AFTER FOREVER - A BAND FROM HOLLAND

                                                                                           (Floor Jansen)

After Forever was a Dutch symphonic metal band with strong progressive metal influences, relied on the use of both soprano vocals and death grunts. In February 2009 it was announced that they had disbanded.

After Forever was originally assembled in 1995 under the name Apocalypse, playing music most oriented towards death metal. With the joining of vocalist Floor Jansen in 1997, their style shifted slightly to a more symphonic metal sound in order to give emphasis to her voice. Their line-up at this point comprised Floor Jansen, Mark Jansen, Sander Gommans, Luuk van Gerven, Jack Driessen and Joep Beckers.

In 1999 the band begun composing songs of their own and recorded two demos - entitled Ephemeral and Wings Of Illusion - which eventually drew the attention of the Transmission Records label, with whom the band signed a contract.

Their debut album Prison Of Desire was recorded in 2000, featuring the guest appearance of Sharon den Adel. The album obtained impressive success in Europe. In the end of that year, drummer Andr? Borgman and keyboardist Lando van Gils joined the band, replacing Joep Beckers and Jack Driessen.

                                                                                       (After Forever)

In 2001, the album Decipher was released. Floor Jansen was invited to guest sing in Ayreon, one of Arjen Anthony Lucassen's projects. In 2002 Mark Jansen was fired from After Forever and subsequently assembled the band Epica, being replaced by Bas Maas. In 2003, After Forever released the EP and DVD Exordium.

In 2004, the concept album Invisible Circles was released. In this album, After Forever introduced progressive metal elements to their music. The album reached 26th place in the Dutch Top 100 musical chart. Lando van Gils also left the band and was replaced by Joost van den Broek in the same year.

In early September 2005, the band released their fourth album Remagine This album is available in two versions, an SACD (super audio compact disc) with three bonus songs and as a special edition with a DVD. The DVD contains a photo gallery and a 'making of' documentary.

On March 3, 2006, the band left the Transmission Records label, due to the scarce promotion that the label was providing. By October of the same year After Forever had signed to Nuclear Blast Records.

In the end of 2006 the band recorded their 1st album on the Nuclear Blast label, self titled After Forever, it features guest appearances from Annihilator guitarist Jeff Waters and Doro Pesch. Videos of the recording sessions are available for download on the band website. The album was released in April 23, 2007.

In January 2008, After Forever announced on their website that the band would be taking a break of at least a year. In an interview with Ragnar radio, Floor said the band would get together early 2009 to discuss After Forever's future. On February 5th 2009 , After Forever announced that they decided to quit. They realized that they did not feel the energy towards the band anymore. 

Nowadays, Floor Jansen is the vocalist of a new band called ReVamp.

Take a look at these two videos (I hope you like them): 

Adapted from www.lyricsfreak.com by Milton França

                                                                                                      

THREE EXPRESSIONS WITH 'DOG'

1.  To be in the dog house - means that someone is angry about something you did (or didn't do).

2.  The hair of the dog (that bit you) - an alcoholic drink taken to make you feel better after drinking too much alcohol the night before

3.  To make a dog's dinner of something - to make a real mess of something, to do something badly.

People from different parts of the world gave examples of these three expressions. Take a look and try to find spelling or/and grammar mistakes in some of them:

Viviane, France
My sister was 2 hours late to the lunch at my parent's house last Sunday. Now she's in the dog house with then. She told them it was because she had went out on saturday and drank too much. She woke up very late on Sunday and she needed the hair of the dog to recover from her hangover. Sometimes she makes a dog's dinner of her life.

Mehmet Yildiz, Gaziantep, Turkey
looking back on the past,I really had been in the dog house for I was extremely hungover and had the hair of the dog and womited all over the carpets on the ground in a newly-gotten friend's house.I mean it was a nice beginning for making a new friend.Because I made dog dinners of everything.

Gurg, Iceland
hello.. once I dropt a glas on the floor: and week later I dropt a disk on the floor then I was in the dogs house!

Hiroki, Japan
We have some proverbs about alcohol all over the world. One of famous proverbs makes us encourage to drink too much."Good wine makes good blood"We exactly know we can use alcohol as medicines and we had better to have the hair of the dog when we want to drink.But actually I sometime drink too much without any sickness.Anyway I like to drink but I really don't like to go somewhere as I'm in the dog house if I miss any transports because I have too much drinking.

El�n Hulda, Iceland
Hello... Once I was playing in my garden with my friend and we were playing football and I was going to runto the ball and kick it wery wery hard but my friend camed runing to me an instead to kick the ball I kicked her leg and it broke and then I was in the dog house and I was so sorry that I kicked here I started to drink and I drank a lot of alcahole and the day after I wanted the hairof the dog...

