Dispensa testi per esame orale, Dispense di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Dispensa testi per esame orale e più Dispense in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity!

READING BETWEEN THE LINES

FACOLTÀ DI SCIENZE L INGUISTICHE E L ETTERATURE STRANIERE

READING MATERIAL

FOR THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH

Materiali e documenti

• ORAL EXAMINATION –

FACOLTÀ DI SCIENZE L INGUISTICHE E L ETTERATURE STRANIERE

READING

BETWEEN THE LINES

READING MATERIAL

FOR THE SECOND YEAR ENGLISH

— ORAL EXAMINATION —

Milano 2021

Table of Contents

Introduction................................................................................................... p. 5

LIFE UNIT 1: LESSONS OF LIFE

1. Forget mindfulness, stop trying to find yourself and start faking it .......... p. 7
2. Good riddance to the old CV .................................................................. p. 11

LIFE UNIT 2: MORE THAN A JOB

3. Moken nomads leave behind their ‘sea gypsy’ life for a modern existence........................................................................... p. 13
4. From intern to inspiration story: landing an adventure job in the Peruvian Amazon ......................................................................... p. 15

LIFE UNIT 3: DESIGN FOR LIFE

5. Story of cities: Barcelona's unloved planner invents science of ‘urbanisation' ......................................................................... p. 19
6. How two architects are transforming Chinese villages ........................... p. 21

LIFE UNIT 4: INNOVATION

7. Why did LOL infiltrate the language? ..................................................... p. 25
8. Social responsibility no longer optional for businesses .......................... p. 29

LIFE UNIT 5: THE MAGIC OF TRAVEL

9. The highs (and lows) of travelling solo ................................................... p. 31
10. Travellers’ tales: three very different backpacking trips.......................... p. 33

LIFE UNIT 6: BODY MATTERS

11. Beholding beauty: how it’s been studied ................................................ p. 37
12. Why am I tired all the time? The science of sleep .................................. p. 41

LIFE UNIT 7: DIGITAL MEDIA

13. Is Instagram changing the way we design the world? ............................ p. 45
14. Logged off: meet the teens who refuse to use social media .................. p. 49

LIFE UNIT 8: THE MUSIC IN US

15. Music and culture ................................................................................... p. 53
16. To beat pain, find the right beat ............................................................. p. 57

LIFE UNIT 9: WINDOWS ON THE PAST

17. Why history matters ............................................................................... p. 59
18. On shared false memories: what lies behind the Mandela effect ........... p. 63

LIFE UNIT 10: SOCIAL LIVING

19. Religious upbringing linked to better health and well-being during early adulthood............................................................................ p. 67
20. My year of living without money ............................................................. p. 69

LIFE UNIT 11: REASON AND EMOTION

21. The second mind ................................................................................... p. 73
22. Coming soon to the library: humanoid robots......................................... p. 75

LIFE UNIT 12: MOTHER NATURE

23. Now rivers have the same legal status as people, we must uphold their rights .............................................................................................. p. 77
24. A world of good: volunteering holiday opportunities ............................... p. 79

LIFE UNIT 13: CULTURE: FIVE DIFFERENT ART FORMS

25. The rise of apocalyptic novels ................................................................ p. 83
26. Why a long-awaited Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition is so significant .... p. 85
27. The uses of poetry ................................................................................. p. 87
28. Music can change the world................................................................... p. 91
29. Why film and TV get Paris so wrong ...................................................... p. 93

Forget mindfulness, stop trying to find yourself and start faking it

Why is the history of Chinese philosophy now the most popular course at Harvard? Here are top tips from the new book The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life.

People are often surprised to learn that Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and other classical Chinese philosophers weren’t rigid traditionalists who taught that our highest good comes from confining ourselves to social roles. Nor were they placid wise men preaching harmonious coexistence with the natural world. Rather, they were exciting and radical thinkers who exploded the conventions of their society. They sought to make the world a better place by expanding the scope of human possibility.

