Dandini – New Surfing the World https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld Risorse online per i testi Zanichelli Mon, 30 Aug 2021 15:58:38 +0000 it-IT hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.9.16 Risorse digitali https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/xteachx-risorse-digitali/ Mon, 30 Aug 2021 15:58:38 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/?page_id=975 ebook https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/ebook/ Sat, 28 Sep 2013 14:07:58 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/ PART 1 – Chapter 3 – Victorian Houses (p. 66) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-1-%e2%80%93-chapter-3-%e2%80%93-victorian-houses-p-66/ Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:35:39 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 
1 READING
Read the text below and take notes on how people lived in the Victorian Age.
 
 
Houses for the rich and for the poor
 
During the Victorian times more and more people moved into the new industrial towns to work in the mills and factories and rows of back-to-back houses were built to house them. The houses were joined together to save space. Each row was called a terrace. Terraced houses were very small with only small back yards. Most of them only had one or two rooms downstairs and one or two upstairs but Victorian families were big with perhaps four or five children.
There was no running water, and no toilet. Each house would share an outside water pump, and the water from the pump was frequently polluted. Between the houses the streets were narrow, with open sewers running down the middle. Some streets had one or two outside toilets for the whole street to share.
Despite the availability of new cheaper products such as bricks, vast numbers of the working population in the countryside were still living in tiny cottages, hovels and shacks well into the 20th century.
By the middle of the 19th century, about half of Britain's population lived in London. London, like most cities, was not prepared for this great increase in people. Houses were crammed and rooms were rented to whole families. Gradually, improvements for the poor were made. Proper sewers and drains were built, streets were paved and lighting was put up. Over time, some slums were knocked down and new houses built.
Homes for the middle and upper classes were much better. They were larger and better built. They had most of the new gadgets installed, such as flushing toilets, gas lighting, and inside bathrooms. Some rich ones had water pumps in their kitchens.
Rich Victorians favoured villas whilst the emerging middle classes lived in superior terraces with gardens back and front and a room for servants in the attic. Other well-off people found it more convenient to live in grand apartment buildings like the handsomely decorated Carlyle Mansions or Norman Shaw's distinctive Albert Hall Mansions, with their unusual curving lines.
Wealthy Victorians decorated their homes in the latest styles. There would be heavy curtains, flowery wallpaper, carpets and rugs, well made furniture, paintings and plants. The rooms were heated by open coal fires and most houses had a fireplace in every room. Lighting was provided by candles and oil or gas lamps. Later, electricity became more widespread and so electric lights were used.
 
 
2 READING
Read the text and underline all the nouns and adjectives which refer to architecture.
 
 
Victorian domestic architecture
 
The British population doubled between 1841 and 1901 and huge numbers of new homes sprang up everywhere, mostly inside the cities and in the fast-growing new suburbs.
London, of course, was far and away the most important of the cities. Since 1820 much of Bloomsbury, Belgravia. Knightsbridge, and Pimlico were developed with their rows of solid-looking classical stucco houses, punctuated by garden squares. Rows of sturdy and stylish suburban houses were also constructed in the outskirts of London as the aspiring middle classes rejected the back to back terraced housing popular in the industrial areas and moved to the suburbs to larger properties with gardens.
Domestic architecture was essentially eclectic, drawing on a wide range of motifs from various periods and regions. Houses were often large Tudor, medieval, Italianate, and sometimes extravagant. The early Victorians had a predilection for overly elaborate details and decoration, while in the second half of the 19th century the style was simpler.
The new mass produced bricks were cheaper and required less preparation and maintenance, so for the first time all over the country new mansions, chapels, cottages, barns and factories were made from the same material irrespective of region.
 
Late Victorian houses
The buildings of late Victorian times were almost invariably constructed in brick – usually red – and were characterised by architectural details derived from English and Flemish houses of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Brickwork in diaper patterns, gables (often elaborately shaped and usually crowned with a small pediment), bay windows, massive chimney stacks, cut-brick decoration, and small-paned leaded windows became a dominant feature of the style and gave whole neighbourhoods their chief character.
This period is typified by the work of Richard Norman Shaw, an architect who was extremely influential in middle-class housing developments all over the country. He took his inspiration from the simple, generally undecorated forms of vernacular design and traditional craft-making skills.
 
 
1. Lowther Lodge.
Kensington Gore, London SW7. 1873-75. A large town house designed by Richard Norman Shaw, it has been the headquarters of the Royal Geographical Society since 1911. The façade of fine brickwork is asymmetrical.
(S. Cadman)
 
 
 
2. Albert Hall Mansions.
They were designed by Norman Shaw in 1879-86. These luxurious red-brick apartments were the first to be designed in the new ‘Queen Anne’ style that was based on English and Dutch architecture of the early 18th century. They were immediately copied throughout London, which had no tradition of apartment blocks for the middle and upper classes.
(© Circumnavigation / Shutterstock)
 
 
3. The original New Scotland Yard was designed by Norman Shaw between 1887 and 1906. The buildings are in banded red brick and white stone on a granite base in the Victorian Gothic style. They are located upon Victoria Embankment and are now Parliamentary offices.
(© D. Burrows / Shutterstock)
 
