The key answer of exercise 4
The key to exercise solutions in chapter 10.2 - Popular culture for the textbook Speakout Upper-Intermediate - Students' Book with authors Frances Eales and Steve Oakes from Pearson Education
Question
- Which of the forum comments are generally positive (✓), negative (✗) or mixed (-)?
- Work in pairs. What do you think the words and phrases in bold mean? Use the context, grammar and your knowledge of similar words to help. Then check in a dictionary.
- Work in pairs and say the words and phrases in bold. Which syllable(s) is / are stressed? Listen to the words in context and check.
Answer
a)
- ✓
- ✗
- -
b)
- to create a stir → to cause a feeling of excitement (or sometimes annoyance)
- ground-breaking → using new ideas, innovative
- rave reviews → strong praise for a new performer, music, film, play, etc. a
- sell-out → a performance, sports event, etc. for which all the tickets have been sold
- must-see → (informal) something that is so good, exciting or interesting that you think people should see it
- hype → noun [U] (informal) publicity - when something is talked about a lot on TV, in the newspapers, online, etc. to make it seem good or important
- a letdown → (informal) something that disappoints you because it is not as good as you expected
- a flop → a film, show, plan or product that is not successful
- mainstream → the most usual ideas or ways of doing something which are accepted by most people
- alternative → different from what is usual or accepted
c)
- She's certainly creating a stir ...
- ... her ground-breaking mix of rap and folk.
- ... she got those rave reviews in the press ...
- ... each performance has been a sell-out ...
- ... it's the must-see performance of the year.
- ... after all the hype surrounding her concerts ...
- ... the concert was a real letdown!
- It was a complete flop ...
- I just hope she doesn't go mainstream ...
- ... all the other alternative artists.