Riassunto dispensa "Books and Boarding Passes" - Bell e Liti, Schemi e mappe concettuali di Lingua Inglese

Scarica Riassunto dispensa "Books and Boarding Passes" - Bell e Liti e più Schemi e mappe concettuali in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! 1.WHAT IS IMAGINATION? Imagination is a power of the mind that allows us to create, remember, create opinions. The term Imagination comes from the Latin verb “imaginari” meaning “to picture oneself”, this term indicates the self-reflexive property of imagination. Imagination is where thoughts and images settle in the mind to create a mental concept that the senses cannot perceive. It is a process of mediation between externalized reality and internalized man. We often associate the term with a mental condition that doesn't exist. In the world of mass media, the term imagination refers to the private imagination that is presented as public. Imagination challenges our sense of what we consider private and essentially humanistic: Can imagination and media coexist or is imagination just a human activity? In case the media can represent the imagination how would they do it? In Aristotle, the imagination is a space present in the human mind in which images and ideas are combined to make individuals think. According to Kant the imagination is "reproductive" because it is founded on a given or experienced knowledge that must be reproduced to shorten what is perceived by the senses. For example, a subject looking at a cube should examine it so that his senses can perceive all sides, but through reproductive imagination, which is based on experience, he can immediately deduce that the cube has six sides and need not rely on his senses. Kant and Coleridge stated that imagination is a synthesis of our perception of the world. In Lacan's mirror phase the child perceives what is real and what is unreal through the Imaginary. If the child's image reflected in the mirror represents the imaginary, then imagination is the child's ability to integrate the reflected image into the child's experience of himself in the world. So, according to Lacan the imaginary is representative, and the representation is the mirror. According to Sartre, art is the expression of both the imagination and the higher truth perceived by the imagination. Movies and virtual reality have tried to demonstrate the truth of this idea by creating a version of reality that goes beyond what the senses can perceive. Movies try to "hold a mirror" to say that reality is represented on the screen. The film is considered a "ghost of images" that creates an imagined reality that represents the higher truth. In addition to representing the imagination in the form of mass media, the film also represents the associative capacity of the imagination which refers to Aristotle's conception of imagination as cognitive reasoning. Manovich explains that the interaction with the media often does not consider the psychological interaction that can be found in most forms of art. Abstraction in form in film can only be understood if viewers imagination creates a coherent vision of the work, they have to connect the images by associating them through imagination. We also find the associative process in the layout of the web page on the Internet where cognitive associations are established for the viewer, where, if we click on an image, we can receive a definition in words and vice versa. In the aesthetic theory it is thought that the imagination is a reactive organism: the imagination is therefore a faculty that must be activated by an external entity which imposes its intentions on it. So, according to this thought, in films the viewer is asked to identify with someone else's imagination, as if it were his own. Historically, it was feared that films and virtual reality could take on the human properties of the imagination, but, according to Manovich, the purpose of film is to objectively reproduce certain mental functions on the screen. Einstein observed how films can be used to control and externalize thought. Thanks to virtual reality, which allows you to create a simulated world thanks to the user's imagination and thinking, the trend of externalizing the human mind has been exerted. Replacing our romantic notions of unsurpassed imagination, or humanity, with technology is the ideal communication. 2. A VERY BRIEF HISTORY OF READING BEGINNING In the 4th Millennium BCE, urban centres started developing in Mesopotamia. In this period and individual changed the course of history by using marks drawn on clay to represent an ox and a goat. From here writing was born and with it the art of reading. Around 2600 BCE, the cuneiform script developed, and writing became more versatile. It was used to transcribe laws, histories, and records of transaction. in cuneiform writing each syllable was represented by a different sign and was made up of hundreds of characters that people had to learn, so being a scribe in Mesopotamia was a great achievement. Birds were considered sacred because the shape of their feet resembled cuneiform characters and people thought they were messages sent by the gods that had yet to be deciphered. As the ancient writers discovered their power to make and alter myth and history, the first works of literature were written. The earliest known author named in