welcome to the marche 1.gradara castle: reading comprehension
TRANSCRIPT
Welcome to the Marche
1.Gradara Castle: Reading Comprehension
a) First, watch the Gradara Castle promotional video:
www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=162&v=WF4XT_LqP1k&feature=emb_logo
b) Now read this extract from a guide book to the Marche region of Italy.
Gradara Castle is the most visited monument in the Marche. This imposing
Mediaeval fortress is located in the village of Gradara and is protected by two walls: an
outer rampart which extends for over 700 metres and an inner one where visitors can stroll
at their leisure, enjoying spectacular views of Romagna, Carpegna and the Republic of
San Marino.
The castle was built in about 1150 by the De Griffo family to regulate trade along
the Adriatic coast but was later taken over by the House of Malatesta whose domain
comprised Rimini, Cesena and Pesaro. Ownership of the citadel was keenly contested by
troops belonging to the Montefeltro and the Sforza dynasties until it was reclaimed by the
church in 1641.
In 1920, the Zanvettori family bought the fortress which, in the intervening centuries,
had been reduced to ruins. The famous architect, Giuseppe Sacconi, was commissioned
to restore the central tower and its surrounding walls and now, thanks to him, Gradara can
be seen in all its original glory.
As every Italian school-pupil knows, this is where Francesca da Rimini fell in love
with Paolo Malatesta. Unfortunately, she was already married to Gianciotto Malatesta, his
older brother, and the story ended tragically when their affair was discovered. Gianciotto
was furious and the adulterous lovers were both killed. The episode was immortalized in
Dante’s ‘Inferno’ and Gradara Castle has been a symbol of romance and overpowering
passion ever since.
What To See
The central tower of the twelfth-century Demesne Fortress has been perfectly
preserved and can be reached via a drawbridge and a picturesque inner courtyard. Here
you can visit chambers inhabited at one time or another by some of the greatest names of
the Italian Renaissance, the Sforzas, the Malatestas, the Borgias, the Della Roveres and,
of course, the doomed lovers, Paolo and Francesca.
From here, you will be taken to a museum that houses a unique collection of
antique arms and armour, documents and instruments of torture. Complete your visit with
a panoramic walk along the ramparts to admire the green and yellow hills of the Marche
and the azure Adriatic Sea.
A multimedia visitors’ centre is being constructed and will be completed within the
next two years. In the meantime, the village of Gradara offers all kinds of dramatic, musical
and cultural attractions, like ‘The Siege of the Fortress’, ‘The Night of the Witches and the
Sprites’ and the fabulous ‘Magic Castle’ event, which are held in the streets of the citadel.
Fun for all the family!
Guided tours of the village and the castle, explaining their principal historical,
architectural and artistic features, with a panoramic view from the top of the Demesne
Fortress and a dramatic representation of the legend of Paolo and Francesca are available
from January to December but must be booked at least ten days in advance.
c) Now answer the following questions:
i) Where is Gradara Castle located?
ii) When was Gradara Castle built?
iii) Why was Gradara Castle built?
iv) Who restored the Demesne Fortress?
v) Why is Gradara Castle still famous today?
vi) Who were Paolo and Francesca?
vii) Why did they have to die?
viii) Why can’t you visit Gradara Castle’s multimedia visitors’ centre?
ix) Where is the ‘Magic Castle’ event held?
x) How far in advance must tours be booked?
