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Per la comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera del testo letterario è uscito un brano di Ralph Ellison tratto da “Invisible Man”.
Per il tema di lingua straniera valevole per tutte le lingue, si parla di social media, della presentazione di un romanzo e di un pensiero partendo da un romanzo di Luigi Einaudi, "Lezioni di politica sociale". Qui viene proposto un elaborato relativo ai social media e al loro potere.
A breve su questa pagina pubblicheremo la soluzione della seconda prova di Inglese per la traccia di maturità 2014 del liceo linguistico. Se vuoi avere aggiornamenti sullo svolgimento della traccia rimani qui e aggiorna la pagina di tanto in tanto!
Testo letterario - Lingua inglese
Answer the following Questions
1. What is the protagonist's main problem?
2.How does the protagonist feel about being invisible?
3. What happened to him one night?
4. What does the man he bumped into look like?
5.What does the protagonist ask him to do?
6. Does the white man see the protagonist? Justify your answer by referring to the text.
7. How do you explain the protagonist's aggression towards the white man? Substantiate your answer by referring to the text.
8. Does the protagonist justify his aggression? If yes, how?
1. We don't know who is the protagonist's of the main problem, he is anonymous but we can get that he is a man who considers himself “invisible” because people refuse to see him. Probably he's a black and people consider him only by stereotype.
2. The protagonist thinks that sometimes being unseen is better and he doesn't complain about this, but it's most often annoying. He is plagued by ignorant people and he has to convince himself that he really exist because it seems like he's a phantom to others.
3. One night the protagonist run into a with man who insulted him. He didn't keep calm and sprang at him.
4. The man he bumps into is white, tall and blonde with blue eyes and an insolent look.
5. The anonymous protagonist asks him to apologize but he doesn't do it so the man bumps him so hard that he goes down his knees. He starts to kick him and he gets out his knife.
6. At first the white man doesn't see the protagonist, he is like “in the midst of a walking nightmare”; when the black man notices this he can't accept it ,in the text he says: “...a man almost killed by a phantom. It unnerved me.”; so he stares at him so hard that the white man can see him clearly.
7. In my opinion the invisible man attacks the white man not because he is upset because of the insults, he only wants that this man notices him. He doesn't want to be seen as a black man, as a stereotype; he wants a revenge for all days of his life as an anonymous man.
He hopes to scare the man, to awake him at the point of death;
8. The protagonist doesn't exactly justify the aggression but we can understand what are the motivations. He's very satisfied of what he does, he laughs.
Summarize the content of the passage in about 120 words
The text begins with a little presentation in first person of the protagonist, the invisible man. He explains that he's a real man, a man of substance, otherwise seems that other people see him only as a stereotype of a black man. He is not totally upset about this but being unseen is most often annoying, mostly when he is bumped against by those of poor visions.
One night he run into a white man that with insolent look insults him, the protagonist reacts grabbing his coat and asking him to apologize but the white man doesn't apologize and the invisible man begins to kick him, he gets out his knife and he hopes to awake the white insolent man if he is at the point of death.
The protagonist notices that the white man haven't seen his face, he doesn't want to be a phantom again so he begins to stare at him; then he runs away very satisfied.
The next day he sees the picture of the white man on the newspaper with the title below: “mugged”. He was mugged by an invisible man.
Composition
Do you think that being invisible is a common experience for people? Can you recognize any individuals or groups among people that you know that are considered invisible? By whom? For what reason? What is your reaction? Write a 300-word paragraph on the topic.
To be invisible man is a condition which is very common, both in little groups of people and in whole Countries.
For example I think that in Italy the biggest community of invisible men are the immigrants. Most of people don't like that non-European people come to our Country to look for a better life.They are afraid of the stranger in the same way white men were afraid of blacks in '50s in the US. The difference between United States and Italy is that in Italy it's more difficult to integrate strangers because Italians think that they are the only one who are allowed to live and work in their Country, otherwise nowadays in the USA people from different Country are one big community, they are used to share the chance to find a job among blacks and whites, Hispanics and Asians. In Italy the immigrants can't aspire to important positions which are reserved to Italian wealthy people.
