday) when you had to flip through your three Thesauruses and four Dictionaries to draw a mind map of a word? Some clever guys put it all in one moving thing which made me go green with envy – why didn’t think I of it before?

Two details worry me, though: 1) I will have to control myself not to stay in front of the PC playing endlessly while I should be preparing classes and 2) number 2 is not important.

Check it: Thinkmap Visual Thesaurus.