The Arts and Crafts movement
The Arts & Craft Movement emerged in the 1880s in reaction to the mass production of goods in the Victorian period. It was founded by William Morris and his artist friends Rossetti and Burne-Jones.
They believed that modern mass production endangered individual creativity and threatened to dehumanise the working lives of millions of people. Moreover, they were horrified by cheap, mass-produced building and decorating materials and wanted to revive traditional building crafts and the use of high quality materials in all fields of art and decoration.
William Morris had enormous influence in both style and architecture. He designed furniture, textiles, wallpaper, decorative glass, and murals. Many of his designs are still popular today. Some elements of Arts and Crafts design influenced the development of a new style towards the end of the century – Art Nouveau.
Philip Webb was a leading figure in the Arts and Crafts Movement and played a central role in progressive design circles in the latter half of the 19th century. He was an architect and designer in many fields including furniture, interiors, glass, silver, jewellery, stained glass, and lettering. He is particularly noted as the designer of Red House at Bexleyheath, southeast London for William Morris, and the house Standen in West Sussex.
 

 
4. Standen, near East Grinstead in Sussex, is a grand country house built by Philip Webb between 1892 and 1894. It is one of the greatest achievements of the Arts and Crafts movement.
(© P. Wang / Shutterstock)
 
 
 
5. Red House at Bexleyheath in Kent is a key building in the history of the Arts and Crafts movement and of 19th century British architecture. It was built in 1859 for William Morris by Philip Webb. The house, of warm red brick with a steep tiled roof, featured ceiling paintings by Morris, wall-hangings designed by Morris and worked by himself and his wife Jane; furniture painted by Morris and Rossetti, and wall-paintings and stained glass designed by Burne-Jones (Velela).
 
Typical features of Victorian houses
 
A sash window (finestra a ghigliottina) is a window that is opened by sliding vertically two movable panels or ‘sashes’. This type of window was first used in the late 17th century. As big pieces of glass were expensive, windows were made from lots of smaller pieces. In Georgian and Victorian houses a sash had usually two sliding panels of six panes each (three panes across by two up) giving a ‘six over six’ panel window.
 
Leaded windows (trafilate a piombo) are windows with rather small panes held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame.
 
Stained glass windows (vetrate) are windows made of small pieces of coloured glass arranged to form patterns or pictures.
 
A bay window (bovindo) is a large window projecting from the exterior wall of a building. It gives the room more space and provides a wider view of the garden or street outside. It may be rectangular, polygonal, or arc-shaped. If the last, it may be called a bow window. These windows were used in the late Gothic and Tudor periods and became popular again during the revivals of these styles in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
 
A dormer (abbaino) is a structure projecting from a sloping roof usually housing a vertical window that is placed in a small gable. 
 
A gable (frontone, timpano) is the triangular upper part of a wall between the two slopes of the roof. A Dutch (or Flemish) gable is a gable with curved sides, usually with a small pediment at the top. It arrived in Britain from the Low Countries in the 16th century.
 
A balustrade (balaustra) is a row of small posts that support the upper rail of a railing, usually along the edge of a balcony, terrace, staircase, etc.
 
An iron railing (ringhiera di ferro) is a structure made of iron rails that is used as a guard or barrier or for support.

 
 
3 WRITING
Spot the features listed below in the pictures above. Then write the number of the picture against each of them, as in the example.
 
Typical characteristics of Victorian houses
a. the use of red brick  1, 2, 3, 5_
b. tall, white-painted, leaded windows _________
c. bay windows _________
d. balconies _________
e. dormers _________
f. decorative brickwork (cornices, etc.) _________
g. steeply pitched roofs _________
h. shaped and Dutch gables _________
i. tall chimneys _________
j. decorative roof tops _________
k. iron railings _________
l. balustrades _________
 

 
Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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PART 2 – Chapter 3 – The American Dream (p. 175) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-2-%e2%80%93-chapter-3-%e2%80%93-the-american-dream-p-175-2/ Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:26:29 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 
The following songs and poems are some of the most famous ones about America. They convey different views of the American dream.
The first song is from the film version of the famous 1957 musical West Side Story. The second and the third poems were written by two famous American poets who both shared a deep love and trust in the nation, though representing different viewpoints.
The fourth is one of the most famous American folk songs. Bruce Springsteen released a live version of it on Live/1975-85 and called it 'one of the most beautiful songs ever written'. It was written in 1940 by Woody Guthrie in response to Irving Berlin God Bless America, which he considered unrealistic and complacent. Guthrie himself varied the lyrics over time. This is the version of the song that Pete Seeger and Bruce Springsteen sang at President Barack Obama’s Inauguration Opening Celebration (January 18, 2009).
 
1 READING
Since the 1950s the American way of life has been a dream and a goal to aim at for many people all over the world. In this song the girls (G) sing in favor of the United States, while the boys (B) respond criticizing the latent racism of American society, especially towards Puerto Ricans.
Highlight all the positive and negative aspects pointed out by the singers.
 
 
America
words by Stephen Sondheim, music by Leonard Bernstein

 

G: I like to be in America
G: OK by me in America
G: Everything free in America
B: For a small fee in America  

G: Buying on credit is so nice
B: One look at us and they charge twice
G: I have a new washing machine
B: What will you have though to keep clean?  