history is a woman, the Akkadian princess and High Priestess Enheduanna. READING AND PERFORMANCE The earliest written texts were meant to be read out loud. Punctuation was used for the first time only around 200 BCE and was erratic well into the Middle Ages. The masses were still illiterate, and written material only reached them through public readings, in royal courts and monasteries, performances of jugglers and storytellers. READING SILENTLY Since texts were heard and not read, silent reading was not widespread. In 330 BCE Alexander The Great silently read a letter in front of his troops who were amazed at his abilities. Thanks to the development of literacy, the correct use of punctuation, simpler writing and the insertion of images, silent reading spread among the population. PRINT REVOLUTION The earliest printing technology originated in China, Japan, and Korea. The imperial state of China produced a large volume of printed material, printed by rubbing paper against inked woodblock. The knowledge of print technology reached the western world around the 13th century, and woodblock printing became popular by the 15th century. In the 1430s, Johannes Gutenberg developed the first mechanical printing press at Strasbourg, Germany. In the early 13th century periodicals began to be published and the novel as a literary form took shape in France and England. In 1849 Dickens published a serialized story in a magazine (Pickwick Papers), this combined the appeal of the novel with the convenience of magazines. LIBRARIES In the 7th century BCE, the Assyrian ruler created a library made up of clay tablets which over time grew thanks to looting. In 331 BCE Alexander the Great founded Alexandria in Egypt which soon became a multicultural city. Ptolemy I founded the library of Alexandria in Egypt with the aim of organizing all the works already present and inserting all the works of the world. In 200 BC. the Egyptians created the first book catalogue. Alexandria Egypt was the first library in history to catalogue books in alphabetical order. READING AS REBELLION For marginalized groups, reading has been a courageous act of rebellion and resistance. Enslaved people were denied access to reading for centuries. Women’s reading and intellectual ambition was discouraged. conversational style we use during everyday life communications? Even spoken language, like texts, is subject to nuances such as sarcasm or figurative language, but speech has the advantage of "tone" which allows the addressee to interpret what is being said. Jakobson believed that literary discourse was different from other types of discourse because it had a "set to the message." All lyrics contain an innate meaning that changes with time and perspective. Like language, "text" can only mean something if there is a relationship between the two individuals that makes communication possible. Summarizing, the role of the reader is simply to read, thus, allowing the processes of interpretation, expression and communication possible. 6. WHY YOU SHOULD READ LITERATURE FROM AROUND THE WORLD Many readers tend to read only what they feel comfortable with by choosing books in familiar genres written by authors they know and have previously enjoyed. Ann Morgan, after seeing that her library consisted only of books written by English and North American authors, defined herself as a "literary xenophobe". So, she decided to open her horizons and buy a book for every country in the world. In Reading The World: A Confession of A Literary Explorer, Morgan recounts her growth and change. We live in the age of the internet where we are advised what to read based on what we buy or search on internet sites. While it's easy to blame the internet for our restricted reading habits, it's up to us to make the virtual world work in our favour. Even if we don't know the literature of a country, nobody forbids us to discover it. Morgan used the internet to get recommendations for books she should read and was pleasantly helped. A girl sent her a Malay book, some translators provided her with translations to help her understand some texts. The truth is, we don't read unfamiliar literature because we don't want to. Why should we bother reading translations when we can read books written in English? Why should we try to understand different cultures, idioms, expressions when we can limit ourselves to what we know? The world is increasingly globalized and to understand it better we need to know everything around us. Morgan believes that one must read a novel for the pleasure of discovery and that novels must be viewed as windows to other worlds. 