The mid-first millennium BC was a similarly turbulent age to our own, giving rise to debates about how to live, how to be ethical and how to build a good society. Unlike the philosophers we are more familiar with in the West, these Chinese thinkers didn’t ask big questions. Theirs was a mostly a pragmatic philosophy, based on seemingly small questions such as: “How are you living your daily life?” These thinkers emphasised that great change only happens when we begin with the mundane and doable. Their teachings reveal that many of our most fundamental assumptions about our identity and how we ought to live, often take us in the wrong direction. So what are the ideas we hold dear, and what alternatives do Chinese philosophers offer in their place?

Here’s one popular assumption: it’s important to look inside oneself and discover who you really are, your true self. Our thinkers would be sceptical of the existence of a true self, especially one you can discover in the abstract. They understood that we are multifaceted, messy selves who develop by looking outward. Our personalities are formed through everything we do: how we interact with others, our reactions to things, the activities we pursue. You don’t behave the same way when speaking to your mother, say, as when dealing with a junior colleague, your dentist, or a close friend. Each of us is a complicated being bumping up against other complicated beings all day. Each encounter draws out different aspects. Who we are consists of behaviour patterns and emotional mechanisms we’ve created out of habit over time – but that means we also consist of numerous possibilities of what we can become.

Be inauthentic We aren’t just who we think we are, we can work on becoming better people all the time. Once we find ourselves, the assumption continues, we must embrace and be true to that self. But the first great philosopher in the Chinese tradition, Confucius, who was born in the sixth century BCE, would have thought differently. The problem with authenticity, he’d say, is that it’s not freeing, the way we believe it to be. Who is that authentic self you think you have discovered really? It’s a snapshot of you at this one moment in time. If you stay true to that self and allow it to become your guide, it constrains you. It doesn’t allow for the sort of growth you experience when you recognise that you are ever-changing.

We flourish when we recognise our complexity and learn how to work with it through self-cultivation. You grow, for example, when you understand that you are not a hothead just because you tend to think of yourself as short-tempered,

in the Tao Te Ching (probably dating to the 4th century BCE), advocates the power of weakness over apparent strength. People often think this means we should harmonise with nature. We know students whose first encounters with Laozi entail being led on a walk in the woods by their well-intentioned teachers to absorb the glories of the natural world. Passivity is not what he means, though. He says we should see everything in the world as connected instead of divided and distinct, so that we can use our understanding of all those connections to stay attuned to others.

Attunement allows for a different sort of influence. Rather than wielding direct power over people, you see how to subtly alter situations, so you can lead others but they don’t perceive you to be dominating them.

Don’t play to your strengths Live your life as a series of ruptures, because that is what changes you over time. We’re encouraged to discover our gifts and strengths and to hone them from a young age. If you were sporty, you joined the football team; if you always had your nose in a book, you studied literature. As you grow older, you cultivate these natural proclivities until they become part of your identity. But take this mindset too far, and you might stop doing everything else.

Our philosophers would encourage not focusing on who you think you are to break your preconceived notions. If you think you’re clumsy, take up dancing. If you’re no good at languages, immerse yourself in French. The purpose is not to make yourself better at these things, it’s to live your life as a series of ruptures, because that is what changes you over time.

Don’t be mindful The tenets of mindfulness as they are popularly understood is the opposite of what mindfulness was meant to be. We hear that mindfulness will help us achieve peace and serenity in our fast- paced lives. It is now even promoted as a tool for productivity and effectiveness by business schools, corporations and the military.

Mindfulness does not, on the surface, seem all that different from the Confucian notion of paying attention to your emotional responses. But the tenets of mindfulness as they are popularly understood – including looking within and accepting what you find with detached non-judgment – is the opposite of what mindfulness was meant to be. Confucian self-cultivation is about engaging with the world and cultivating yourself through that engagement, through each encounter and interaction. It embraces a very active, not passive, way of cultivating oneself to become a better person.

Rethink the traditional and the modern It’s the small actions through which you conduct yourself that matter most in transforming yourself for the better. The contemporary assumption underlying all the others is that we have broken free of a repressive, traditional world and live our lives as we choose. But if we define a traditional world as one in which humans passively accept the way things are and try to fit into a stable, pre-existing order, then we are the ones who are traditional. The assumptions we hold to be true restrict our greatest possibilities.

