Improve your listening and writing skills by filling in the blanks in the song lyrics. These activities are designed for Beginners and Intermediates to learn new vocabulary related to a specific topic in a quick and fun way.
Halloween! This week we are warming up to the scariest celebration of the year by bringing you lyrics related to Halloween. Starting today with a classic rock piece by Lou Reed called the Halloween Parade.
The song is dedicated to the Halloween parade that is celebrated yearly in Greenwich Village, the cultural and bohemian center of New York City. This year the parade has been cancelled due to the pandemic. The lyrics refer to the parade in 1989, when Lou Reed released his album New York.
The song is a tribute to this event and especially to the colourful characters who take part in the parade. It describes the costumes and people who went to the parade from different parts of the city, each dressed up as a variety of characters. Halloween Parade is a fun celebration, but also a lamentation. Another pandemic, AIDS, was destroying many lives in those years. It is never mentioned directly, but the song is also about all the people that won’t be in the parade anymore: “Especially to be here without you.”
Exercise
Fill in the missing words ⇩: afraid – different – faces – free – freeze – girls – Halloween – knees – knock – mean – next – parade – romantic – somehow – stud – There’s – voices
This activity is case sensitive so make sure to use capital letters when needed.
Grammar
There is/there are
We use there is and there are to say that something exists.
It’s formed by the particle there plus the verb to be in any of its forms, depending on the context. For example:
There are many things about Saint Patrick’s that you may not know.
There is a Parade in New York every year for Saint Patrick’s Day.
There weren’t more beers in the fridge after Saint Patrick’s party.
There may be many things that spring to mind when someone mentions Saint Patrick’s.
How many countries are there in the world celebrating Saint Patrick’s?
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