G: Skyscrapers bloom in America
G: Cadillacs zoom in America
G: Industrial boom in America
B: Twelve in a room in America  

G: Lots of new housing with more space
B: Lots of doors slamming in our face
G: I'll get a terraced apartment
B: Better get rid of your accent  

G: Life can be bright in America
B: If you can fight in America
G: Life is all right in America
B: If you're all white in America  

G: Here you are free and you have pride
B: Long as you stay on your own side
G: Free to be anything you choose
B: Free to wait tables and shine shoes

 
B: Everywhere grime in America
B: Organized crime in America
B: Terrible time in America
G: You forget I'm in America  

B: I think I go back to San Juan
G: I know a boat you can get on
B: Everyone there will give big cheer
G: Everyone there will have moved here.    

 

2 READING

Read the following poem and answer the questions below.

1. What jobs are mentioned in the poem?
2. Why do you think the poet chose them?
3. What image of society comes out of the poem?
4. Is the poet’s view of America positive or negative?
 
 
I Hear America Singing
by Walt Whitman
 
I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,
Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be, blithe and strong,
The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,
The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,
The boatman singing what belongs to him in his boat, the deckhand singing on the steamboat deck.
The shoemaker singing as he sits on his bench, the hatter singing as he stands,
The wood-cutter’s song, the ploughboy’s on his way in the morning, or at the noon intermission or at sundown;
The delicious singing of the mother, or of the young wife at work, or of the girl sewing or washing.
Each singing what belongs to him or her, and to none else;
The day what belongs to the day – at night, the party of young fellows, robust, friendly,
Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs.
 
 
3 READING
Read the following poem and answer the questions below.
1. What is the main theme of the poem?
2. What does the poet mainly focus on?
3. What is the poet’s attitude towards America?
 
 
Let America Be America Again
by Langston Hughes
 
Let America be America again.
Let it be the dream it used to be.
Let it be the pioneer on the plain
Seeking a home where he himself is free.
 
(America never was America to me.)
 
Let America be the dream the dreamers dreamed –
Let it be that great strong land of love
Where never kings connive nor tyrants scheme
That any man be crushed by one above.
 
(It never was America to me.)
 
O, let my land be a land where Liberty
Is crowned with no false patriotic wreath,
But opportunity is real, and life is free,
Equality is in the air we breathe.
 
(There's never been equality for me,
Nor freedom in this "homeland of the free.")
 
Say, who are you that mumbles in the dark?
And who are you that draws your veil across the stars?
 
I am the poor white, fooled and pushed apart,
I am the Negro bearing slavery's scars.
I am the red man driven from the land,
I am the immigrant clutching the hope I seek –
And finding only the same old stupid plan
Of dog eat dog, of mighty crush the weak.
 
I am the young man, full of strength and hope,
Tangled in that ancient endless chain
Of profit, power, gain, of grab the land!
Of grab the gold! Of grab the ways of satisfying need!
Of work the men! Of take the pay!
Of owning everything for one's own greed!
 
I am the farmer, bondsman to the soil.
I am the worker sold to the machine.
I am the Negro, servant to you all.
I am the people, humble, hungry, mean –
Hungry yet today despite the dream.
Beaten yet today – O, Pioneers!
[…]
O, let America be America again –
The land that never has been yet –
And yet must be–the land where every man is free.
The land that's mine–the poor man's, Indian's, Negro's, ME –
Who made America,
Whose sweat and blood, whose faith and pain,
Whose hand at the foundry, whose plow in the rain,
Must bring back our mighty dream again.
[…]
O, yes,
I say it plain,
America never was America to me,
And yet I swear this oath –
America will be!
[…]
 
4 WRITING
Write a short text about the positive and negative aspects of America stressed by Walt Whitman and Langston Hughes in the two poems above and compare their different viewpoints.
 
5 READING
Read the lyrics of this song and answer the questions below.
 
1. What main features of America are stressed in the poem?
2. What places are mentioned?
3. What social issues are addressed?
4. Why is it a protest song?
 
 
This Land Is Your land
words and music by Woody Guthrie
 
This land is your land. This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and me.
 
As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.
 
I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.
When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.
 
There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me;
Sign was painted, it said private property;
But on the back side it didn't say nothing;
This land was made for you and me.
 
In the squares of the city ,in the shadow of a steeple;
By the relief office, I seen my people.
As they stood hungry, I stood there whistling
This land was made for you and me.
 
Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.
 

 


Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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PART 1 – Chapter 2 – S.T. Coleridge, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (p. 36) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-1-%e2%80%93-chapter-2-%e2%80%93-s-t-coleridge-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-p-36/ https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-1-%e2%80%93-chapter-2-%e2%80%93-s-t-coleridge-the-rime-of-the-ancient-mariner-p-36/#respond Wed, 21 Sep 2011 09:17:35 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 
The following is an extract from The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, a long poem in seven parts written by S.T. Coleridge. It belongs to The Lyrical Ballads, a collection of poems written by William Wordsworth and Samuel T. Coleridge and considered the starting point of the Romantic Movement in Britain. The poem tells the extraordinary adventure of a sailor who killed an albatross and was horribly punished for his crime against nature. In the stanzas below the guilty Mariner and his crew mates feel lonely and helpless as their ship lies still in a horrible environment.
 
READING
Read the poem and answer the questions.
 
1.Which elements of nature are mentioned? How are they described?
2.Does the scene transmit a natural or supernatural atmosphere?
3.What are the main feelings expressed in each stanza?
4.What stylistic devices (simile, repetition, contrast, etc.) are employed by the poet?
5.What is their function?
 