2.Grammar: The Passive
In the ‘Gradara Castle’ reading passage, we saw many examples of the passive in
English. As in Italian, the passive = the verb “to be” + the past participle
a) In active sentences, the Subject is the most important element of the sentence. As here,
SIMPLE FUTURE: A guide will take you to the museum
SIMPLE PRESENT: Gradara holds all kinds of events each year
PRESENT CONTINUOUS: MIB Srl. is constructing a multimedia visitors’ centre
SIMPLE PAST: Gianciotto Malatesta killed Paolo and Francesca
PRESENT PERFECT: Giuseppe Sacconi has preserved the central tower perfectly
PAST PERFECT: Time had reduced the castle to ruins
b) In passive sentences, however, the Object comes first. We then put the verb ‘to be’ into
the appropriate tense and add the past participle of the main verb, as here,
SIMPLE FUTURE: You will be taken to the museum
SIMPLE PRESENT: All kinds of events are held each year
PRESENT CONTINUOUS: A multimedia visitors’ centre is being constructed
SIMPLE PAST: Paolo and Francesca were killed
PRESENT PERFECT: The central tower has been preserved perfectly
PAST PERFECT: The castle had been reduced to ruins
c) Passive Constructions with Modal Verbs
In this case, we put the modal verb into its past, present or future form, and add the base
form of the auxiliary verb, ‘be’, plus the past participle of the main verb. As here,
MODAL VERB + ‘BE’ + PAST PARTICIPLE
Can seen
Could be cancelled
Must booked
Had to postponed
This is the conventional word order in affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences:
+ The tour must be booked ten days in advance
— The tickets couldn’t be cancelled
? Can the visit be postponed?
d) Use
In tourism texts, we use the passive,
i) When the Object or the action is more important than the Subject of the sentence.
e.g. The famous architect, Giuseppe Sacconi, was commissioned to restore the central
tower and its surrounding walls.
(In this sentence, the architect, Giuseppe Sacconi, is more important than the Zanvettori
family, who commissioned him)
ii) To avoid using the Subject or when the Subject is not important or unknown.
e.g. Their affair was discovered.
(Who discovered it? We don’t know, it doesn’t matter)
iii) When the Subject is so obvious that it does not need to be stated.
e.g. The episode was immortalized in Dante’s ‘Inferno’.
(By Dante, obviously)
NB. In a passive sentence, if we want to mention the Subject, we can turn it into an Agent
by adding the preposition ‘by’, e.g. Ownership of the castle was keenly contested by troops
belonging to the Montefeltro and the Sforza dynasties until it was reclaimed by the church
in 1641.
3.Writing
The Holy House of Loreto
Now tell the story of the Holy House of Loreto by putting these phrases in the correct
order.
i) in Lonely Planet’s / The Marche / for 2020 / was included / top ten travel destinations
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
ii) will be visited / This means that / by tourists from all over the world / the shrine of Our
Lady of Loreto
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
iii) is well known / as a pilgrimage destination / throughout Italy / Loreto
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
iv) was transported to Loreto / of the house / It is the final resting place / which, according
to legend, / by angels / where the Virgin Mary was born and raised
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
v) can still be visited today / in the 13th century / and / It arrived there
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
vi) may have been / It is thought that / based on historical events / this legend
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
vii) had been / Documents discovered in the Vatican archive / dismantled by the Crusaders
/ the Virgin Mary’s house in Nazareth / in the 13th century / indicate that
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
viii) the Angelos family / and the bricks were later shipped / by members of / to Italy
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
ix) by ‘the Angeli’? / So, / really delivered to the Marche / was the Holy House
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
x) cannot be proved / Sadly, / the theory
……………………………………………………………………………………………………
4.The Frasassi Caves
a) First, watch this promotional video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6iwlicjkXXg
b) Now complete the text below by putting the verbs in brackets into the passive form of
the simple present, present perfect, past perfect, future or past tense.
The Frasassi Caves are a karst cave system, which …………1………………
(locate) near Genga in the Marche region of Italy. The caves ………………2………………..
(discover) by a group of amateur speleologists in September 1971 and
………………3……………… (open) to the public three years later. Nowadays, groups of
visitors ……………4………….. (allow) in but they must …………5……………..
(accompany) by a guide.
The cave system …………6……………….. (form) in the Upper Pliocene period,
about one-and-a-half million years ago, and the basic structure of its subterranean
combination ……………7…………. (compose) of at least six superimposed levels.
