Athina Kostner reviews Holes by Louis Sachar

Chapter 1

Camp Green Lake is not a lake anymore: over hundred years ago the lake dried up and the people of the little town next to the lake moved away. They left that place not only because there was no lake anymore, but also because the temperature was usually about ninety degrees. In the holes dug by the campers we can find rattlesnakes and scorpions, but the most dangerous animal at the camp are yellow-spotted lizards. If someone is bitten by one of those, there is nothing you can do anymore to survive.

Chapter 2

Now Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys that had committed a crime, instead of going to jail. They have to dig a hole every day under the hot sun to get more educated and to become good boys. Stanley Yelnats was given a choice. He could choice between jail or Camp Green Lake. He chose the camp because he had never been to a camp before, because his family was poor.

Chapter 3

Stanley rode to Camp Green Lake on a bus, being the only passenger. He thought he was going to go to one of the camps where the rich children go and hoped he would find some friends. Stanley had been arrested for a crime he did not commit. Stanley and his family always seem to be at the wrong place at the wrong time and they blame their bad luck on Stanley’s no-good-dirty-rotten- pig-stealing-great-great-grandfather. This great-great-grandfather had stolen a pig from a Gypsy who put a curse on the great- great-grandfather and his descendants. Although they do not believe in curses, but they think they are very unlucky. Stanley’s father is an inventor, but because he never has any luck his inventions never work. The first Stanley Yelnats, the protagonist’s great grandfather, was robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow. If Stanley’s great grandfather had not been robbed, Stanley might be living in a mansion in California instead of in a Texas apartment that smelles of burning rubber and foot odor caused by Stanley’s father’s attempts to invent a way to recycle old sneakers. Stanley thinks it is cool that his great-grandfather was robbed by an outlaw. Kate Barlow only kissed the men she killed so she did not actually kiss Stanley’s great-grandfather because she did not kill him. Stanley arrived at Camp Green Lake, after a ride of about nine hours.

Chapter 4

The only things he saw when he left the bus were a few tents, a few buildings, and two trees by a cabin. The only plants were two trees, there were not even weeds. Stanley went into one of the buildings where he met Mr. Sir inside. Mr. Sir was eating sunflower seeds and said that they are his substitute for smoking. Mr. Sir introduced himself and commanded Stanley to always call him Mr. Sir when he talked to him. Then he tells Stanley, “You’re not in the Girl Scouts anymore.” Mr. Sir give Stanley two sets of orange jumpsuits, orange T-shirts, yellow socks, and one towel. Mr. Sir then told Stanley that one set of clothing was for working and the other was for his free time. He had to dig one hole every day, even on weekends. Every hole had to be five feet deep and five feet across. His shovel was five feet long and was to be used as a measuring stick. Breakfast was at 4:30am so that the boys could work before the sun was out and the day got hotter.

Chapter 5

There were six tents labeled A through F. The counselors slept in tent F and the campers, or juvenile delinquents, slept in the other tents. Stanley was assigned to tent D with Mr. Pendanski as his counselor. Mr. Pendanski was very friendly and showed Stanley everything. Pendanski introduced Stanley to the other campers. The campers all had real names and nicknames. Mr. Pendanski introduced Rex and Alan but their nicknames were X-Ray and Squid. X-Ray wore glasses and asked where Barf Bag was. Mr. Pendanski, who called the campers by their birth names, said that Lewis was in a hospital and would not be returning. Mr. Pendanski introduces José, Theodore, and Ricky as well. They are also known as Magnet, Armpit, and Zigzag. Zero is the last boy that Stanley meets. The boys called the counselor “mom”.