 
 
The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
 
[…]
Down dropt the breeze, the sails dropt down,
Twas sad as sad could be;
And we did speak only to break
The silence of the sea!
 
All in a hot and copper sky,
The bloody Sun, at noon,
Right up above the mast did stand,
No bigger than the Moon.
 
Day after day, day after day,
We stuck, nor breath nor motion;
As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean.
 
Water, water, everywhere,
And all the boards did shrink;
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.
 
The very deep did rot: O Christ!
That ever this should be!
Yea, slimy things did crawl with legs
Upon the slimy sea.
 
About, about, in reel and rout
The death-fires danced at night;
The water, like a witch’s oils,
Burnt green, and blue, and white.
[…]
 
 
dropt (dropped) down: stop.
‘Twas: it was.
copper: reddish metal.
mast: long vertical pole of a ship supporting the sails, etc.
stuck: were still.
breath: wind.
idle: motionless.
boards: wood of the ship.
shrink: become smaller.
deep: sea.
rot: go bad.
slimy: viscous, greasy.
crawl: move with body on the ground.
in reel and rout: disorderly.
death-fires:fires from decomposing bodies.
witch: woman with evil magic powers.
 

Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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PART 4 – Youth Culture (p. 216) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-4-%e2%80%93-youth-culture-p-216/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:52:29 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/

 

1 READING
Read the article below and answer the questions. 

1. In which paragraph can you find the main idea of the article?
2. How many examples of exchange are mentioned?
3. Who are the students involved?
4. What subject did they choose?
5. What are the advantages of such connections?
 
 
Students Without Borders
Online communication facilitates global collaboration at area schools
 
A team of very smart teenagers have set out to discover ways that maggots might make the world a better place. Two are from Loudoun County. Two live more than 9,000 miles away in Singapore.[…]
   To many U.S. politicians, educators and business leaders, Singapore’s students have become a symbol of the fierce competition the nation faces from high achievers in Asia. But these four students call themselves as 'international collaborators' and friends.[…]
   Globalization has spawned classroom connections across oceans. Teachers, driven by a desire to help students navigate a world made smaller by e-mail, wikis and teleconferences, say lessons once pulled mainly from textbooks can come to life through real-world interactions. […]
   Ballou High School students made a dance video to go-go music and an Israeli school sent back a folk dance video. The sixth-graders from Harford’s Magnolia Middle School also chatted with Iraqis and Slovenians about popular music. Harford’s County students debated the merits of chocolate milk with peers in Uzbekistan and Morocco. A New York class talked to French students about Barack Obama’s visit to France. Older students tackle topics in more depth. For example students in Montgomery County and Romania last fall shared ideas on whether cyberbullies should be punished, and they talked about democracy, freedom of speech, depression and suicide. [….]
   Teachers see such exchanges not only as an exciting way to teach geography, history, language and science but also as a vehicle to forge connections that push children beyond cultural stereotypes. A teacher said her students saw that, no matter what country the kids were posting from, they seemed just like them. That was their biggest revelation. […]
   “I have really tried to get my kids to see themselves as citizens of a planet”, said the director of Loudoun’s Academy of Science. “There really are things to learn from each other.”
 
(Adapted from «The Washington Post», June 24, 2009)

 
2 WRITING
Write a few paragraphs about your contacts with foreign people. Answer the questions:
 
1. Are you in touch with young people from other countries?
2. If you are, who are they? What interests, ideas, likes or projects do you share?
3. If not, would you like to try? Who/what would you be interested in?
 
 
3 READING
Read the article below and answer the questions.
 
1. How have young Italians changed their attitude to alcohol?
2. How has the number of alcoholics changed in Italy?
3. Is the problem affecting teenagers?
4. What steps have been taken to fight teenagers’ drinking?
5. How have drinking habits changed in Italy?
6. Has the Anglo-Saxon drinking culture influenced drinkers?
7. What are pub crawls?
8. What would you suggest to stop binge-drinking?
 
 
Italian children's binge drinking blamed on Britain
Italy is scrambling to tackle a British-style binge drinking epidemic that has caused national alarm in a country long admired as a model of Mediterranean moderation when it comes to alcohol consumption.
 