7. WHAT IS ORAL LITERATURE? The term "oral literature" refers to the forms of literature found in societies without writing, it is also used to describe civilizations in which certain genres are transmitted only orally. However, these two meanings must be distinguished because while some forms of folktales still exist, the oral tradition is influenced by the written culture of the elite. Even the term literature poses problems because it derives from the Latin "littera", letter, essentially a written concept. Among scholars, instead of oral literature, the locutions standardized oral forms and oral genres have been suggested. THE RELATION OF SPEECH TO WRITING The advent of writing has a strong influence on speech. The effects of writing on the population have been dramatic, for a long time written literature was reserved for an elite minority of the population, while a large part of the population continued to depend on oral communication. In many cases these two traditions coexisted, but this combination creates problems for the analysis of the various genres of oral literature. Written literature is never simply writing what already exists, a myth or a story always changes when it is transcribed and is placed between a set of new genres and the modification of the old ones. The term folklore refers to some of the spoken activities of literate cultures where only a small minority can read. These activities are influenced by the ever-dominant literary modes, especially those related to major religious activities. In societies with writing, much communication is still by word of mouth. This, as well as being an aspect of all human relationships, was inevitable until the almost universal literacy in Europe reached at the end of the 19th century. Until then literature had to be transmitted orally to most of the population. This did not mean that oral literature was unaffected by the written word. A written epic poem could be memorized and recited to the general population. Of course, a society might inherit some genres such as folktales, largely unchanged from an earlier culture, while other genres, such as the epic, would undergo a sea change. Part of the written word's influence on speech was the development of rhetoric. Many of the first written forms are inspired by spoken genres, even if their transformation takes place in front of the new media. There was a good exchange between the coexisting people and written literature. THE EXAMPLE OF THE EPIC The Homeric poems are often considered oral epics that have been transposed into writing. Commentators highlight the fact that there are several expressions that are part of the oral forms. However, some argue that the precise format of Homer's formula is an early literacy device. The epic is often assumed to be typical of oral cultures, but records of epics in oral cultures are scarce. Epic societies already have writing, but the characteristic of the first written works was that the texts were memorized and recited instead of being read aloud. In fact, we know them only because they were written. The fact that the works were learned by heart makes us doubt the written existence of the poems. Text memorization is typical of societies where only a few could read and therefore mnemonic skills and devices are encouraged which favour the reproduction of oral texts. Kalevala illustrated how purely oral forms were modified under the influence of cultures. Lönnrot continues to develop Kalevala thought. Collector of folk poetry, Lönnrot combined a number of short compositions with his own material and imposed a unifying plot on the whole. Its publication had a huge influence on Finnish culture. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ORAL AND WRITTEN LITERATURES The differences between written and oral culture are authorship and audience. In oral culture the memory of the author is not very important, this does not mean that these genres do not become the object of intellectual property rights, but once it is not possible to go back to the individual author. This does not mean that they were created collectively. Each epic poet adds his own variations anonymously which will be taken up by subsequent colleagues who will use them as a model. This way you will never look at the fixed original. Dissemination of the original is only possible by writing or reciting from memory, consequently, it seems to be in these early literate societies that the development of mnemonic skills is first found. 8. WHY WE TRAVEL It has long been said that traveling "opens the mind", now it is also said that getting on a plane makes you more creative and open minded. Sometimes we travel because we have to, most trips are non-negotiable. But we often travel because we want to, because waking up early and the bustle of the airport are rewarded with the thrill of being in a new place. We travel because work is too stressful and the pressure is too high, so we need a vacation, because home was boring, because flights were on deals, because New York is New York. Travel is a fundamental human desire. But is travel still a worthwhile impulse, or is it an instinct we should have left behind? Several scientific articles argue that traveling is an essential habit for effective thinking. Literally traveling is a verb of movement. The reason why travel is mentally useful is that when we think about nearby things, our thoughts are narrow, they are tied to a more limited set of associations and while this habit can be useful, it also inhibits our imagination. So, when we escape from our routine, our mind opens up and is made aware of the wandering ideas we had suppressed. This more relaxed type of cognition has benefits, especially when we're trying to solve difficult problems. Psychologist Lil Jia conducted an experiment in which she divided a few dozen college students into two groups and each group was asked to list as many modes of transportation as possible. One group of students was told that the assignment was developed by Indiana University students