The Frasassi caves contain five astonishing chambers which .……8……… (know)
as: ‘The Cave of Bats’, which ………9………. (colonize) by a vast swarm of bats, who still
live there; ‘The Great Cave of the Wind’, which …………10………… (traverse) by some 13
kilometres of passageways; ‘The Ancona Abyss’, a huge space which
…………11………… (estimate) to be almost 125 metres wide and about 300 metres high;
‘The Room of the Candles’, which ………12.……. (pack) with stalagmites that resemble
candles; and ‘The Room of the Infinite’, a lofty chamber whose roof …………13….……
(support) by imposing speleothem columns.
The Frasassi Caves are of great interest to scientists — and not just for their
geology. In recent years, they ………14…….... (use) to conduct experiments in
chronobiology. Volunteers have lived there for extended periods in order to investigate the
effects of long-term sensory deprivation on the human body and mind. After several
months underground, some subjects reported that their sense of time
…………15……………. (affect), for example, and others found that certain metabolic
cycles ………16………… (alter), too.
Tourists opting for a shorter stay ……………17…………… (advise) to book their
visit online at www.frasassi.com and should ……………18……………. (warn) that the
caves ……………19…………. (close) to the public on December 4th, December 25th and
from 10th-30th January inclusive. Reservations must ……………20………………. (make)
before 12.00 of the day before the tour and visitors should present themselves at the ticket
office 30 minutes in advance.
WEBQUEST: search the Internet for information about the artist Ferruccio Mengaroni and
write the story of his most famous work, the Medusa, in English.
LITTLE GIDDING
What the dead had no speech for, when living,
They can tell you, being dead.
The communication of the dead is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living.
Here, the intersection of the timeless moment
Is England and nowhere.
Never and always.
Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.
Dust in the air suspended
Marks the place where a story ended.
Dust inbreathed was a house-
The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,
The death of hope and despair,
This is the death of air.
There are flood and drouth
Over the eyes and in the mouth,
Dead water and dead sand
Contending for the upper hand.
The parched eviscerate soil
Gapes at the vanity of toil,
Laughs without mirth.
This is the death of earth.
Water and fire succeed
The town, the pasture and the weed.
Water and fire deride
The sacrifice that we denied.
Water and fire shall rot
The marred foundations we forgot,
Of sanctuary and choir.
This is the death of water and fire.
In the uncertain hour before the morning
Near the ending of interminable night
At the recurrent end of the unending
After the dark dove with the flickering tongue
Had passed below the horizon of his homing
While the dead leaves still rattled on like tin
Over the asphalt where no other sound was
Between three districts whence the smoke arose
I met one walking, loitering and hurried
As if blown towards me like the metal leaves
Before the urban dawn wind unresisting.
And as I fixed upon the down-turned face
That pointed scrutiny with which we challenge
The first-met stranger in the waning dusk
I caught the sudden look of some dead master
Whom I had known, forgotten, half recalled
Both one and many; in the brown baked features
The eyes of a familiar compound ghost
Both intimate and unidentifiable.
So I assumed a double part, and cried
And heard another's voice cry: "What! are you here?"
Although we were not. I was still the same,
Knowing myself yet being someone other--
And he a face still forming; yet the words sufficed
To compel the recognition they preceded.
And so, compliant to the common wind,
Too strange to each other for misunderstanding,
In concord at this intersection time
Of meeting nowhere, no before and after,
We trod the pavement in a dead patrol.
I said: "The wonder that I feel is easy,
Yet ease is cause of wonder. Therefore speak:
I may not comprehend, may not remember."
And he: "I am not eager to rehearse
My thoughts and theory which you have forgotten.
These things have served their purpose: let them be.
So with your own, and pray they be forgiven
By others, as I pray you to forgive
Both bad and good. Last season's fruit is eaten
And the fullfed beast shall kick the empty pail.