The opening line of the Tao Te Ching s ummaries it all: “The Way that can be made into a clearly defined way is not the enduring way.” If you think you can lay out a perfect plan for your life, you’ve missed the “Path.” Instead, recognise

that we are complex creatures constantly pulled in different directions, and that it’s through working on our interactions, experiences and responses that we grow. It’s the small actions through which you conduct yourself that matter most in transforming yourself, and the world, for the better.

[Source: adapted from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/09/forget-mindfulness-stop-trying-to- find-yourself-start-faking-it-confucius]

LIFE reference Unit 1 Lessons for life: 1b: What makes us who we are?

weave of opinions from customers, staff, whistleblowers and robotically pleasant corporate communication types.

Surely top people are still appointed in private smoke-filled rooms? Not really, because there's precious little real or metaphorical smoke in offices. The big change is that the whole employment world is now more transparent. Forums and user groups introduce people horizontally across whole sectors. There are very few dark horses or surprise candidates. People live their whole working lives in a permanent always-on interactive CV. Swapping actual host employers is almost the least remarkable part of a CV.

One lovely part of old-style CVs was references. Ideally this would be a magistrate and a bishop or a friend willing to pretend they were both. Now a LinkedIn profile means you can be recommended and endorsed publicly by everyone, although this carries as much weight as being "liked" on Facebook. What would be really useful is a "Steer Clear" button. It works on TripAdvisor, so why not on Employee Advisor? In fact, I can sense a business opportunity right there (send me your CVs if you're interested).

[Source: adapted from Guy Browning, The Guardian , 28/05/2014]

LIFE reference Unit 1 Lessons for life: 1d How did you get into that?; 2d Tell me about yourself; 2e A letter of application; ALSO: Unit 7 Digital Media: 7b Creating a buzz

Moken nomads leave behind their ‘sea gypsy’ life for a modern existence

Brought to the world's attention by the 2004 tsunami, the seafaring tribe is struggling to reconcile tradition and modernity

Ngui takes one last breath and disappears with a tiny splash. Tunnelling through the turquoise waves, he dives past brightly coloured fish and coral, until he reaches the sandy bottom of the seabed, 20 metres deep, where he begins scouring for tonight's dinner. He wears no mask, no fins, and no diving tank. He prefers sarongs and button-down shirts decorated with seashell and starfish motifs, but the most startling thing about him underwater is his eyes. They are wide open.

Ngui, 30, belongs to the Moken, a nomadic, seafaring tribe of hunter-gatherers who live in the southern seas of Burma and Thailand. Little is known about their origins, but it is believed they descended from migrant Austronesians who set sail from southern China around 4,000 years ago. Spending eight months of the year at sea, the Moken roam in small flotillas of kabang – boats fashioned from a single tree and shared by a nuclear family – and return to land only to barter fish and shells for essentials such as rice and petrol, or to wait out the monsoon season in temporary shacks.

It is a way of life that has existed, unchanged, for centuries – but one that may not last for much longer. The 2004 tsunami greatly depleted the source of the Moken's only livelihood: the ocean's once-abundant array of seafood. International fishing boats are now wiping out the little that's left. Those Moken who have moved ashore are often forced to take dangerous jobs for menial pay. Those who stay at sea are sometimes arrested for lacking papers or permits. Others return to land after months afloat only to find their huts destroyed and luxury tourist resorts built in their place. "The sea has changed and life has changed," explains Ngui's father, Jao. "Things we used to do we can't do any more. Places we used to go we can't go any more. Life isn't fun any more."

It would be difficult to find a family that represents the changes wrought on the Moken as well as Jao's. He was born on a boat and spent his childhood at sea. He married at 16 and nearly pursued a traditional, aquatic lifestyle – until he and his wife decided to settle on land.

