Dictations Second Seniors
Multicultural Britain
Britain has always been a mixed society, a nation peopled by immigrants. Britain has benefited from ethnic diversity in all fields, from industry and commerce to sports, science and the arts. The history of immigration in Britain goes back to the time of invasions by Romans, Saxons, Vikings and Normans.
Many people went to Britain, often encouraged by the government to bring money, skill or labour to the country. Refugees from Europe also fled to Britain to escape persecution and poverty.
The British Empire, which by the time of the First World War included 25% of the world, was a source of soldiers during the wars and of labour after the Second World War. Although immigration was promoted at first, by the end of 1970 it was strictly controlled. Today, however, immigrants often encounter hostility and resentment, so a law was passed in the year 2000, which makes it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour, nationality, or ethnic or national origin.
Two Years up a Tree
On December 19th, 1999, twenty-five year-old Julia Hill climbed down a giant redwood tree in the middle of a forest in California, after having spent more than two years living in a tree house placed 55 metres above the ground.
Why did she do this, resisting the cold, the rain and El Niño winds? The answer is simple. Julia is an ecologist, and she was defending the tree and the forest from destruction by the wood company Pacific Lumber. While she was living in the tree, she attracted enormous media attention. She answered more than 100 letters a week and used her mobile phone to defend the forest on radio and TV. She also learned a great deal about trees and nature. She learned to recognise the birds flying around her, and when high winds were blowing, she learned to copy the branches that survive by bending.
After two years and one week, the company promised to make the forest a protected area, and that’s when Julia climbed down the tree.
Spanglish
During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, millions of Europeans and Latin Americans went to live in the USA. Within a couple of generations, most of the French, German, Italian and Russian immigrants spoke only English, but many of the Spanish speakers became bilingual.
Today there are about thirty million Hispanics in the USA who speak Spanish and English. Often the Spanish they speak is Spanglish, which is Spanish, but contains many words of English origin. Some examples of CyberSpanish are maus and chatear. Other words refer to everyday activities, and show a sense of humour: when Spanish speakers want to buy groceries, they ‘compran groserías’, and when they vacuum the carpet, they ‘vacunan la carpeta’.
Spanglish is not only found on the Internet, but it is also spoken on TV, sung to the rhythm of rap and salsa, and even used by a number of famous Puerto Rican poets.
Spanglish by Andrada Ianosi
And there I was in front of me
Just me y nadie más,
Un poco vieja ,como a ti
Te encanta que me veas.
Estaba yo más old que yo,
But this you loved so much
To be the one that looked like you,
The one that had your touch,
Porque en mí you had your soul,
Your dreams and all your secrets,
Yo te esperaba con temor,
Paciencia de los ancients.
E intenté tocar mi piel,
Oir mi voz distante,
Out of the blue you touched my hair,
Mi alma tan pulsante...
2 comentarios
Christine -
Love,
Miss Christine
franco ollino -