studying abroad in Greece (the distant state), while the other group was told that the assignment was developed by Indiana students study in Indiana (the neighbouring state). Jia found a striking difference in the two groups, the first group listed a large number of means of transportation; this was because the source of the problem was far away, subjects felt less constrained by local transportation options, and thought about traveling not just in Indiana, but around the world. The brain takes a long time to choose what not to notice, as a result creativity is mistaken for efficiency. But distance isn't the only psychological benefit of travel. Some researchers noted that students who had lived abroad were 20 percent more likely to solve the Dunker's Candle Problem psychological test than students who never left home. This is because discovering a new culture allows us to open our minds and prompts us to notice that one thing can have multiple meanings. Being able to experience so many cultural contrasts makes us more sensitive to ambiguity, it makes us understand that there are so many different ways of interpreting the world. This mental openness makes us reflect on the initial hypotheses and often leads us to change our minds. But it must be emphasized that it is not only due to distance. 9. TRAVEL AS A METAPHOR FOR LIFE Traveling is one of man's oldest and most loved activities, it is part of human nature. If we think about it, life itself begins with a journey, being born means leaving your comfort zone to face and discover the world. The phenomenon of migration is recurrent and represents the search for a place where living conditions can be satisfied. Through the identity of the traveller, one discovers what happens in a personality when he leaves his security to go in search of the new, which emotions accompany those who set out because traveling can be a means of personal growth and training. The journey brings discoveries, encounters and unexpected events, it makes us better, more courageous and freer. We can consider travel as a metaphor for life: sometimes we have to face difficult moments, but it is thanks to those moments that we bring out the best in ourselves. The journey, like life, will never go as planned, you have to face obstacles to complete it, it often requires sacrifices and courage, but as happens in life there is always a way to come out stronger. What matters is courage and perseverance, not the budget. The journey leaves you with many memories but also the desire to travel again. It allows you to get to know other people and yourself. It opens your mind, makes you discover new realities that open your horizons, allows you to get to know and understand many different cultures. And it is only thanks to this openness to the world that travel gives us that we can feel free. The journey takes us out of our comfort zone, it takes us away from our habits and thanks to this we can grow, mature, change and learn. The return is a fundamental phase of the journey. The only risk is that the trip has not been useful, but it rarely happens because if the journey is the metaphor of life, one leaves one's comfort zone to return there with an extra baggage of awareness, we return after facing internal and external conflicts and having been able to deal with the new and the different. 10. TIME TRAVEL socializing and entertainment. Between the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, beach holidays spread in the Mediterranean and in America and then spread all over the world. Coastal locations have become places of conflict over access and use. They became areas of class conflict and were a privileged place to resolve racial, economic, or religious tensions. The global footprint of tourism continues to grow dramatically. 13. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS- A NOVEL BY JONTHAN SWIFT Gulliver's Travels is a satirical work by Jonathan Swift published anonymously in 1726 as "Travels in various remote countries of the world". It was one of the books that gave birth to the novel. Gulliver's Travels combines adventure with savage satire and mocks English society mores and politics. The book is written in the first person and narrated by the protagonist Lemuel Gulliver, a surgeon and sea captain who visits remote regions of the world and recounts four adventures. In the first, Gulliver is the only survivor of a shipwreck and finds himself in Lilliput, where the inhabitants smaller than 6 inches tie him up, take him to the capital and then release him. The size of Lilliputians reflects their meanness: for example, political affiliations are divided between men who wear heels (symbol of the English Tories) and men who wear flats (symbol of the Whigs). Gulliver is asked to help Lilliput in the war against the empire of Blefuscu, Gulliver captures the enemy naval fleet and refuses to help the Emperor of Lilliput conquer Blefuscu. Gulliver later puts out a fire at the royal palace by urinating on it. Eventually he falls from grace and is condemned to be blinded and starved to death. He flees to Blefuscu where he finds a boat and returns to England. The second journey takes him to Brobdingnag, a country inhabited by giants. A farmer finds him and takes him to the farm owner exhibiting him for money, the farmer's daughter takes care of