Chapter 6

Because there was no hot water Stanley had to have a cold shower. He ate a disgusting dinner, and one of the campers asked him for what reason he was at the camp. Stanley told him that he had stolen a pair of sneakers from the famous baseball player Clyde “Sweet Feet” Livingston. He didn’t tell them he was innocent. He knew nobody would believe him. When Stanley went back to his smelly cot he thought on the crime he didn’t commit. The day Stanley was arrested he had to walk home because he had missed the bus. While he was walking, a pair of shoes had fallen from a freeway overpass, and hit him on the head. Since his father was doing experiments with shoes, especially sneakers, Stanley ran home to bring them to his father. The shoes had smelled very bad. Because he was running, a police car pulled him over and took the shoes. Stanley later found out that the shoes belonged to Clyde Livingston and had been donated to a homeless shelter to raise money. Stanley was convicted of stealing the shoes and sent to Camp Green Lake.

Chapter 7

The next day Stanley had to dig his first hole and it was very hard for him. His hands hurt very much, but Mr. Pendanski told him this was good to build character. Stanley’s great-great-grandfather was from Latvia and his name was Elya Yelnats. When he was fifteen he fell in love with a fourteen year old girl: Myra Menke. Elya wanted to marry her but so did Igor Barkov, a fifty-seven year old pig farmer. Elya couldn’t offer Myra’s father a such big pig like Igor could so he visited Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian woman with only one foot. She told Elya to go to America and to forget Myra, because she was a pretty but quite stupid girl. However, Elya couldn’t stop thinking about her. So Madame Zeroni gave him a little pig and told him to carry it up the mountain every day and to let it drink from the stream with water that runs uphill. So the pig would grow from day to day and it would be bigger than Igor’s one. She also made Elya promise that after he showd the pig to Myra’s father he had to carry her, Madame Zeroni, up the mountain and sing to her. If he didn’t, then she said she will put a curse on his family. But on the day that he brang the pig to Myra’s house he realized that Myra is very stupid and that she didn’t even care who she married. Disillusioned, Elya got on a boat bound for America, forgetting his promise to Madame Zeroni. In America he learnd English and married a woman who was strong and smart. Elya and his wife had a son who they named Stanley Yelnats because they liked that Stanley is Yelnats spelled backwards. Even though they all worked so hard, they had a lot of bad luck in their lives and Elya began to believe that Madame Zeroni had cursed him.

Chapter 8

The dangerous yellow-spotted lizard have eleven yellow spots, which are hard to see on their yellow-green body. They have black very teeth, and white tongues. They live in holes, which offer them shade. They eat small animals, insects, cactus thorns and sunflower seeds.

Chapter 9

After digging his first hole, Stanley returned to the camp. Stanley bumped into a large boy who trieed to pick a fight with him. Stanley tried to avoid the fight and X-Ray and Armpit came to his rescue saying, “You don’t want to mess with the Caveman.” Stanley, Armpit, Squid, and X-Ray talked about the trouble of digging holes. Stanley has brought his box of paper to the wreck room because he wanted to write a letter to his mother. In the letter he told her he was having a good time. In the middle of writing his letter Stanley noticed that Zero was staring at his letter. Zero asked him, “Did the shoes have red X’s on the back?” Stanley responded that they did and then the two heard Armpit and Squid calling Caveman to come to dinner. Stanley realizes that his nickname was Caveman.

Chapter 10

Stanley’s second hole was even harder to dig than the first one. His whole body hurt and he was so tired because he hadn’t any sleep. While he was digging he found a fish fossil. Mr. Pendanski once told him that if he would find anything interesting he might not have to finish his hole, if the Warden likes the thing he found. When the water truck came Stanley noticed that there was always an order to the line, and he was the last one. Stanley showed the fish fossil to Mr. Pendanski but he said that the fossil was not what the Warden wanted. Stanley had to finish digging his hole.

Chapter 11

X-Ray told Stanley to give him anything else interesting that he found in his hole. X- Ray explained him that his nickname was pig latin for his real name, Rex. Stanley agreed because he wanted X-Ray to like him. Stanley wonders why everyone follows what X-Ray does. He realized that X-Ray was the smallest boy apart from Zero and that he, Stanley, was actually the largest boy.

