Write meanings and translations of the words in bold. Make up your own sentences with them.

MODULE 7

Socialising

Topic 2. Flash mobs. Group action for fun – the latest phenomenon.

FLASH MOBS

Group action for fun - the latest phenomenon

1. Look at the photos. What's happening? What are the people doing?

2. You’re going to read an article about flash mobs. What do you think they are? Look at the photos again, look up the meaning of the words “flash” and “mob” and try to guess. Then, read the article once to check your ideas.

Write meanings and translations of the words in bold. Make up your own sentences with them.

A giant pillow fight in the street. Spontaneous dancing in a shoping centre. A 100-voice choir serenading passengers in an airport. These are just a few examples of flash mobs. But what are they?

Basically a flash mob is a large group of people who get together in a public place, do something unusual for a short period of time, then disappear. Flash mobs are usually organised through the Internet, and they take place in locations such as train stations, city parks and shopping centres. Sometimes they happen for a specific reason, but often they’re just for fun. Here’s an example of how they work.

Time: 9:28am. Place: Piccadilly Circus Underground station in London. Something is about to happen. A middle-aged couple is standing near a ticket machine. They know about it. A young man is reading a newspaper and he knows about it. A teenage girl is talking on her mobile phone. She knows about it. A couple of tourists is buying a ticket. They don't know about it.

Then it happens. Loud music starts to play and two people walk to the middle of the ticket hall. They stop, and then begin to dance. More people come to the centre and join them. Before long, there are twenty dancers. Then fifty. Michael Jackson's Thriller is playing. They all move in perfect time, swinging their bodies to the left and right. Finally they throw their jackets to the floor. They’re all wearing black T-shirts promoting a local dance festival. The crowd cheers, out three minutes later it's all over and the station is back to normal… as if nothing has ever happened.

Flash mobs have taken place all over the world. In 2008, over 5,000 people met in San Francisco to have a pillow fight. It wasn’t a political statement. They weren’t advertising anything. They just wanted to hit each other with pillows. In January 2008 at New York’s Grand Central Station, several hundred people decided to play statues. At 2.30pm, they stopped moving. Some were trying their shoelaces. Others were looking at their watches. They stood still for five minutes. An astonished station worker tried to drive his maintenance vehicle around them but without success. Then, when the time was up, the participants just walked away.

So, where did it all begin? In 2003, Bill Wasik organised a group of people to meet in a New York department store next to an expensive rug. If they were asked what they were doing, they were told to say that they lived in a commune and only ever went shopping together. And so the flash mob was born. Later, as social networks such as Facebook and Twitter became more popular, flash mobs became easier to organise and the idea grew quickly.

So, what do you think of flash mobs? Are they a fascinating social experiment, or a complete waste of time? Whatever your opinion, next time you’re waiting in a busy public place, make sure you’ve got your camera ready. There might just be a flash mob!

Дата добавления: 2015-11-14