him. The Queen orders the farmer to bring Gulliver to her and buys him, he becomes a court favourite even though the King despises him for his stories of the conquests of his people. He is eventually picked up by an eagle and rescued at sea by other men his size. During the third voyage Gulliver is carried adrift by pirates and finds himself on the flying island of Laputa. The inhabitants all have one eye turned inward and the other turned upwards and are very distracted, they are passionate about music and mathematics but do not know how to apply it. Laputa is ruled by the king of Balnibarni, the continent below. Gulliver can leave the island and visit Lagado where he finds the fields in ruins and the people living in squalor. Gulliver's host explains to him that the inhabitants follow the prescriptions of an academy in the city where scientists undertake impracticable projects. In the fourth part Gulliver visits the land of highly intelligent horses and, after telling his story and that of his country, the chief decides that Gulliver must leave Houynhnm. Gulliver returns to England and is so disgusted by society that he decides to isolate himself and buy horses to converse with them. Gulliver's Travels is Swift's most bitter and brilliant satire showing a contempt for humanity with character descriptions of each journey. The work turned out to be so brilliant that it was reprinted several times within a few months, even several film adaptations were made. 14. WASHINGTON IRVING’S ‘RIP VAN WINKLE’ Rip Van Winkle was published in 1819 and is Irvin's most famous work. Rip Van Winkle has become synonymous with the idea of falling asleep and waking up to find the world has changed. In a New York village lives Rip Van Winkle, a kind man and a tormented husband, respectful and ready to help others. In addition to his wife, he has three children, one of whom is called Rip and looks a lot like his father. Rip also has a dog, Wolf. His farm brings him only trouble and the only pleasure he has is to meet up with the men of the village at the village pub. One day Rip goes for a walk with the dog in the Catskill Mountains, while he was descending, he hears a voice calling him and a grey-bearded man dressed in Dutch clothes appears and motions him to follow him. Rip finds himself in a wood where there are people dressed in old clothes playing skittles. The man shares a keg full of alcohol with the others and Rip tries the drink, soon after he falls into a deep sleep. When he wakes up all the strange figures have become Rip's dog. Rip returns to the village and on the way, he notices that his beard has grown. Upon his arrival he meets people he doesn't know, all the shops look different, when he comes home, he finds it abandoned. Rip talks to the villagers and asks if they know his friends and they tell them they are dead, then asks if they know a certain Rip Van Winkle and point him to his son Rip, now grown up. Rip sees his daughter with a baby and asks her who her father was and she replies that it was Rip Van Winkle and that he disappeared twenty years earlier after going for a walk in the Catskill Mountains. Rip discovers that he actually slept not just one night but for twenty years. Rip asks her what happened to her mother and she tells him she is dead and he is relieved since she only caused her torment. At this point old Peter Vanderdonk appears and confirms Rip's story: he explains that Rip's visit to the mountain coincided with one of Hendrik Hudson's and his crew's wakes held every twenty years. Rip's son settles down on the farm with his family and Rip Senior enjoys his retirement and continues to go to the bar with his friends. Rip Van Winkle is revered as the old man of the village who still remembers the village before the war of independence. Rip Van Winkle is the most famous American fairy tale. It has characteristics that we find in European fairy tales such as the enchanted forest, but the mention of the name of the bar (George III to George Washington) makes us understand that it is an American fairy tale. The time setting of the story is central: Rip goes to sleep before 1776 when the American colonies are still ruled by the British and wakes up after the American Revolutionary War in the independent nation of the United States of America. The central idea of the story is not entirely new, the Greek historian Laertius tells a similar story: the myth of the seven sleepers of Ephesus who fell asleep for two centuries to escape worries. But the most obvious influence was the German short story "Peter Klaus" by Natchigal. Irving through this story tries to minimize the American Revolution. The name of the pub has changed to represent the transition from George III (British rule) to George Washington (American independence) but the population has always remained the same. The similarity between Rip senior and Rip junior represents the similarity of the two generations. 