Svanur, Iceland
Hello... once I was playing foodball and my friend Hilmar was a idiot and took ball of me. I started to kick him and he started to crying and I walked home an then I was in the dog house

Vidyasekaran, India
Our teacher was in the dog house when One of my friend proved him wrong in the class room. This incident occured when we were studying our Engineering final year course. The teacher couldnot tolerate this and had too much of alcohol and the next day he vomited in his car and made a dogs dinner of something a hair of a dog would have probably helped avoid this incident.

Bb, Mongolia
its very embarrasing to tell about this story to the public, 7 months ago, that was previous day of the examination, i thought i was ready to pass the exam easily and with my some friends i drank several bottle of beers, subseqeuntly i woked up in my friends house without any memory, and then i realized that i played hookey for my exam, finally that semester i was in the dog house, pssss

Dolphin,China
Sarah never get drunk, so she never need the hair of the dog. However, she made a dogs dinner of the final exam last week. That's because she went to the wrong place. She blamed the dog days of summer. And I only hope that she wouldn't be in the dog house when her father found it out.

Ana Paula, Brazil
I'm in the dog house now. I overslept last night and lost my friend's party. Anyway, I tried to talk to her today, and explain what had happened, but she didn't want to hear me and I think I should wait more to give the reason why I miss her party. I've just made a dog?s dinner of everthing!

Tatiana, Russia
Mum asked me to iron dad's shirt for an urgent appointment and I made a dog's dinner out of it, I ended up in the dog house for burning it a bit. After that I decided to relax a bit and woke up with a terrible hangover, I guess the best remedy would have been the hair of the dog

Neelam, Nepal
I remember those day of my schools, when i used to draw my teachers's cartoon on my desk. My friends used to like it but one day one of my teacher catched me while making his funny picture on my copy. Then I was in the dog house on my school life.

Rosa, Italy
Three weeks ago I went home in the South of Italy for my Summer vacation and because of the traffic on the roads I reached home with 4 hours of delay... and my trip lasted 15 hours! So the traffic makes a dogs dinner of my trip towards Summer holidays...

Hung Hung, Taiwan
Last week ,I thought,I like to be in thedog house because I forgot the time to meet my friends at coffee shope so thatmade them to wait for me for a long time.later,they phoned me to go there to meet them ,when I went to there ,I sawmy friends face are not good that day ,after the meeting finished , I also feltbad for a while ,I think ,next time ,Ido not do again.

Felipe Cardemil, Chile
I was in a concert last night, It was awesome, after that meand my friendswent to a bar, we were drinking beerand listening to rock and roll all night. The morning after I woke up terrible thirsty and I said "I need the hair of the dog urgently"

Betzabe, Chile
Mmm, yes..."the hair of the dog" hahaha, I remember something about my uncle. When my uncle was 17 years old, was the best student of the high school, but once he was to a party the night before 18th september's parade(in chile). So, the next day he needed the hair of the dog, and the most terrible was that he wanted dissapear in that moment, and suddenly a teacher said him that he had to stay in front of all the students carring the flag. It Really was terrible for him, because he almost couldn't walk and he had to walk in front of the mayor. It was very embarrasing for him, and the next day he was in the dog house. Then the headmaster suspended him for many days. hahaha for it was funny but for him it was terrible, hahaha.

Karen, Chile.
Last week I forgot something very important!!!...I forgot my father`s birthday and I was in the doghouse but my mother did not forget it and she decided to do a wonderfull cake, but when she was preparing it she made a dogs dinner of it because the cake was not so good... I'm sorry daddy!

Agueda, Chile
I was in the dog house last term..I did not passed a course and My parentes wanted kill me... it was awful

Astrid, Chile
When I was fourteen I went to a party without permission, So my father came and pulled my hair. Then I was really in the dog house.

Silvana, Chile
A long time ago when we were children, a classmate of mine was in the dog house because she had stolen 5 thousand pesos from proffesor's bag...for a couple of weeks she was really unpopular.

                                                                Adapted from bbc.co.uk

TESTING YOUR ENGLISH

Milton Hatoum is a Brazilian writer, award winning author of Dois Irmãos (Two Brothers) and Cinzas do Norte (Ashes from the North). He was born in Manaus in 1952, lived in Brasilia and also in Spain, France and in the US. He has lived in São Paulo since 1999. His new novel, Órfãos do Eldorado (Eldorado Orphans) will be released in a few months. Here is an interview with him:

1. Which was your best trip ever?

The trip that I took with my father to Lebanon, in July 1992. He had not seen his Lebanese family for over 30 years. Visiting Lebanon and meeting dozens of relatives was a very emotional experience.

2. Which is your dream trip?

I dream of going to Kashmir and some parts of India. I also would like to visit several African countries.

3. In what country would you like to live?

Well, I have already lived in three countries and eight different cities. At the moment I want to stay around here. But when I think of Provence or Tuscany, I feel like spending some time in France and Italy.