Traditional restraints are breaking down, to the horror of parents, health authorities and the government, which has described the problem of alcohol abuse as a national emergency.
Where once becoming drunk was a social taboo and a cause for shame, it is now regarded by many young Italians as acceptable, even desirable.
The number of diagnosed alcoholics has tripled in the last decade to around 60,000 out of a population of 60 million – still modest by British standards – and two thirds of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 15 drink to excess, according to a government study published this year. Milan recently introduced an emergency law under which it will impose a €900 (£775) fine on the parents of under-age drinkers.
There is a nationwide campaign by lobby groups – so far unsuccessful – to raise the legal drinking age from 16 to 18. Rome launched its own drive to confront binge-drinking this week, making it illegal to drink in the street after 9pm, transforming the capital. Piazzas normally packed with revellers, many of them getting drunk on wine and spirits, have emptied. With large numbers of police on hand to enforce the new rule, teenagers instead had to make do with chain-smoking cigarettes and eating ice cream.
Whether the new measures will be able to turn around the changes in the country's drinking culture seems doubtful. Having been introduced to the cheap shots, happy hours, and down-in-one drinking games of Anglo-American drinking culture, many Italians are now hooked.
Neighbourhood enoteca bars, where a glass of wine is often accompanied by cured meat, cheese and other antipasti snacks, are being crowded out by British-style pubs with names like The Drunken Ship and Sloppy Sam's. "They are drinking a lot and they are drinking to get drunk," said Andrea, a barman in a hole-in-the-wall pub off Rome's Piazza Campo de' Fiori, in the heart of the city's historic centre. "They don't even like the taste of alcohol, but they feel that they need to get smashed to look cool in front of their friends."
Italian life is changing as the custom of drinking only as an accompaniment to eating is abandoned. The influx of foreign tourists is partly to blame for the shift in attitude to alcohol, according to residents. Budget flights have put Rome and other Italian cities within easy reach of young British, Irish and other hard-drinking northern Europeans, not to mention thirsty Australians and Americans.
"We are seeing a strong Anglo-Saxon influence on the culture of drinking," said Gianluca, the owner of a bar in Trastevere. "It's got much worse in the last five years. There's a lot more violence, and you see groups of 15 or 20 young teenagers drinking in the streets and causing trouble. There are gangs with knives. It's becoming just like England."
Italians may be taking their cue from the organised pub crawls which have becoming increasingly popular in Rome in recent years. Each night more than half a dozen criss-cross the capital, shepherding backpackers from one drinking hole to another. For €20, drinkers start off in a pub where, for an hour and a half, they can drink as much as they like. After that they have to buy their own drinks, but the ticket includes a 30 per cent discount at subsequent bars and free entry to a nightclub. The pub crawls originally attracted only foreigners, but Italians are beginning to join in and now make up five to 10 per cent of the nightly drinking expeditions.
(Adapted from «The Daily Telegraph», August 17, 2009)
 
 
4 VOCABULARY
Read the article below and look up the words underlined in a monolingual dictionary. For each of them choose the meaning most appropriate to the text and write it down.
 
Millennials accused of lax work ethic say it's not all about 9-to-5
 
Jared Rogalia, 25, a Hertz rental car manager-trainee in Alexandria, is as cranky as someone twice his age when he complains about his generation's work ethic. Here's how Rogalia characterizes his age group: "The first is, really spoiled and lazy. The second is, we're free-spirited. And the third is, they'd rather be poorer and have free time than have a lot of money."
The millennial generation – about 50 million people between ages 18 and 29 – is the only age group in the nation that doesn't cite work ethic as one of its "principal claims to distinctiveness," according to a new study. Young adults and their elders agree: baby boomers and Generation Xers have better work ethics and moral values than those in their 20s.
In a survey of about 1,200 people of all ages, millennials chose other traits to define themselves: 24 percent said "technology use," 11 percent went with "music/pop culture," 7 percent chose "liberal/tolerant" and 6 percent said "smarter." Only 5 percent noted their generation's "work ethic" – the same portion as who chose "clothes."
Among older generations, at least twice as many people cited work ethic as a badge of their age group's identity: 17 percent of boomers, 11 percent of Gen Xers and 10 percent of those 65 and older. The older three generations also take pride in their strong values or morals and in being "respectful," terms that hardly any millennials in the survey used. "Millennials may be a self-confident generation," the study concluded, "but they display little appetite for claims of moral superiority."
Some young adults believe such generalizations are nonsense. Maya Enista, 26, chief executive at Mobilize.org, a District-based advocacy group for young adults, said the term "work ethic" is misleading. "It's not about being at a desk from 9 to 5. I work part of every hour I am awake." Enista said her fellow 20-somethings' constant connection to technology keeps them at least as tethered to their jobs as older workers are. "It's a given that we work hard, because the reality is that millennials are the most educated and most in debt."
But other young people in the Washington area – and their older managers – can be their generation's harshest critics. At Potomac Pizza in Chevy Chase, Omar Haleem, 22, an assistant manager, said he likes being with his colleagues but is often put in the awkward position of haranguing those who are his own age. "I have to call out their faults and make it real obvious that they're not doing their job," he said. […] They leave food on the line that's ready to be delivered to tables or put in bags. They'll order food in the middle of a dinner rush and enjoy their slice and not answer phones, which is really annoying. And they talk on the phone to their friends outside."
Rea Pyle, 34, Potomac Pizza's owner, said many younger workers do not accept that it takes long, concerted effort to build a career. "They've been blessed with parents and grandparents laying the foundation to give them a better life," he said. "But that hunger is not really in them. But the desire for success is. They want to make money but don't want to put in the required hours or effort.”
In the high-salary realm of management consulting firms, which hire hundreds of young adults annually, the youngest employees are far more likely to request the flexibility to work from home or during off-hours, executives say.
Nicole Furst, 38, a senior executive at Accenture in Reston, said the younger generation at her firm has little interest in putting in long hours simply because that's what previous generations did. "They make it clear that it's not a pattern they would adopt," she said. "They look at all the Generation Xers and say, 'I don't want to put in all those hours when I am at that point.'” […] “Younger workers' emphasis on a better balance among work, family and friends even at the start of a career is admirable”, she said. […]
Jennifer Miller, 44, director of talent acquisition at Sibley Memorial Hospital in the District, said younger nurse recruits in job interviews frequently make demands about when they can and can't work. "The younger candidates start talking about how their shifts need to fit into a predetermined schedule, rather than working around whatever the hospital needs," she said. […]
Some young Sibley nurses crave more responsibility and grander titles without putting in the years of grunt work that previous generations saw as the gateway to advancement, Miller said.
"We had a new grad, she finished a master's degree and she wanted to be a nurse manager. But she had no nurse managing experience. I wouldn't have made the assumption that the mere fact I had finished this new degree meant that my employer would find me a new job."
At Hertz in Alexandria, Rogalia said his peers at work are sometimes easily distracted. "We've had to take disciplinary actions," he said. "We had a new hire who was watching video on his iPhone with his headphones on, and the customers were kind of looking around to see what this kid was doing. He was laughing. He stopped showing up after a while."
Rogalia, who wakes at 5 a.m. for work and does not get home until about 8 pm, said it was only recently that he felt he had a decent work ethic. After graduating from college in 2007, he lived at home in New York with his parents. "Life was great, but I didn't feel good about myself," he said. "I was lazy. I was working two part-time jobs. I think the older generations do have a better work ethic. My parents pampered me and gave me anything I asked for." […]
(Adapted from «The Washington Post», April 3, 2010)
 