For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice.
But, as the passage now presents no hindrance
To the spirit unappeased and peregrine
Between two worlds become much like each other,
So I find words I never thought to speak
In streets I never thought I should revisit
When I left my body on a distant shore.
Since our concern was speech, and speech impelled us
To purify the dialect of the tribe
And urge the mind to aftersight and foresight,
Let me disclose the gifts reserved for age
To set a crown upon your lifetime's effort.
First, the cold fricton of expiring sense
Without enchantment, offering no promise
But bitter tastelessness of shadow fruit
As body and sould begin to fall asunder.
Second, the conscious impotence of rage
At human folly, and the laceration
Of laughter at what ceases to amuse.
And last, the rending pain of re-enactment
Of all that you have done, and been; the shame
Of things ill done and done to others' harm
Which once you took for exercise of virtue.
Then fools' approval stings, and honour stains.
From wrong to wrong the exasperated spirit
Proceeds, unless restored by that refining fire
Where you must move in measure, like a dancer."
The day was breaking. In the disfigured street
He left me, with a kind of valediction,
And faded on the blowing of the horn.
First, watch this video-clip:
Frank Underwood 'You are entitled to nothing'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abnlvAQ_E7I
Good evening.
For too long, we in Washington have been lying to you. (STARTLING STATEMENT)
We say we’re here to serve you, when in fact, we’re serving ourselves.
And why? We are driven by our own desire to get re-elected.
Our need to stay in power eclipses our duty to govern.
That ends tonight.
Tonight, I give you the truth.
And the truth is this: The American dream has failed you. (STARTLING STATEMENT)
Work hard? Play by the rules? You aren’t guaranteed success. (STARTLING STATEMENT)
Your children will not have a better life than you did. (STARTLING STATEMENT)
Ten million of you can’t even get a job, even though you desperately want one.
We’ve been crippled by Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, by welfare, by entitlements.
And that is the root of the problem: entitlements.
Let me be clear.
You are entitled to nothing.
You are entitled to nothing.
America was built on the spirit of industry.
You build your future.
It isn’t handed to you.
And the problem with Washington is that we haven’t given you the tools to build it.
The only way for us to serve you is to give you the means to serve yourselves.
Well, that’s exactly what I intend to do.
Not handouts.
Jobs.
Real paying jobs.
In the next few weeks, the Democratic leadership will introduce a program called ‘America Works’.
Its goal is simple: to put the ten million Americans who are unemployed to work.
All of them.
If you want a job, you get one.
The cost is five hundred billion dollars.
Now, that’s a lot of money.
To pay for it, we’ll need to rethink Social Security, healthcare and benefits from the ground up.
We can’t maintain the welfare state as we know it.
Now, that’s not a popular thing to say.
Anyone running for office wouldn’t dare utter those words.
Every advisor and consultant and staff member would beg a presidential candidate not to say
them.
But I can say them.
Because I will not be seeking the Democratic nomination in 2016.
Candidates are cautious.
They must equivocate, they dodge and tiptoe.
But I’d rather leave this office having accomplished something of value than secure another four
years having done nothing at all.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt ushered in an era of hope and progress when he proposed the New
Deal.
And at the time, his reforms were considered radical.
But he once said, “This country demands bold, persistent experimentation. (QUOTATION)
It is common sense to take a method and try it.
And if it fails, admit it frankly and try another.
But above all, try something”.
Roosevelt would have understood better than anyone the necessity for trying something different.
The New Deal succeeded for many years, but we must now try something newer before it fails us.
If ‘America Works’ succeeds, we will reinvent the American dream.
If we fail in our attempt, we will admit it frankly and try another. (QUOTATION)
But above all, we must try something.
Thank you, and God Bless the United States of America.
Notice how the President uses the following rhetorical devices:
QUOTATION
CONTRAST
ALLITERATION REPETITION
THE RULE OF THREE
RHETORICAL QUESTION