www.almanaquebrasil.com.br

I recently checked out this website. It claims to be an almanac of Brazilian popular culture. It certainly has a lot of content on many strange and interesting aspects of Brazilian people and life. For example, I discovered that there are parts of Brazil with their own currency – a measure designed to keep money in the local economy. I also read an article about an incredible British lady called Margaret Mee who spent years cataloguing flowers in the Amazon, and so on…

Anyway, short, pithy, well-written Portugese articles are here.

Another globo quiz…

Test your geography with another quiz from Globo. Can you tell the difference between two countries with similar names in Brazilian Portuguese? I got 9/10. Click here to access the site.

Globo quizzes

The Globo website G1.com.br has some nice animated, interactive quizzes on different topics. They only take about 5 minutes to do.

September 21st was International Day of Peace so there’s a Q&A on famous peacemakers of our times. Click here for that.

And if you’re keeping a close eye on the US President election. Test your knowledge of who’s who with this short interactive quiz in Portuguese. Click here for that one.

Haunted houses

I read a strange article on BBCBrasil.com – about a haunted mansion in Nottinghamshire in the UK. It had some good vocabulary in, any road…

Click here to read it. There is some word help and a short quiz if you want to test your comprehension.

Word Help

batidas = knocks / hits
fantasmas = ghosts
manchas de sangue = stains of blood
mal-assombrada = haunted
paredes= walls
prestações da hipoteca = mortgage installments

Quiz

Can you put these elements of the story in the order in which they appear?

A Details of Mr.Rashid’s family
B The price of the mansion when Mr.Rashid bought it
C Mr.Rashid’s beliefs about the paranormal
D Mr.Rashid’s business background
E Details of Mrs.Rashid’s reaction to blood stains
F The location of the mansion

Retro Venus Williams

Venus Williams recently won Wimbledon for the 5th time. The BBC Brasil website posted 5 photos from a book about her, in which she is photographed in black and white in “olden days” tennis gear.

Click here to see the pictures, (the link should be on the right hand side of the page), look at the pictures and read the short text accompanying each one. See if you can answer these short multiple choice questions about what you read. This is a very short reading, 5 minutes maximum and there are 5 short multiple choice questions below to check for comprehension.

A short glossary of words from the commentary to the pictures

alma = soul
assinitura = signature
discursos = speeches
por acoso = by chance
radicar = to settle / to take root
torneio = tournament
visão = vision

5 Multiple-Choice Questions

1) The artist who took the photos is from…
A South Africa / B London / C New York

2) The commentary talks about Venus’ elegance under pressure under which picture?
A 2 / B 3 / C 4

3) Some photos were inspired by Josephine Baker who is a 1940s…
A singer / B tennis player / C actress

4) How many Wimbledons does the commentary say Venus has won?
A 4 / B 5 / C 6

5) The artist met Venus Williams for the first time in
A 1994 / B 2004 / C 2008