Chapter 12

After, when Stanley finished digging his second hole he returned to camp, Mr. Pendanski talked with him and the rest of his group. Mr. Pendanski asked each boy what he wanted to do as a career, after leaving Camp Green Lake. Zero was silent at first but then he replied that he likes digging holes.

Chapter 13

In the next days, Stanley found a small gold tube with a heart engraved on it. Inside the heart are engraved the initials KB. He has told X-Ray that he would give him anything he found so that X-Ray could have the day off. Reluctantly, Stanley gave X-Ray the tube. Because it was almost the end of the day, Stanley suggested that X-Ray kept the tube until the next day so that if the Warden liked what he had found he could get the whole day off instead of just an hour. X-Ray agreed that this was a very good plan and X-Ray told Stanley to move up one place in line of the water, ahead of Zero.

Chapter 14

The next day X-Ray went to Mr. Pendanski and showed him the gold tube. Mr. Pendanski went to inform the Warden about X-Ray’s find. The Warden was a tall woman with red hair. She gave X-Ray the day off and ordered Mr. Pendanski to fill the canteens for the boys again.

Chapter 15

The warden ordered Zero to dig X-Ray’s hole and Stanley to sift through the dirt that Zero dug. She put two boys on every hole, one to dig and the other to sift. All of the boys were promised a double shower and the day off if they would find anything. Stanley wonders how the Warden knew he was called Caveman, then Zigzag told him that the Warden had installed small hidden cameras and microphones in the whole camp. Stanley realized that the Warden wanted the boys to dig in order to find something. He made a mental note of the location of the hole where he found the gold tube in.

Chapter 16

The next day the Warden followed the boys to their holes. As Stanley sifted through dirt he tries to think of what the gold tube might have been. After digging the boys returned to the Wreck room where Mr. Pendanski gave Stanley a letter. After the boys left for dinner Stanley reads the letter from his mother. She told him that she is proud of him and that their landlord was threatening to evict them because his father’s experiments with shoes made the whole apartment smell awful. Stanley saw Zero behind him and he was surprised because he thought everyone had left. He told Zero what his mother had written.

Chapter 17

The next day the boys continued to dig in the spot that the Warden believed contained the gold tube, but nobody except Stanley and X-Ray knew that that was the wrong hole. The Warden got inpatient and told Mr. Pendanski that he was giving the boys too much water. As they continued to dig Zigzag knocked Stanley in the head with a shovel, cutting a gash near his ear. Mr. Sir made him a bandage out of a sack of sunflower seeds and told him to get back to work.

Chapter 18

Later, the boys began to dig in another section of the dried up lake. Stanley had become stronger now and finished his holes faster, even before many other boys did. He returns to the camp and wrote a letter to his mother in his tent so that the other boys wouldn’t see him. Again, Zero looked over his shoulder. Zero reveals that he didn’t know how to read or write and asked Stanley to teach him.

Chapter 19

One night Stanley heard Squid crying, so the next morning Stanley asked Squid if he was okay and Squid reacts angry. Stanley didn’t talk to the other boys very much because he was afraid of making them angry. One day after Mr. Sir fills their canteens, Magnet stole his bag full of sunflower seeds. When Magnet threw the bag to Stanley, all of the seeds dropped into Stanley’s hole and spill. Mr. Sir returned to the lake and catches Stanley with the bag of seeds. Now Stanley was again in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mr. Sir asked Stanley who stole them and Stanley took the blame instead of Magnet. Then Mr. Sir took Stanley to the Warden.

Chapter 20

Mr. Sir explained that someone stole the sunflower seeds, but he didn’t think it was Stanley. The Warden asked Stanley to bring a makeup case over to her. In the case there was a lipstick case and a bottle of red nail polish. The Warden explained that the nail polish had rattlesnake venom in it. The polish is harmless when dry but toxic while wet. Stanley was afraid, but the Warden then painted the nails on her hands and slapped Mr. Sir across the face. Her wet nail polish made him shout aloud because of the pain. The Warden told Stanley, “He’s not going to die…Unfortunately for you.”