In my opinion it's normal to be afraid of the stranger at first, it's something new and we have to get used to it, but after some time we should be able to integrate these categories as the humanity had always done. There are no more really autochthons in our Countries, we have to accept it, we are destined to be a mix of people.
Of course there is not only the immigrants problems, there many others categories which have difficulties of being considered in the world, such as women, homosexuals, poor people, animals an more others.
However these are big topic to talk about but there are also realities which are closer to us. There are many people who are marginalized because they are not accepted in social life; for some reason these people are not good at being with others and they become invisible men. Most of them are marginalized since they are children: they usually have family troubles, a difficult life or simply they have more difficulties to study at school.
«Nell’era dell’ iperconnessione perenne e dell’irresistibilità dei social media, spesso il mondo ci appare davvero a portata di tastiera. La nostra percezione della globalità quotidiana passa per i siti web che siamo soliti consultare ogni giorno, magari con l’aiuto dell’onnipresente Google Translate. E per gli amici o i nomi noti che continuiamo imperterriti a “seguire” su Twitter o Facebook, comodamente seduti sul divano di casa. Pratiche ormai consuete e consolidate, anzi “sicure”. Ma, a ben vedere, non è che ci illudiamo semplicemente di essere “cittadini del mondo”? E ci auto-convinciamo di partecipare a una globalità di fatto assai articolata e complessa – spesso distante anni luce dal nostro quotidiano vissuto, dai nostri sogni cosmopoliti?» (Bernardo Parrella, Globalità a prova di bit, “Il Sole 24 Ore. nòva” - 21 marzo 2014).
Rifletti sul testo proposto ed esponi le tue considerazioni.
Tema di Lingua straniera
(Testo valevole per tutte le lingue)
The new generation is the generation of Internet. Internet has changed so many things that it's impossible to go back with the progress. Young people are very able to use technology but also adults are more and more interested in this world.
We can learn almost everything without spending money. Of course there is the cost of the internet connection and the spots are an alternative way to pay but it is a cheap way to learn anyway.
Among young people social medias are the most used websites, people like following what people do, both people they know and people they don't know. Social media such as Twitter and Facebook are ways to always keep in contact with news from the world and from your little city and friends.
In this way all looks good but it doesn't always work well. In my opinion Internet is very useful for people who can also live in real life; it's something more to add on a normal day. You have to be very careful to surf in internet, taking the real information and not believe in trash items. But obviously not only intelligent and careful people live in internet and that's why there are many problems in this parallel world.
Someone becomes addicted to internet and this happens mostly among asocial teenager who risks to don't be able to have real relationships anymore. They open blogs to talk about themselves, other people comment what they write and they don't worry if they say something offensive because they have a desktop which protect them.
We are now used to think that if you are known in internet you can consider yourself an important and a popular person; it's not important to treat well people close to you or to be a good person for few dear ones, it's better to have a lot of “likes” on a facebook post or on your new profile picture or thousand of followers on twitter and youtube than go out with people who really know who you are.
If people can chat with someone in the other side of earth they feel very globalized, citizen of world. I personally have many friends who come from all over the world, I speak English with US, Brazilian, Chinese, Australian, German people but do you know what? Nothing it's better than a real hug when you finally meet these people.
Socialize is staying in contact, talk, go out, have fun with people; of course a chat can help you a lot to organize a party or a date but people should always remember what is real life. Our new life has internet inside and we have to accept it, but I really hope that this will never replace talking face to face, but I'm confident this will not happen.
The whole world is globalized, trades are globalized, socials are globalized, music is globalized and we think that we can have everything we want from every part of the world with a simple “click”.
But it's not so simple. In my opinion being globalized is not chat with people frpm different countries, it's not having an internet connection from the sofa of your home and know all that happens in the world in real time; if you want to be a worldwide person you have to live in the world and,at first, treat it well, be open minded,travel a lot, don't be afraid to know different cultures and be proud of yours. If you love the world you can leave everywhere and if you threat everyplace like your home, then everyplace in the world can be your home. This is being a citizen of world.
A cura di Beatrice Simion