15. THE SEVEN VOYAGES OF SINBAD THE SAILOR The Tales of the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Mariner are the best known of “The Arabian Nights”. There have been many adaptations of the Sinbad story: movies, cartoons, comics, video games. However, the adaptations are unrelated to the tales we associate with 'The Arabian Nights'. These were introduced to Europe in 1704, soon after publication there were several discussions about the origin of the tales. Western scholars confirm that "The Arabian Nights" is a collection of works from different parts of the world. Initially they were transmitted orally, then after the 10th century they were transcribed. The best- known English translation is that of Burton, although he was not the first to translate them into English. The Arabian Nights are morality tales from which the audience can draw life lessons. The stories of Sinbad begin in Baghdad when a poor man called Sinbad the Porter because he carried weights on his head for a fee, tired and hot, decides to stop on a bench in front of the house of a rich man. From inside the house comes the sounds of laughter and the smell of good food and wine, from the gate Sinbad sees a well-kept garden. He begins to complain because he finds it unfair that he lives in misery while other people have the opportunity to own all these goods. Here Sinbad the Porter meets Sinbad the Sailor, the owner of the house who tells him his story and the story of how he obtained that wealth by quoting an unknown poet: "By means of toil man shall scale the height; Who to fame aspires musn't sleep o'night." The Seven Voyages of Sinbad should be understood as the journey to achieve fame and fortune. On his first voyage Sinbad sails to what he thinks is an island but is actually a huge whale that plunges deep into the sea when he and his sailors light a fire. He is eventually rescued by a passing boat which takes him to an island where he rescues the king's horse which rewards him with rich gifts, which he sells for huge profits. He returns to Baghdad rich. Not feeling at ease in Baghdad, he embarks on his second journey. He is marooned by his companions on an island full of roc birds that lay giant eggs. When the female roc alights on her eggs Sinbad clings to her paw, the next morning he is carried off the island and falls into a valley full of diamonds. He manages to convince the bird to take him off the island and returns to Baghdad richer than before. Unable to find satisfaction in stable life Sinbad sets off on his third journey to Basra. He and his companions are shipwrecked on an island and are captured by ape-like creatures. Wanting to get back to sea Sinbad sets out on his fourth voyage and lands with his companions on an island populated by cannibals who feed and drug the crew. Sinbad notices the danger and refuses to eat and flees. A group of pepper-pickers take him to their king who takes him into friendship and gives him a woman as a bride. When the woman dies, he realizes that island customs want him to be buried with her, he robs her grave and flees to Baghdad. [...] On his last voyage he lands on a beautiful island ruled by a kindly king who takes him under his wing. The king asks Sinbad to marry his daughter to become his heir and he accepts. After the king's death he inherits the throne. The city has a peculiarity: once a month some people turn into birds and fly out of the city. Curious to find out where they go, Sinbad decides to follow them and at first he thinks they are birds that go to praise god but then he discovers that they are actually evil spirits that will turn against him. He decides to return to Baghdad with his wife and much of his wealth and never to travel again. 16. TÜBINGEN: EUROPE'S FIERCELY VEGAN, FAIRY-TALE CITY Tübingen is a German town, where veganism and environmental friendliness reign, famous for its green reputation. The city is built around the almost perfectly preserved historic centre. Tübingen is one of the sunniest places in Germany, which makes it more cheerful than other places. A large part of the population is made up of university students. The student protests of 1968 affected the city's leftist and environmental sensibilities. In Tübingen there are self-managed housing initiatives where cooking and shopping are organized collectively and are mostly vegan. The people who live in these lodgings are politically active, cultivate an awareness for ecological and social issues and contribute to the cultural scene. Tübingen is an official Veganuary participant and is constantly being updated to be ever more environmentally friendly. The well-integrated cycle paths and the very high parking fees make the city less hostile to the use of cars which since 2022 can no longer circulate on the central road. Students can travel for free on the buses at weekends and after 7pm, while on Saturdays travel is free for everyone. Although expectations are high for the English-language remake of the TV series Call My Agent (dix pur cent), its author admits that adapting a huge success is very difficult. The original version depicts the lives of the staff who must balance the egos of their famous clients with the strict demands of the studios. The show was immediately successful, and viewers appreciated that the series showed a world that is not usually considered. But taking the same concept and transplanting it into English isn't easy, it will never be as successful as the original. While the meaning of the story in its original setting may never be the same in the remake, the British version relocated the plots and characters to London and acquired its own identity. While the success of Squid Games may signal a change in viewers' attitudes towards subtitles, many American and UK viewers are still reluctant to watch original language products. That's why English remakes are big business. The role of an adapter is very complex especially when the material under consideration is very successful because it has no carte blanche. 22. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE 7TH CONTENT? Antarctica is a place of majestic beauty covered by immense glaciers and inhabited by friendly penguins. In recent decades tourism has increased significantly, more and more people touch the unexplored lands of Antarctica and nowadays reaching this location is increasingly convenient. Or at least, it was until the pandemic which arrived at the very end of the tourist season, and everyone did everything possible to run for cover. But it's not just tourism that has been affected. The scientific society had to cancel the Antarctic treaty meeting, which is a meeting where treaty member states meet to decide priorities for environmental protection. Without it, decisions considered crucial for the future of the continent cannot be made. The big question is whether it will be possible to restart the tourist activity despite the difficulties, the IIATO has announced that even if there will be, it will certainly be reduced. Another big problem will be finding adequate insurance to be able to go to Antarctica. Cruise ships are well equipped to deal with these difficulties, but the fear has been taken to the next level and restrictions are being enacted making it increasingly difficult to manage the situation. The biggest problem would be having to host and handle a positive case on board. While covid may be a problem for tourism in Antarctica, the continent can benefit from the virus. Pollution would be considerably reduced and the environment would be better protected, as well as native animals. But actually, the biggest problem in this area is causing it climate change. For guides and tourists this could be positive because as the ice melts, more sites to visit come to light. The warming of the region has also had a positive effect on the fauna. The numbers of some whales and some Gentoo penguins are increasing. But for Adelie and chinstrap penguins the situation is getting worse, scientists are also worried about emperor penguins because they rely on ice to reproduce. 23. FAMOUS LITERARY GRAVESITES IN LONDON BOOKWORMS SHOULD VISIT The tombs are an unusual place to consider as a rustic attraction, but for some it is a way to connect with famous people ranging from singers to musicians to authors. London has been home to some of history's most important literary authors and perhaps has the number one place of pilgrimage for all literature lovers, Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. The first bard ever buried in this territory is Geoffrey Chaucer. It wasn't until nearly 200 years later, when Spenser asked to be buried next to Chaucer that the tradition of burying the greatest novelists and lyricists together began. Today when you visit Poet's Corner you can find the graves of Browning, Hardy, Dickens, Tennyson and the memorials of Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, Byron... Wandering around Poet's Corner will allow you to show respect for all the great authors. 24. A FEW WORDS ABOUT THAT TEN-MILLION-DOLAR SERIAL COMMA The case of milk truckers from Maine who won a lawsuit against their employer for lack of a comma has shocked punctuation enthusiasts around the world. Nothing excites the passion of grammar geeks more than the serial comma: they either love it or hate it. Most newspapers do without the serial comma, but at The New Yorker a copy editor has a duty to use it in conjunction with many other punctuation marks. While proponents of the serial comma are delighted with the truckers' victory, it was actually the lack of the comma that made them win. In the list of activities for which workers are not entitled to overtime, a comma is missing in a section of the law which has led to several misunderstandings and thanks to this small mistake, the exemption does not apply to truck drivers because it has made sure that they fit into no category. But the comma is not the only problem, there have been several grammatical errors that have been essential for truck driver lawyers. 25. BARACK OBAMA ON WHY TRAVEL MATTERS Barack Obama describes his most memorable travel experience, finding his place in the world on an overnight bus ride, and explains the importance of listening. BBC Travel had the chance to interview the former US president. In his remarks, Obama spoke of how traveling helps us discover our place in the world and the importance of opening up to different cultures. Travel creates connection and empathy and inspires transformation. What is the most memorable travel experience you’ve had and why? He travelled a lot, so he's having a hard time choosing one. But after becoming a father he can say that the best trips have been the ones he has taken with his daughters because there is nothing more beautiful than seeing the sense of discovery through their eyes. But there is also something special about being a young traveller. He made his first trip to Kenya (homeland) at the age of 25, after graduating and after his father's death he understood that he wanted to understand the land he came from