Mrs Bixby and the colonel´s coat by Roald Dahl

Mr and Mrs Bixby were married and they lived in New York. He was a dentist and she had full of life.
Once a month she travelled by train to Baltimore to visit her aunt, but the aunt was an excuse for her. She had an affair with a wealthy man, who was called the colonel. He lived alone with a few servants.
It was for christmas, Mrs Bixby had met him. After that, she was waiting the train, and suddenly the colonel´s servant gave her a box.
As soon as she was on the train, she oponed the box and saw a beautiful black mink fur coat, with an envelope. She read that they could not longer see each. So she had to think how she could keep the coat….
When she arrived to Pensilvania station, she took a taxi and went to a Pownbroker. She left her coat for fifteen dollars till Monday. The shop assistant gave her a ticket without name or address. Then she got home and told her husband that she found a ticket in the taxi.
The next day her husband went to the Pownbroker. Later he phoned her and told that he had the thing. So she went to his office very excited, but he gave her a little fur neckpiece, not the coat. She felt very angry. When she went out of the office she saw Mrs Pulteney, the secretary of her husband that she was wearing the black mink coat, that the colonel had given to her.
I would recommend this book because it shows us how people think, feel and interact among themselves and how the relationship between a husband and a wife change with the pass of time.

Lilo

“The Scarlet Letter”, Nathaniel Hawthorne. (Language & Culture III)

Set in New England, America, in the 1690’s. The society had very strong puritanical beliefs –many people had been persecuted in England for them- and their laws and customs reflected them.
Scarlet was the colour of sin and the letter “A” stood for “Adultery”… Hester Prynne was fortunate that she was not executed for having had a child born outside marriage. Her sin was felt to reflect on her daughter, Pearl, and indeed on the whole community. The fact that her husband was presumed dead saved her life. It would have been all the more shocking to the people in town to discover that Hester’s partner in sin was their own priest, Mr Dimmesdale.
What is your opinion of the novel? What about the characters, symbols, or motifs? Can we share views in our blog??? Hope so…

Emma


I am reading a novel called "The Scarlet Letter" written by Nathiel Hawthorne which shows an interesting mixture among sin, knowledge and human conditions. This story represents the nature of evil and the identity of the society in those times. It also illustrates intricate pieces of the Puritan lifestyle. I really enjoy all the mistery that the characters have and all the situations that happen with passion and devotion. What is your opinion about it?

Miss Squirrel

'The Scarlet Letter?, by Nathaniel Hawthorne.
The novel takes place in a Puritan village. It is full of symbols. The novel depicts Hester Pryne's life who has been condemned publicly for adultery. She is forced to use a letter 'A' stitched in gold and scarlet on her clothes. This letter 'A' stands for 'adulterer'. Hester has borne an illegitimate child, however she refuses to reveal the name of the child's father. Hester can choose to leave the village and settle down in a place where nobody knows about her past, but she prefers staying there since she feels that the baby is the result of true love. Sin is one of the main symbols of the novel. Hester is a sinner, but also the priest who is the father of the little child. The novel shows how both characters Hester and the priest live and accept their 'sin' in a different way. This novel is a 'Romantic' novel since it is full of symbols and contains many descriptions about nature, such the forest, the town, night, etc. I think reading this novel helps us to picture how difficult it was for women to live in a prejudiced and chauvinist Puritan society.
Angels.

“Live and Become “

Aren’t you tired of watching Classical American movies? Let me recommend you a French one in which the spoken languages are Amharic, Hebrew and French, but you can choose the subtitles in English and there you are! An English text. But apart from the French origin, this movie is a marvelous piece of art within a historical background that at least for me is really interesting. The movie is called “Live and Become “or “Va, Vis et Deviens”or “Ser digno de ser” made in 2005. It’s about an Ethiopian Christian boy who is placed by his mother with an Ethiopian Jewish woman whose child has died. She makes him pretend to be Jewish to escape famine and emigrates to Israel during Operation Moses in 1984 based on the belief that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes. This population is known as Falasha and constituted The Beta Israel community.- I highly recommend this film, it’s a bit long but don’t miss the effective end.

Turdus

Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte is a novel that was published in 1847 but it is settled in late Eighteenth Century. This story is about love as well as hatred; it moves in a tragic circle from peace and harmony to violence and suffering. The author shows through the relationship between the characters, the fears that upper middle class felt about the posibility that the lower classes could make a revolution like the one in France. This social class did not have official titles, so they belonged to a fragile social position; and this conditioned them at the moment of choosing between love and social ambitions. I highly recommend this novel because you would enjoy it from the very beginning. It is a story that contains passion, betrayal, revenge, cruelty, love, and anything you could expect from it.