Chapter 21

The boy went back to his hole and thought of how his great-grandfather had felt after being robbed by Kissin’ Kate Barlow and then stranded in the desert. By the time Stanley’s great-grandfather was rescued he was insane. He claimed that he had “found refuge on God’s thumb.” He married a nurse from the hospital after he recovered but he never knew what he meant by “God’s thumb”. When Stanley arrived to his hole he found that Zero had dug it for him.

Chapter 22

When he was back in the tent, Stanley thanked Zero for digging his hole. Then he asked why he helped him, and Zero said that Stanley didn’t steal the sunflower seeds and he also said “You didn’t steal the sneakers.” After this, Stanley offered to teach Zero to read and they made a deal in which Zero would dig Stanley’s hole for an hour every day so that Stanley wouldn’t be as tired when he taught Zero in the evening. He began to teach Zero the alphabet and discovered that Zero wasn’t as stupid as the other boys and Mr. Pendanski thought. At night Stanley worried what X-Ray would have said when Zero dug for Stanley. Then he thought of the gold tube he found and realized it is like something he had seen in the Warden’s bathroom; it was half a lipstick container. He wondered if the initials KB could stand for Kate Barlow.

Chapter 23

Now Green Lake is described as it was one hundred and ten years ago: a beautiful lake of clear water. Miss Katherine Barlow was the teacher of the one room schoolhouse of the town and she made wonderful spiced peaches that were preserved to last a year or longer. Charles Walker, who was also called Trout, came to classes that Miss Katherine taught. Trout did not come to learn, he was from the richest family in town and he wanted to marry Miss Katherine. One day he asked Miss Katherine to go on a ride with him in his new motorized boat. Trout is used to getting his own way so he is shocked and angry when Miss Katherine refuses to go with him.

Chapter 24

Mr Sir’s face was very swollen from the Warden’s rattlesnake venom and he jells at a boy who comments at his face. The next day Stanley didn’t get any water while digging the holes.

Chapter 25

We return to the time were Green Lake was still a lake. Sam, the onion man, sold onions and remedies from town. The name of his donkey is Mary Lou who pulls his cart of onions. He rowed across the lake with his boat to arrive to his secret onion field where the water runs uphill. He meant that onions are much better than medicine. The people of the town don’t, but if neither medicine helps hey ask Sam for help. One day Miss Katherine asks Sam to fix the hole in the schoolhouse roof. If he would help her she would give him some of her spiced peaches. So he did and the two became good friends. Sam couldn’t visit school because he was black. The two met more often because they liked their conversations and Miss Katherine continues to find things for Sam to fix in the schoolhouse. When there was nothing left to fix she told Sam her heart was broken and he kissed her. Someone of the town, Hattie Parker, saw them and pointed at them whispering -God will punish you-.

Chapter 26

Still hundred years ago, the news speeded that the two kissed. At this time it was against the law for black man to kiss a white woman. The angry town came to the schoolhouse to attack Miss Katherine and her books. She ran to the sheriff for help but he was drunk and preparing to hang Sam. Miss Katherine ran to Sam and both climb into his boat. Sam was rowing very hard but Trout Walker’s motorized boat was faster. Walker crashes into them and Sa was shot and killed. After that day, not one drop of rain has ever fallen on Green Lake. Three days after Sam’s death Katherine Barlow killed the Sheriff and then applied lipstick before kissing his dead face. Then Katherine Barlow spent twenty years as a dangerous outlaw in the West, known as Kissin’ Kate Barlow.

Chapter 27

Stanely had to pay attention to his water because Mr. Sir didn’t fill Stanley’s canteen anymore. When Zero spent an hour digging Stanley’s hole the other boys mocked Stanley for having a slave. X-Ray says, ” Same old story…the while boy sits while the black boy does all the work.” Stanley continued to teach Zero, who was a fast learner. One day Zero wrote his name and told Stanley that his real name was Hector Zeroni.