5 READING
Read the article again and answer the following questions.
 
1. Three main generations are mentioned: how are they called?
a.    Born after World War II (1945-1964): _______________________
b.    Born between 1961 and 1981: ____________________________
c.    Born after 1981: ________________________________________
2. What makes them different?
3. How many people have been interviewed in the survey?
4. How many opinions are reported here? Whose opinions are they? (Make a table like the one below)
5. Do they agree or disagree?
6. What does the title mean?

 
NAME       Jared Rogalia
AGE           25
JOB           Hertz manager-trainee
OPINION   millennials: spoiled, lazy, free-spirited, more free time than more money, etc.

 
 
6 WRITING
How does the work ethic of young people compares with other generations'? Are people in their 20s less dedicated to work and career than their elders?
Choose one answer from below and explain your opinion on the matter.
 
1. No, it's just that the demands of today's workplace are different; quality, not quantity matters.
2. No, young people's work ethic is no different from any time in recent memory.
3. Yes, today's young workers have a better sense of work-life balance.
4. Yes, today's young workers grew up with an inflated sense of self-esteem and don't work hard enough.
 

 
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Part 2 – Chapter 3 – The Sixties (p. 171) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-2-%e2%80%93-chapter-3-%e2%80%93-the-sixties-p-171/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:48:11 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 

1 VOCABULARY
a. Underline the words in the text ending in -ation. Then find other words formed by the same root + different suffixes (ex.: standard-ize).
b. List the words used in the text in connection with the words culture/cultural (ex.: counter-culture). Can you think of other frequent combinations?

 
2 READING
Read the text and answer the questions below.

1.    What were the sources of the counter culture of the 1960s?
2.    How did it differ from the alternative culture of other periods?
3.    Who were ‘hippies’?
4.    What did the process of ‘liberation’ mean?

The counter-cultures

In this period of increasing standardization of cultural life, however, a countertrend began that opposed the process of unification with a process of fragmentation. In its origins, this counter-movement consisted very little in a conscious effort to resist the development of mass culture, in the form, for example, of a bohemian colony of non conformists. Rather, its sources came from movements of social change and political opposition, the renewed civil-rights movement of the early 1960s, and the opposition to the growing United States’ military involvement in Vietnam in the latter half of that decade. As groups formed around issues and developed identities through the struggles, a consciousness emerged, not merely of political disagreement but also of cultural difference. The movement for civil rights became a movement for black power, dividing rather than uniting black and white people.
Middle class college and university, students, shifting their concern from civil rights to the antiwar movement as the United States became more deeply involved in South-east Asia, developed a sense of youth culture and adopted the phrase 'generation gap' and the slogan 'never trust anyone over 30'. By the end of the 1960s, the term counter-culture was commonly used as a loose umbrella covering a variety of alternatives to the traditional norms of cultural life.
The counter-culture differed significantly from the alternative cultures of other eras. Past alternative cultures had accepted high culture as their standard against the alleged mediocrity or commercialism of the mass. They were minority cultures founded on appreciation and creation of literature and other fine arts. This facet of cultural alternative was not entirely missing from the counter-culture that began in the 1960s, but it was not its central aspect. The new force was on opposing the norms of conventional culture, including the class and aesthetic distinctions reflected in the idea of high culture. Its most publicized symbols were 'hippies', long-haired young people who popularised the use of marijuana and hallucinogenic drugs, rock music, and communal life-styles.
The fragmentation of cultural life continued to take new forms. Black power for Negroes became red power for American Indians, brown power for Chicanos and other Spanish-speaking people, women’s liberation as a new form of feminism, gay liberation for homosexuals. In all these cases the rhetoric of 'power' and 'liberation' implied a pride and self-confidence in racial, ethnic, sexual, and ultimately cultural differences. It marked a new form of consciousness among minority groups in the cultural life of the United States, a militancy arising from the assertion of group solidarity and the distinctive traits and appearances of the group.
 

 
Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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Part 2 – Chapter 3 – The Fifties (p. 158) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-2-%e2%80%93-chapter-3-%e2%80%93-the-fifties-p-158/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:44:12 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 

 
READING
Read the text and answer the questions below.
 