and went there for a month. But first he crossed Europe without ever being there, and it was the most memorable journey because it was the journey of self-discovery. He took an overnight bus from Madrid to Barcelona and his Spanish wasn't fluent, but he could communicate and made friends with a guy who didn't speak English with whom he shared bread and wine. Arrived in Barcelona he walked towards the Rambla with the dawn colouring the sky. These trips are memorable because they are part of you and make you understand your place in the world. Then he went to Kenya, went on safari and met some of his family that he didn't know, and it was special. With so much information and a 24-hour news cycle, do you have any words of wisdom for how to filter out the noise and figure out what’s important? We are going through many changes with a speed never seen before, technology and globalization are uniting the world in a way that no one ever expected before. The amazing news is that you can travel from one country to another in a matter of hours and that you have all the information you need at your fingertips, but this could create new challenges. The thing we can notice most is that all these changes are making us more insecure and more uncertain about the world around us. The changes that have occurred economically mean that, in countries where people used to feel comfortable, they are now having to race to stay afloat and are worried about the future of their children. So all these changes (like Brexit) are the reactions of people who have felt excluded from their status and now they try to preserve what is left with genuine laws. Travel also reminds us of what we share and what we have become, the value of our diversity of the world and the differences we have. Environmental destabilization is also worrying. Climate change is not something that will happen in the distant future, we are experiencing it today. And some of the places we would like to visit are at risk and others may disappear or be destroyed. Furthermore, climate change will influence migrations, droughts and famines which will have a strong impact on societies that will try to survive and this will change the global economy. The good news is that there are things we can do to make a difference, the bad news is that we are not politically ready to deal with this. The elderly is not ready to hand over power and the institutions are not equipped to respond to the demands of the young. Older people vote more than young people, the key is to try to involve young people more in rebuilding institutions that respond to their needs. Another concern is the way the media operates, the internet provides information to cater to people's pre- existing biases by giving completely different views of the world. This makes it difficult to build common ground on which to address issues. So when you spend time getting information from people who agree with you, you only reinforce your biases and diminish your worldview, this behaviour could be very dangerous. 26. INTERROGATING LITERATURE… AND THE LANGUAGE OF WHO WE ARE Poetry often finds its way into The Main Field. it's interesting how poetry affects the literary pages but it's even more interesting how it affects the political ones: as did the poem by Gunter Grass who claimed that Israel is a greater threat than Iran. The moments in which poetry affirms its public value or when a poet turns a literary truth upside down to become a bestseller are also interesting. In general, it is interesting to question the position of literature in the public space. Literary prizes, as one measure of literature's standing, offer one of the few opportunities outside of the classroom for a shared-reading experience that allows us to engage in a conversation about literature, language and our lives. The main value of the literary awards is to curate a year of books. Literary awards tell us a lot about culture: what they say about books and what we say about awards. The Stella Prize, for instance, was created in indignant response to the all-male shortlists the Miles Franklin served up in 2009 and 2011. Sometimes science tells us that reading great literature makes us better people. Scientists have shown how fiction can influence our future behaviour. Literary fiction has likewise been shown to improve empathy and make us better at handling complex relationships. it's interesting to see how language and our art make us who we are and it's also interesting to look at the moments when people let us down. 27. SIGIRIYA: SRI LANKA’S ANCIENT WATER GARDENS Sigiriya, a rock fortress, one of the most visited places in Sri Lanka, dating back to 447 AD. Sigiriya is one of the best-preserved examples of urban planning in Asia and one of the most important archaeological sites. In 1982 it was included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. Its garden and water systems at the foot of the rock make it a national treasure. The gardens are some of the oldest landscaped gardens in the world. They once served as the grand entrance to the grand stairway leading up to the temple. The site is a brilliant combination of symmetry and asymmetry that plays on natural and geometric shapes. Sigiriya Gardens consist of three distinct but interconnected sections: the symmetrical water gardens; the asymmetrical