Nearly all the men on the island are hired by Thai fishing boats to plant explosives on the seabed, or to dive for expensive and exotic rarities such as sea cucumber. Sometimes they are sent down with air run through thin plastic tubes hooked up to a spluttery, diesel-run compressor; other times they dive without any air at all. Many succumb to decompression sickness (the bends) from ascending too quickly; some don't return at all. "I'm afraid of being killed, it's so risky," admits a 30-year-old Moken who has just returned from a fish- bombing expedition. "We wire together four to five dynamite sticks, connect another explosive wire that hooks up to the boat, and then I dive down to the bottom of the sea. When I come back up, the sticks are ignited with a battery."

From intern to inspiration story: landing an adventure job in the Peruvian Amazon

Scottish zoologist Holly O’Donnell doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer.

When a university professor told O’Donnell that her bachelor’s degree was worth “toilet paper” and that she was going nowhere, she could have abandoned her career dreams. Instead, she fundraised and interned her way from Scotland to Antarctica, Paraguay and the Peruvian Amazon, where she now leads mammal research for conservation non-profit Fauna Forever.

“You have to be a strong character when people don’t believe in you,” says the up-and-coming conservation scientist, “but that makes me even more determi- ned to succeed.” After surprising many who thought she couldn’t tough it in the jungle for a year, O’Donnell hopes to inspire the same courage in future conser- vationists.

Ever since a National Geographic DVD featuring Jane Goodall arrived in the post when O’Donnell was seven, she has been captivated by wildlife. After completing a BSc with honours in zoology, she interned with conservation non- profit ‘Para La Tierra’ in Paraguay where she picked up diverse field skills and discovered an unexpected passion for mammals.

Back in the UK and searching for her next internship, O’Donnell had just accepted a temporary job when luck intervened. “I was up late one night, jet- lagged from Paraguay, and I noticed that a professor had liked Fauna Forever on Facebook. Their latest post was an advertisement for Mammal Coordinator, but the closing date had passed two weeks ago and they wanted a master’s degree. I sent off an application anyways, not expecting to hear back.”

Nine days later O’Donnell was first aid-certified and working in the Amazon.

Research for the greater good As part of rapid assessment surveys across roughly 25 sites, O’Donnell leads Fauna Forever’s mammal research and trains volunteers and interns in line transect surveys and camera trapping.

Her days typically start with a 5:30am transect, where she and one to four volunteers walk up to eight kilometres slowly and silently, recording animal sightings, sounds, tracks and scrapes. They repeat transects in the afternoons and occasional evenings, inputting data or checking camera traps when mammals aren’t active.

Together these surveys give long-term mammal density estimates across different sites and land uses – including conservation, ecotourism and Brazil nut extraction – information which is delivered to the Peruvian government to help inform sustainable management.

Notes from the field At a two-day journey from the nearest city, including a small propeller plane trip and an eight-hour boat or car expedition upriver, nothing is taken for granted in the field.

O’Donnell has learned Spanish, gone without internet; coped with heat, mud and ‘chiggers’ (mite larvae with a taste for human skin); and set up a jungle camp from scratch. “I turned up to a new field station with a few volunteers and there was nothing but rainforest – no bathrooms, no showers, no anything. That was an experience getting that place up and running!”

But O’Donnell, who has been chased by wild pigs and come face-to-face with a jaguar, says that cultural differences are the greatest challenge. These include adjusting to ‘Latin time,’ witnessing bushmeat hunting and the pet trade, and struggling to be taken seriously as a female scientist in a male- oriented culture.

Patience, cultural respect and a genuine interest in how other people live are essential traits in the field, she says.

Gaining field experience While volunteering in the field is often expensive, and even paid field positions are rarely sustainable – providing room, board and a modest wage – they are invaluable stepping stones for conservation careers.

“You’d be incredibly lucky to go straight from university into a job without field experience,” says O’Donnell, who plans to complete a master’s and PhD in conservation science. “Not only that, you need experience to find out what you are actually passionate about – it’s very different doing something in a classroom than in the jungle.”