1. Where does the term 'rock ’n’ roll' come from?
2. When was it first used for a type of music?
3. What was the audience like?
4. Who were the baby boomers?
5. What was peculiar of young people in the 1950s?
6. What characterised that decade?
7. How did rock ’n’ roll music create new connections and relationships among audiences?
 
'Rock around the Clock'
 
The advent in rock ’n’ roll music in the mid-1950s brought enormous changes to American popular music, and eventually to world popular music – changes whose impact is still being felt today. […] This new audience was dominated by those born into the so-called baby boom generation at the end of, and immediately following, World War II. It was a much younger audience that had ever before constituted a target market for music, and it was a large audience that shared some specific and important characteristics of group cultural identity. These were kids growing up in the 1950s, a period of relative economic stability and prosperity […] following the enormous destabilizing traumas of World War. In terms of the entertainment industry, this was the first generation to grow up with television as a readily available part of its culture; this powerful new mass medium proved a force of incalculable influence and offered another outlet for the instantaneous nationwide distribution of music.
Yet the 1950s was a period characterised by its own political and cultural traumas. Cold war tension between the United States and the Soviet Union […], fears induced by the introduction of atomic weapon and their further development by the American and Soviet – and eventually other – superpowers, new levels of racial awareness and tension in America […]
Perhaps the most important factor of all for adolescents during the 1950s was simply their identification by the larger culture itself as a unique generational group, even as they were growing up. Thus they quickly developed a sense of self identification as teenagers (many ten-, eleven-, and twelve-year-olds participated fully in ‘teen’ culture). Naturally, such a group had to have its own distinctive emblems of identity, including dance steps, fashions, ways of speaking, and music. The prosperity of the 1950s gave these young people an unprecedented collective purchasing power as millions of kids started to buy leisure and entertainment products geared especially to this generation’s tastes and sense of identity. Rock ’n’ roll music emerged as an unexpected musical choice by increasing numbers of young people in the early to mid-1950s; it then became a mass- market phenomenon exploited by the mainstream music industry in the later 1950s; and eventually it was to some extent reclaimed by these teenagers themselves in the 1960s as they grew old enough to make their own music and, increasingly, to assume some control of the production and marketing of it.
The term 'rock ’n’ roll' was probably first used for commercial and generational purposes by disc jockey Alan Freed in the early 1950s. The term itself was derived from the many references to 'rockin’' and 'rollin’' (sometimes separately, sometimes together) that may be found in rhythm & blues songs, and on race records dating back to the 1920s. 'Rock and roll' are clearly associated in these song with sexual implications, but they faded as 'rock ’n’ roll' increasingly came to refer to a type of music.
The purchase of rock ’n’ roll records by kids in the 1950s proved a relatively safe and affordable way for kids to assert generational identity through rebellion against previous adult standards and restrictions of musical style and taste. Thus the experience of growing up with rock ’n’ roll music became an early and defining characteristic of the baby boom generation. Rock ’n’ roll records accompanied the boomers in their progress from preadolescence through their teenage years. It is consequently not surprising that this music increasingly and specifically catered to this age group, which by the late 1950s had its own distinctive culture (made possible by abundant leisure time and economic prosperity) and its associated rituals: school and vacation, fashions, social dancing, and courtship. Some rock ’n’ roll songs became emblems of a new aesthetic and cultural order, dominated by the tastes and aspirations of youth.
There was a period in the later 1950s when much of the same popular music – rock ’n’ roll records – would be played for dances at inner-city, primarily black, public schools, for parties at exclusive white suburban private schools, and for socials in rural settings catering to young people. This was a new kind of situation, especially in the society of the 1950s, which was in most respects polarized in terms of race, class, and region. […] Rock ’n’ roll music seemed to offer a bridge connecting supposedly exclusive audiences (black and white, rural and urban, upper and lower class). If you were young in the 1950s, no matter where you lived, no matter what your race or class, rock ’n’ roll was your music.
 
(Adapted from Larry Starr, Christopher Waterman, «American Popular Music», OUP 2003)
 
 

 

Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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Part 2 – Chapter 3 – Rock and pop music (p. 167) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-2-%e2%80%93-chapter-3-%e2%80%93-rock-and-pop-music-p-167-2/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:41:09 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 
1 READING
Read the article below and make a list of Michael Jackson’s peculiarities as in the example.

Example:

He
      – died yesterday.
      – lived sensationally.
          etc.
He was
      – as famous as a human being can get.
      – the ‘King of Pop’.
        etc.
 
 
Object of Acclaim, Curiosity, The 'King of Pop' dies in L.A.
 