Atlantis

The Valentine Generation

It`s a short story about a girl who writes a horrible letter to her boyfriend because she has seen him having dinner with a young pretty girl. Then she regrets having posted that that letter and wants it back. She waits for the postman to arrive not far Hawai from the pillar box. When she sees the postman she approaches him and asks him politely to give her letter back to her. At first, he strongly refuses to do it so because he might lose hisjob. In fact, he is asked to break one of the firmest regulations at the Post Office. She uses her feminine ways to try and make the postman help her. They exchange opinions about the concept of love which are completely different from one another since both characters belong to different generations. While the postman belongs to the ´´ valentine generation`` in which lovers used to send each other Valentines and give one another keepsakes, the girl belongs to a younger generation in which love is freer and physical appearance and sexual attraction are thought to be more important.
I fully recommend you this good story in which you will clearly see marked differences between two different generations including ideas, values, feelings, opinions and interests.

SPARKLING

"History of private life" by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby

I am reading at this moment "History of private life" by Philippe Aries and Georges Duby. It is a book related to the ritual of organizing the burgeoisie's private life. In that centuries (18th/19th) women charged with this dull duty. They were not only the main responsible for making arrangement or preparations for private life, but also the main capable of expressing feelings. If you take a brief glance at a picture of that period, you are likely to see the typical family pose: the parents and children under a tree, in a natural framework. Another outstanding characteristic of that period is the dinner's time. They used to have dinner early in the afternoon, they were frequently at the table at five o'clock. It this a curiosity because nowadays we are not at the table until ten. To sum up, daily life habits and the roles of the family have changed throughout the years and next generations will go on transforming it.

Sky

Talk on cohesion

This information was sent by one of your classmates.
DEVELOPING UNITY IN A TEXT: COHESIVE RESOURCES Saturday 23rd of May 15 hs Open class Free of charge Lecturer: Lic. Mariana Dayan * Please enrole at: 4582-5966 or call 15 6822 6756 Queries? dayanmariana@yahoo.com.ar * Joaquìn V. Gonzàlez graduate, Univ. Nac. del Litoral graduate (Linguistics)

International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

By Dave Collett
Article from : www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish-central-magazine-racialdiscrimination.htm
Visited on May 10th, 2009. 01:41am
The article about racial discrimination written by Dave Collett deals with the more important facts of Nelson Mandela’s life and with the apartheid. Beyond any doubt, Nelson Mandela is one of the world’s greatest heroes of the Twentieth Century. Not only did he fight to free the people of South Africa, but also to achieve racial equality. Because of his struggle he was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1962. He was released in 1990. Three years later, in 1993, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to abolish racial discrimination in South Africa. In 1994 he became elected president of South Africa and he retired in 1999. He is an inspiration to all the deprived and oppressed people in the world and has never tolerated any form of racism. Concerning the apartheid, its plan was created to repress and oppress non-white people living in South Africa. They were deprived of education, health care and jobs . Apart from this, it was obligatory for a black person to carry a passbook containing their fingerprints, photo and information whenever they wanted to enter a non-black area. In spite of the fact that they were in their own country.
Some years after the Sharpeville Massacre, which left 69 casualties and 187 wounded by the police, on March 21, 1960, the United Nations General Assembly declared that day as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination and called on all international communities to work together to fight against racial discrimination as well as to commemorate this tragedy in hopes of a better future for the world.
I think that everybody should get to know about Nelson Mandela’s life. Apart from being a heroe, he is an example because of his courage and commitment to his ideals. He said about his ideal of a democratic and free society: “It is an ideal, which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die".
Cheeps

Changes on Earth by the end of the century if the population goes on increasing at its present rate

If the population of the Earth goes on increasing at its present rate, there will be serious environmental problems. Such as pollution, deforestation, starvation or overpopulation. But what I think is the worst target to control is pollution all over the world. As you know, to pollute is to make air, water, oil, etc dangerously impure or unifit for use, it happens when rivers are polluted by waste products from factories or when people, who aren´t conscious about the damage they commit, throw out trash where they are. To sum up, what I´d like to say is that human race has only one chance to survive in this planet, we simply have to think about our future.
Miss Squirrel

"Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen

Last month I read "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen. If you like reading romantic novels it is a good choice. This story happens in the 19th century. The characters are a family with five daughters, of course they are not married yet. The eldest and more beautiful daughter is the main character; she has a strong personality. All the story takes place in a village and it is centred around the main character, a rich man and the strange authority of her father. I liked it. It is a love at first sight and the end is what you have expected: a victorious love. And why the title? you answered...because she is very proud and he is very prejudiced. you have to find out the reasons reading this book.
Sky

Remember!!!!!