Chapter 28

Kate Barlow was an outlaw for over twenty years, then she returned to Green Lake. There were two oak trees near a cabin, where she lived. After three years there, Trout Walker and his wife, the redhead Lind Miller, tied Kate up while she was sleeping. Trout had lost all his money and asked Kate where she had hidden her outlaw loot. Trout and Linda made Kate walk barefoot across the hot sand until she dies from the bite of a yellow-spotted lizard. Kate never told them where the money was hidden.

Chapter 29

At the camp it was very hot as usually. One day Stanley saw dark clouds near the mountains in the west. He heard thunder and lightning but no rain. During a flash of lightning Stanley thought one of the mountains looked like a giant fist with a thumb sticking up. He thought of how his stranded great- grandfather said he had found refuge on God’s thumb.

Chapter 30

Stanley thought about God’s thumb and wonders if Kate Barlow lived in this area and if it was actually her gold lipstick tube that he found. When Mr. Pendanski brang their bag lunches the other boys taunted Stanley about having Zero dig Stanley’s hole for him. Zigzag pushes Stanley and they started fight. The Warden came and most of the boys told her that Zero had been digging some of Stanley’s hole. Stanley explained that he was teaching Zero to read. The Warden forbade Stanley to teach Zero to read and Mr. Pendanski taunted Zero about how stupid he was. Zero got angry and said that he would not dig any more holes. When Mr. Pendanski tells him that digging holes was all he would ever be good for, Zero smashed his shovel across Mr. Pendanski’s face and ran away. The Warden told the other counselors not to care about Zero because he would have to return for water. Then she said that the other six boys still had to dig seven holes, also without Zero.

Chapter 31

Also Stanley was angry with everyone including himself. He wanted to help Zero. He hoped Zero would travel to the mountain that looks like a thumb.

Chapter 32

After a few days Zero still didn’t come back and so his cot was given to another new boy called Brian. Stanley worried about Zero and so he decided to steal the water track of Mr. Sir. He didn’t know how to drive it but he races away in few seconds. Soon he drove into a hole. He got out and ran away.

Chapter 33

No one followed him as he ran away. While he ran he saw a lot of holes and at the inside of them many yellow-spotted lizards. He ran away from the lizards and later found one sunflower seed in a burlap bag.

Chapter 34

He walked towards the thumb mountain. Suddenly he saw something. It was a part of a boat named Mary Lou and under it he found Zero.

Chapter 35

Zero was very thirsty but he didn’t want to get back to the camp. He had still the shovel with him. He had found many jars of a muddy looking liquid that he called sploosh. Stanley didn’t want to drink it because he realized that it was probably at least 100 years old, but he was so thirsty that he did. It tasted like peaches. After Zero had a bad stomachache.

Chapter 36

Stanley and Zero wanted to go to God’s thumb. Stanley spelled word for Zero to keep him occupied, because his stomachache was terrible. They climbed up towards the thumb. At one point Zero used the shovel to help Stanley up part of a cliff. This caused Zero, who was already weak and sick, to get big cuts in his hands.

Chapter 37

The two continue to walk uphill but Zero threw up along the way.

Chapter 38

Stanley carried Zero up the mountain. The smell in the air is strange, it is bitter. On the top of the mountain there was mud on the ground. Stanley realized that mud meant there was water nearby and this renewed his strength. He dug an onion out of the mud and he and Zero both ate half of it.

Chapter 39

Stanley was in the middle of a giant meadow. Zero was still very sick but he told Stanley that once it was he, Zero, who stole Clyde Livingston’s shoes from the homeless shelter. He apologized to Stanley and Stanley sang Zero the song that Madame Zeroni taught his great-great- grandfather.

Chapter 40

We turn back to hundred and ten years ago when Sam was selling onions. A woman bought an onion that saved her daughter. Now Stanley and Zero spent two days up there eating onions.