Michael Jackson, 50, died yesterday in Los Angeles as sensationally as he lived, as famous as a human being can get. He was the King of Pop who sold 750 million records over his career and enjoyed worldwide adoration.
But with that came the world's relentless curiosity, and Mr. Jackson was eventually regarded as one of show business's legendary oddities. […]
In the end there were two sides to the record: the tabloid caricature and the musical genius that his fans will always treasure. There were those whose devotion knew no bounds, who visited the gates of his private ranch north of Santa Barbara, California, arriving at Neverland on pilgrimages from Europe and Asia, and who were among the first to flock to UCLA Medical Center as news of his death spread yesterday afternoon. Those were the same kind of fans who camped out at the Santa Barbara Superior Courthouse, to show their support during his 2005 trial. They released doves and wept when he was acquitted.
Then there was the other kind of fan, who preferred to keep memories of the singer locked firmly in his 1980s prime: today's young adults all have memories of being toddlers and grade-schoolers who loved him. […]
Mr. Jackson's death set off an instant media frenzy befitting the later chapters of his celebrityhood. […] Web sites began reporting that the singer had been taken to the hospital. Soon, streets in the Westwood neighbourhoods around the hospital were clogged with traffic as crowds of onlookers formed, much as they did wherever the singer had appeared. All around the world, from Los Angeles to Times Square to Tokyo and beyond, people cued up Mr. Jackson's songs – some digging out cassettes and LPs. […]
Mr Jackson’s career began as a family business in Gary, Indiana. […] In 1982, Mr. Jackson released his album 'Thriller,' which became an instant phenomenon, selling more than 40 million copies globally and yielding seven Top 10 hits, including 'Billie Jean,' 'Beat It' and the title track. 'Thriller' won eight Grammy Awards but it was Mr. Jackson's breathtaking performances on music videos accompanying the album that became instantly memorable. He choreographed the exciting dance routines, which featured his show-stopping moonwalk, acrobatic moves and uncanny precision. He started wearing a white glove on one hand, which became one of his sartorial signatures. […]
In his 30s, Mr. Jackson started to become more enigma than entertainer. He straightened his hair and nose, beginning a process of almost surreal self-reconstruction. In time, Jackson's skin turned from brown to a pale, ghostly white, his nose shrank from repeated plastic surgery, and his frame remained painfully gaunt. He wore outlandish costumes in public and spoke in an airy, high-pitched whisper.
His world devolved into a series of tabloid headlines that reported rumors or facts about everything from his curious pet ownership to the plastic surgeries that drastically changed him. He built a private playland, the sprawling Neverland, replete with an amusement park and zoo, to which he invited scores of underprivileged children. He was accused of abusing a child in the 1990s (a case which was settled out of court in 1994 for a reported amount between $15 million and $24 million). […]
People loved to think they had cracked the mystery of Michael: He wanted his face to resemble Liz Taylor's. He hated his appearance because his father and brothers used to tease him. He was repressed, he was asexual, he was an addict, he was a pervert, he was from outer space, he was a genius, he was stupid, he was insane. The truth was never known.

(Adapted from «The Washington Post», June 26, 2009)
 
2 SPEAKING / WRITING
Discuss the following points and answer the questions.

1. The memory of Michael Jackson, King of Pop, was threatened by freakazoid 'Wacko Jacko'; his personal behavior (alcohol and drug addiction, cosmetic surgery, child sexual abuse allegations) has made him a controversial figure. Is it possible to reconcile the very real disdain for the man with the appreciation of his music?

2. The impact Michael Jackson had on popular music and popular culture is enormous. He is someone who will be remembered as a superstar. However, by appreciating the art of someone we find morally objectionable, are we selling out our own ethics?
 

Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]
 
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Part 2 – Chapter 2 – The Colorado River (p. 140) https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/part-2-%e2%80%93-chapter-2-%e2%80%93-the-colorado-river-p-140/ Tue, 20 Sep 2011 11:14:13 +0000 https://online.scuola.zanichelli.it/newsurfingtheworld/
 

READING
Read the text below and fill in the missing words.

blue green bottom canyons  ●  completed contained course crosses dams electric flowing mark natural originally provide rapids reddish-brown reservoir rises sediments square

The Colorado River

The Colorado river (1) ………… in the Rocky Mountains and is vital to the life and economy of the Southwest. It is the only permanent river (2) ………… through the desert and one of the great river systems in the country.
The natural (3) ………… of the river flows from the Rocky Mountains in Colorado into the Gulf of California and (4) ………… the US states of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, California. The river is 2,330 km long and contains alternating sections of (5) ………… and calm sections.
In its journey to the Gulf of California it encounters many (6) ………… and reservoirs that have been built along its course to (7) ………… water for agriculture and (8) ………… power for the fast growing cities of the South, such as Las Vegas (Nevada), Phoenix (Arizona) and Albuquerque (New Mexico).
One of the most famous is the Hoover Dam in Arizona which was completed in 1936 and at that time was the largest in the world. Its (9) ………… , Lake Mead, now a popular recreation site, covers 700 (10) ………… km. Another well known dam is the Glen Canyon dam in Utah which was (11) ………… in 1963 and created Lake Powell.
The Colorado River was (12) ………… named Rio Colorado or 'Red River' by the Spanish. The (13) ………… color that originally gave the river its name was given by the silt and (14)………… that are now trapped behind the dam in the (15) ………… of Lake Powell after completion of the Glen Canyon dam. At present the color of the river is (16) ………….
For millions of years the Colorado River has left its (17) ………… on the land. Since the river was formed, it has been hard at work cutting great (18) ………… including the Grand Canyon in the state of Arizona. It is largely (19) ………… within the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the first national parks in the United States, and is reputed one of the world (20) ………… wonders.

 

 
Questo file è un’estensione online del corso M. G. Dandini, NEW SURFING THE WORLD.
Copyright © 2010 Zanichelli Editore S.p.A., Bologna [1056]

 

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