Remember to visit our new blog "interesting texts". You may enter the site by clicking on the name under "Useful Links". Enjoy it, and send your contributions!!

Animals dying out?

Throughout our planet, many animals are in great danger of extinction, even animals which are close relatives of man, like the orangutan and the chimpanzee.
Unfortunately, in Africa people hunt elephants and rhinoceroses for the tusks. In the seas, wide varieties of fish as well as many kinds of whales are close to extinction. In the air, eagles and storks are also at high risk.
A great number of organizations, such as Greenpeace, help to protect these endangered animals, and luckily their job is massive. Scientists estimate that, if people continue to contaminate, or what is more to destroy the global village we live in, several hundred of species of vertebrates and about one million types of insects will eventually die out, before the year 2040.
It high time we acted…and the time is now.

Emma

“A multicultural poet”

Benjamín Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah, better known as Benjamín Zephaniah, is a British poet with Jamaican roots, and Christian, Jewish and Muslim names. He has been writing poems and novels mainly related to human rights, racial prejudices and polution for almost four decades. Moreover, from time to time he goes on tour to play his own songs, which are a mixture of Jazz, Reggae, Hip Hop, Rock and House rythms.

He wants to take poetry everywhere, but he wishes everybody could understand his personal viewpoint, ideas and thoughts. Therefore, he uses common words, simple and touchy expressions to get people´s attention. Indeed, he writes poems to be read by adults, adolescents and children.

If you take a look at his works, you will appreciate his peculiar informal but sensitive touch. Some of his relevant boks are: “Talking Turkeys”, “Too Black”, “Too Strong”,
“Propa Propaganda”, “Wicked World”. There are many poems to read and enjoy in the official web site www.benjaminzephaniah.com, but, I recommend you to pay especial attention to the poems entitled “Everybody is doing it” and “The British (serves 60 million)” written for children but pretty useful for everybody´s consciences.

Lorna

On Anothers Sorrow by William Blake

This is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful poems of the Age of Enlightment that describes childhood during the Eighteenth Century. The author tried to transmit how children suffered and the effects their suffering had on their parents´ lives. In those times, children were forced to work, because they were supposed to be profitable for the nation. They had to undergo lots of troubles, leaving aside their childhood and becoming adults. They had to work many hours a day in terrible conditions.
William Blake showed through this poem the cruelty of that century from the point of view of the weaker protagonists. He reflected his own opinion about society at that time and pictured a strong feeling of disagreement to the ruling classes.
If you are studying the society of this historical period, you should read this poem in order to have another perspective of the situation taking in to account the feelings of lower classes.

Atlantis

Funes the memorious

"Funes the memorious" or "Funes his memory" is a short story written by Jorge luis Borges, published in Ficciones in English in 1954. In this text, Borges writes about Ireneo Funes, a Uruguayan boy who has an accident, and when he awakens, he perceives the world perfectly and is able to remember everything in its slightest detail. A paramount part of the short story is the one Borges says "To think is to forget differences, generalize, make abstractions", but Funes lives in a pure world of experience where there are only unique details. This statement and description respectively, leads you to conclude that poor Funes was not prodigious, but incapable of thinking.- In my opinion, this characterization was fantastic because it makes the reader consider possible effects that the Funes'ability could cause.

Turdus

Bernice bobs her hair

It is based on a book by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and it captures the attitude of the 20s. The main character was Bernice, a wealthy girl from Wisconsim, who was visiting her cousin, Marjorie. Marjorie felt that her cousin was a drag on her social life and none of the boys wanted to dance with her. One night Bernice heard a conversation between Marjorie and her mother, where a young girl was complaining that her cousin was a socially hopeless and was having trouble fitting in. The following day, Bernice threatened to leave the town, but she changed her attitude and agreed to let Marjorie turn into a society, she taught her how to hold interesting conversations, how to flirt with boys, how to dance, etc. The new Bernice was a big hit specially with boys. As a consequence, Marjorie became jealous, and decided to remind her of her promise to bob her hair. When she came out the babershop with her newstyle, her hair looked like flat and strange. As a result, the boys lost interest in her. At night when everyone was asleep, Bernice went to get revenge on her cousin by cutting her hair too.......In conclusion, this is a story about teenergers, and has some funny parts. It shows us how cruel people will be if they are not accepted. The surprise ending is wonderful! I would recommend this to anyone.

Lilo