Il blog del Liceo Linguistico "Braschi

Friday, 28 May 2021

SIMPLE FUTURE TENSE

https://www.e-grammar.org/future-simple-continuous/test2-exercise2/

Wednesday, 26 May 2021

SYRIA, 10 YEARS OF WAR

In 2021, the terrible war in Syria has turned 10 years old, and seems to have no end.

Main events of the war

Ten years have passed since peaceful protests broke out against the government of President Bashar Assad in March 2011 because of the so-called “Arab Spring”, it triggered a popular uprising which quickly turned into a real civil war. The hardest fighting of the war has taken place in Aleppo, the largest city in Syria. The United States had a leading role in the management of the war, during the years of Obama’s presidency, but especially during Trump’s presidency. In fact, the United States did not intervene in the war until the first use of chemical weapons in the conflict happened in August 2013. The first American air attack occurred in September 2014; an attack on the Syrian territories controlled by the Islamic State, which had proclaimed its "caliphate" in Syrian and Iraqi territories. Subsequently, Assad’s Syrian army suffered its first defeats against the Islamic State, for this reason Russia and then Turkey intervened in support of Assad. The conflict continued and in 2017, for the first time, the United States launched a barrage of missiles as a direct attack on the Syrian government. In 2018, after Assad had recaptured all the suburbs of the city of Damascus, Great Britain, the United States and France launched military attacks on Syria to punish Assad who was accused of using chemical weapons again and killing many civilians. Then the United States decided to establish new sanctions against the countries which supported Syrian military operations. Despite a decade of fighting and a destroyed country, Assad remains firmly in power.

Syria today is suffering a serious economic and humanitarian crisis, and is divided into three parts. An al-Qaeda group dominates the northwestern province of Idlib, while Turkish-backed rebels control some stretches along the Turkish border. The Syrian Kurdish forces supported by the United States control about a quarter of the country in the northeast. Assad controls the rest of the country.

WUTHERING HEIGHTS AND LITTLE WOMEN IN COMPARISON

The reign of Queen Victoria gave the name to the period of time between 1937 and 1901: the Victorian Age. During this complex era, characterized by great hypocrisy and social imbalances, there was a marked division between male and female skills.

The concept of family was very similar to the Roman idea of “pater familias” or "father of the family" who had absolute rule over his household; in fact his wife and his children had to submit to his will and his wife’s tasks included only the domestic sphere.

Women’s life was so difficult, since they were considered as objects and their role was limited to have children, do household chores and obey their husbands. They were requested to be pure, pious and chaste; for this reason, they were associated with the ideal of “the angel of the hearth”, thanks to Coventry Patmore’s literary work The Angel in the House (1854).

Women did not have any right: they could study only if it was useful for the maintenance of the house and any one of them who wished to study or attend university was mocked; they also could not vote and paternal rights were assigned to men, as well as every trace of money.

During a conference, even the scholar John Ruskin presented his idea of men as “defenders and creators” and women as “those who clean the house”.

Yet the condition of women started being in the spotlight: as they were tired of it, they started overthrowing some of the rules imposed on them by criticizing contemporary society in their literary works in which they expressed their rebellion, hidden behind the feminine ideal.

As I have just affirmed, women who transgressed the Victorian “code of conduct” were not accepted; but despite the numerous vetoes imposed by society, some of them - like the Brontë sisters and Elizabeth Gaskell - decided to undertake the world of literature anyway, by hiding their identities using male pseudonyms or by remaining anonymous.

Among them, there was Emily Brönte and Louisa May Alcott.

MEDIEVAL TIMES QUIZZES

https://quizizz.com/admin/quiz/58c7eaa17e880ff566b5b5de/medieval-times

LOOK LIKE - BE LIKE - LIKE

MY PASSION FOR TRAVEL

Since I was a child I have always been fascinated by the idea of discovering new places outside my own country. I was curious to know that there was such a vast world outside the door of my house, and I wanted to travel it as soon as possible. Studying English at school aroused my passion for this language together with my interest in all the countries where it is spoken, but in particular Great Britain. Lots of my relatives told me about their adventures all over the world, they showed me photos, videos and they brought me gadgets and I remember being really impressed with what they showed me about London. I don’t know why, probably because I saw that city very different from my village, it seemed another world to me and at that time I was just a 10-year-old girl.

So I started to ask my parents to go to visit London, I dreamed of getting on that strange giant wheel known as the London Eye which seemed to me just a wonderful carousel, I couldn’t wait to see the beautiful palace of the Queen and I even wanted to put on her crown, just to feel like a princess!

Years passed, but my desire of visiting the capital of Great Britain remained essentially unchanged as I grew up. I was also learning the traditions and customs of the country, and then those attractions, which as a child seemed so strange to me, began to take their real form, and they continued to captivate me very much … until Christmas 2017!

GIORNATA MONDIALE DEL LIBRO 2021

Leggere per conoscere e per conoscersi.

Leggere per capire.

Leggere per perdersi completamente.

Leggere per rifugiarsi altrove.

Leggere per vivere tante altre vite.

Leggere per stupirsi.

Leggere per viaggiare.

Leggere per emozionarsi.

Leggere per salvarsi.

Leggere per trovare delle risposte.

Leggere per guardarsi dentro.

Leggere per incontrare nuovi personaggi.

Leggere per innamorarsi.

Leggere per imparare.

Leggere per aprire la mente.

Leggere per riconoscersi.

Leggere per ricordare.

Leggere perché è impossibile farne a meno.

Laura Messina

Tuesday, 20 April 2021

GOING ON A LANGUAGE TRIP

Speaking a foreign language is always an advantage in our modern society and comes with countless benefits. A very effective and fun way to learn languages are language trips. Read here.