4. What do you most admire about a person?

His or her character. What elevates or demeans a human being is not religion, gender, color, ethnicity – none of these. It´s the character.

5. What do you most hate in a person?

I think and arrogant person looks ridiculous. I hate meanness, deceit, dishonest people.

6. Would you be happy without friends?

I would be very unhappy without them.

7. What animal would you like to be?

The very same one I was destined to be. Our fate is to be human.

8. What do you do when you have nothing to do?

I get bored when I don´t do anything. Right now, after finishing a novel I always have a book to read, or reread.

9. Who is your favorite film director?

I love Rossellini, Visconti and the directors of Italian neo-realism.

10. What character would you like to be?

It´s hard to say... I would be a terrible actor. But all the characters in my novels have a little of me in them.

1. Qual (is) informação (ões) abaixo sobre Milton Hatoum está (ao) correta (s)?

I – Viveu em diferentes países e cidades e pretende conhecer lugares na Índia e na África.

II – Destacou a viagem ao Líbano, com seu pai, há 30 anos, como uma das mais marcantes de sua vida.

III – Elegeu Provença ou Toscana para fixar residência.

a)  apenas a I                                                 d) apenas I e II

b) apenas a II                                                 e) nenhuma

c) apenas a III

2. De acordo com a entrevista, Milton Hatoum:

I – é um renomado escritor, que recebeu premiação recentemente pela novela Dois Irmãos.

II – costuma reler suas obras quando está com tempo livre.

III – reconhece características pessoais nos personagens que cria.

Está (ao) correta (s):

a) apenas a I                                                  d) apenas I e II

b) apenas a II                                                 e) todas

c) apenas a III

3. According to the text, Milton Hatoum:

a) has visited Lebanon many times since July 1992.

b) wants to visit many countries of another continent.

c) would like to be another animal, not a human being.

d)  lived in eight cities in the same country.

e) doesn´t give much importance to friendship.

4. False Cognates are words in English which are similar to the ones in Portuguese but with a different meaning. Which word from the text is a false cognate?

a) favorite                                                      d) novel

b) experience                                                 e) arrogant

c) visit

5. Regular verbs are the ones that have the suffix ED in the past and past participle and irregular verbs don´t have that suffix. Which verb from the text is irregular?

a) to like                                                        d) to live

b) to admire                                                   e) to feel

c) to stay   

6. How come is an interrogative pronoun which is a synonym of why. The  question above using why is:

a) Why only he gets a discount?                                d) Why does only he get a discount?

b) Why did only he get a discount?                            e) Why is only he get a discount?

c) Why gets only he a discount?

7. In the picture we can see a barber cutting Jimmy Five´s hair and three guys sitting down.

Based on it, choose the incorrect option:

a) There is a guy complaining because he´s going to pay more money than Jimmy Five to

have his hair cut.

b) Jimmy Five will get a discount probably because he doesn´t have much hair.

c) The barber is using a pair of scissors to cut Jimmy Five´s hair.

d) There is a mirror behind the barber and his client.

e) The three guys seem to be very satisfied with that situation.

8. Mark the option with the name of an object that we cannot see in the picture:

a) drawer                                                       d) boot

b) belt                                                            e) comb

c) wallet

LAST HARRY POTTER FILM SUCCESS

The last Harry Potter film has been incredibly successful around the world.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2 has shattered box office records in the UK and Ireland with an opening weekend of £23 million.

The final adventure of the film series based on the books by J.K. Rowling opened on Friday with fans across the country queuing for hours to be among the first to see the film.

In the US in its first weekend it is estimated to have grossed more than $168m.

It's already the most successful movie franchise in history, but a decade after the young wizard's first film debut, the final chapter 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II' has broken box-office records. 

In the US alone the finale of the eight-film series is estimated to have brought in over $168.5m in its opening weekend, ten million dollars more than the previous record set by the 2008 Batman film 'The Dark Knight.' 

The film, which has featured the same lead actors throughout, also became the highest-earning movie on its opening day. Its distributor, Warner Brothers, said the last Harry Potter instalment broke international records as well with highest-ever weekend figures in the UK and Australia. 

Hollywood-watchers are estimating the film is on track to break a rare barrier to become a billion-dollar movie.
                                                             Alastair Leithead, from Los Angeles, with adaptations.

VOCABULARY:

movie franchise - a series of films produced by the same company with the same characters

first film debut - first appearance on film (Harry Potter had previously appeared in books)

has broken box-office records - has made more money from people going to see the film than any previous film

the finale of - the last in a series

brought in - made an amount of money

distributor - the company that arranges for films to be shown in cinemas

instalment - one of a series, episode

Hollywood-watchers - people in the media who are interested in what is happening in the movie-making industry

on track to - looks like it will

a rare barrier - a limit that is not often reached