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

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