The Video Music Awards Show 2010

The Video Music Awards, also known as the VMAs, is an award show that celebrates the top music videos, artists and performers of the year. The show was established in the summer of 1984 and the awards are given out annually by the cable network MTV. This year the VMAs took place on September 12th at 9 p.m. in Los Angeles, California. The host of the show was comedian, Chelsea Handler. Some of the award categories and winners this year included:

• Video of Year - Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"
• Best New Artist - Justin Bieber
• Best Rock Video - 30 Seconds to Mars, "Kings and Queens"
• Best Male Video - Eminem, "Not Afraid"
• Best Female Video - Lady Gaga, "Bad Romance"

As you can see, Lady Gaga's music video for her song, "Bad Romance," received a number of awards this past Saturday. Winners are given a statue with an astronaut on the moon, which is one of the earliest logos for MTV.

Check out this link for more information on this year's show including a complete list of winners, video clips, and pictures: http://www.mtv.com/ontv/vma/2010/

Vocabulary:

1. celebrate (verb) - the act of giving praise or recognition
2. established (verb - past tense) - to set up or start
3. annually (adverb) - occurring or happening every year
4. host (noun) - the emcee or interviewer on a radio or television program
5. comedian (noun) - a person who tells jokes or performs in other ways to make people laugh
6. received (verb - past tense) - to take or to get
7. astronaut (noun) - a person trained to go to outer-space
8. logo (noun) - a name, symbol or picture designed to represent a company

Fill-In The Blank:

1. Many Catholic people _______ the birth of Jesus on Christmas Day.
2. My grandpa calls my brother a _____ because he is always telling jokes at the dinner table.
3. The school was ______ on September 7, 1954.
4. My friend Billy wants to be an _______ so he reads about the stars and planets all the time.
5. Our parents pay their taxes ___________.
6. On Father's Day, my Dad ________ many gifts from my brothers and sisters.
7. My teacher asked if I would be the _______ of the Talent Show this year because I enjoy asking people questions.
8. One of the most famous ________ in the world are McDonald's golden arches.

Grammar Point: Verbs in the past tense

Verbs in the past tense describe an action that started and finished already. Since the Video Music Awards were held this past Saturday the verbs used in this blog post are in the past tense. For many regular verbs we simply add the ending "-ed" to the root word. However this is not always the case because many verbs have irregular or different endings.

Examples of Regular Verbs:

1. establish ---> established
2. include --->included
3. receive -----> received

Examples of Irregulars:

1. see ---->saw
2. think--->thought

Write a paragraph about what you did this past weekend using the past tense of verbs!