O’Donnell advises looking for smaller organisations that won’t charge a fortune to volunteer or intern. “Once you’re in a position, optimise where you are and network as much as possible. You want to be a step ahead of everybody else – really show that you’re passionate about field work and eventually you’ll be paid.” O’Donnell could afford extending her stay with Para La Tierra by four months because she picked up basic administrative work, while others have worked in exchange for accommodation at ecotourism lodges.

Paying it forward As road access opens up the Peruvian Amazon, its biodiverse forests and the local communities they support are under threat from oil and gas exploration, agricultural expansion and illegal gold mining, logging and hunting. But with significant land set aside in reserves and conservation concessions, a booming ecotourism industry that provides alternative livelihoods for local people, and research like Fauna Forever’s, O’Donnell sees hope for the future.

The many mentors and other young conservationists she has met on her path continue to encourage her on her journey. “I looked up to the staff at Para La Tierra – they were very influential and inspirational. Now a year later, I’m able to encourage volunteers and interns to follow conservation careers.”

“Sometimes an intern comes in who’s a bit scared of the rainforest or doesn’t have any experience,” she says, “but with time they grow into somebody who’s sure of themselves and capable carrying out field work. I like building peoples’ confidence up and knowing that they’re going on to university or a job.”

From a small town where few people attend university, O’Donnell set up a Facebook page to inform and inspire others. “I want to get people who aren’t biologists interested in conservation,” says O’Donnell, who has been approached by schools, journalists and other conservationists to share her

Story of cities: Barcelona’s unloved planner invents science of ‘urbanisation’

In the mid-1850s, Barcelona was on the brink of collapse. An industrial city with a busy port, it had grown increasingly dense throughout the industrial revolution, mostly spearheaded by the huge development of the textile sector.

The city was living at a faster pace than the rest of Spain, and was ready to become a European capital. Yet its population of 187,000 still lived in a tiny area, confined by its medieval walls.

With a density of 856 inhabitants per hectare (Paris had fewer than 400 at the time), the rising mortality rates were higher than those in Paris and London; life expectancy had dropped to 36 years for the rich and just 23 years for the working classes. The walls were becoming a health risk, almost literally suffocating the people of Barcelona – who were addressed directly in the following public statement of 1843:

“‘Down with the walls!’ has said this province’s council, and ‘Down with the walls!’ has no doubt answered your town hall, which knows the importance of making this girdle disappear that is squeezing and choking us.”

Demolition work would finally start a year later. Now the city and the Spanish government had to design and manage the sudden redistribution of an overflowing population. It was a controversial and highly political decision – which ultimately led to the then unknown Catalan engineer Ildefons Cerdà’s radical expansion plan for a large, grid-like district outside the old walls, called Eixample (literally, “expansion”). In the process, Cerdà also invented the word, and study of, “urbanisation”.

By the early 19th century, the old walled city of Barcelona had become so crammed that the working classes, bourgeois society and factories all co- existed in the same space. “Everyone was suffering the consequences of an Asian-level density,” says the writer and essayist Lluís Permanyer, whose book Eixample: 150 Years of History chronicles that period.

As there was no more land left inside the city walls, all kinds of inventions were used to build more lodgings – houses were literally being created on empty space. Arches were erected in the middle of streets to be built upon, and a technique called retreating façades saw house fronts extended out into the street as they rose up – until they almost touched the building opposite (this practice was banned in 1770, as it prevented air circulation).

Traffic – in those days, horse-drawn carts – was problematic too: the city’s narrowest street (now gone) was just 1.10 metres wide, while around 200 were less than three metres across. This, combined with residents’ Mediterranean way of life (which meant being on the street whenever it was light – and in the case of some artisanal professionals, working there too), worsened an already severe lack of hygiene in the city.

Barcelona’s epidemics were devastating: each time they broke out, 3% of the population died, according to Montserrat Pallarès-Barberà, geography and urbanism professor at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Cholera alone killed more than 13,000 people between 1834 and 1865.

Into this came Cerdà. His plan consisted of a grid of streets that would unite the old city with seven peripheral villages (which later became integral Barcelona