Chapter 41

Zero told Stanley he was homeless. He often went to the homeless shelter that Clyde Livingston’s shoes were in. He took the shoes because he thought it was better to steal a pair of old shoes than to steal a pair of new shoes. He couldn’t read the sign on the shoe. Zero was wearing them when people discovered they were stolen. Everyone was so upset about the stolen shoes that Zero ran outside and put the shoes on top of a car. The next day Zero was arrested when he stole a new pair of shoes.

Chapter 42

The two made a hole for the water with a shovel. Stanley realized that he was happier than he has ever been before. He realized he was happy he got arrested because he had a new friend and liked himself as well. Stanley thought about secretly returning to the camp and digging up the treasure that may be in the hole where he once found the lipstick container.

Chapter 43

They plan to return to the camp and to dig up the treasure. While they waited Zero told Stanley more about him and his life. He remembered his mother singing him the same song that Stanley sang, only with different words. One day Zero’s mother left him in a park and told him to wait for her. He waited for a month, but she never returned. As they returned to Camp Green Lake, Zero steered them in the right direction after Stanley takes a wrong turn. They reached camp and hid near the hole that Stanley found the lipstick tube in.

Chapter 44

As it was dark Stanley dug in the hole and Zero sneaked into camp to get water and food. Stanley and Zero finally dug up a suitcase and just as they were preparing to leave a light shone in their faces and they found the Warden standing in front of them.

Chapter 45

The Warden shone a big flashlight on Zero, who was holding that suitcase, until she saw that there was a yellow-spotted lizard on the suitcase. Stanley realized he was standing in the lizard’s nest. The Warden, along with Mr. Pendanski and Mr. Sir, waited for the lizards to leave. The Warden talked about how once she grew up digging holes with her parents, looking for the suitcase.

Chapter 46

Stanley and Zero tried to don’t move because of the lizards. Mr. Sir told Stanley that Stanley’s lawyer had shown up the day before to say that Stanley was innocent of stealing the shoes.

Chapter 47

The lizards crawled away as the sun came out. Zero asked Stanley if his first name is his last name spelled backwards. Mr. Pendanski arrived with a woman and a man. The woman said she is Stanley’s lawyer. The Warden said that Stanley stole the suitcase that Zero was holding. The lizards scurried away and the Warden tried to take the suitcase from Zero but he says it belonged to Stanley. Zero showed everyone the other side of the suitcase where the name Stanley Yelnats was printed.

Chapter 48

Stanley’s lawyer’s name is Ms. Morengo and the man with her is the A. G., the Attorney General. Ms. Morengo told Stanley that he can leave freely. Stanley refused to leave without Hector. Ms. Morengo demanded to see Hector’s records but because Mr. Pendanski has erased them all, they couldn’t be found. Ms. Morengo took Hector and Stanley and they left.

Chapter 49

Now the narrator related how yellow-spotted lizards never appeared in Green Lake until after the lake dried up. One hundred and ten years ago people used to hunt rattlesnakes in the desert and they knew there were also lizards there. Sam gave rattlesnake hunters his onion juice to drink because lizards won’t bite people with onion blood. That’s because they didn’t bite Zero and Stanley. Back in the present day, Ms. Morengo showed Stanley and Zero the cure for foot odor that Stanley’s father has invented few days ago. It smells like peaches. Ms. Morengo told Stanley that the sneakers were stolen at 3:15 pm and that the boy of his school Derrick Dunne said that at 3:20 Stanley was still fishing his notebook from the toilet in the boy’s bathroom. This proved that Stanley didn’t steal the sneakers. Zero then said that he was the one to steal them. For the first time in over 100 years, it rained at Camp Green Lake.

Chapter 50

Stanley’s father invented his never working cure for foot odor the day after the great-great-grandson of Elya Yelnats carried the great-great-great-grandson of Madame Zeroni up the mountain. Camp Green Lake was closed. The camp would soon be a Girl Scout camp. The suitcase contained some jewels and many valuable deeds and stocks. Stanley and Hector each received almost a million dollars from these finds. Stanley bought his family a house and Hector hires a private investigator to find his mother again. The narrator says that although the reader is sure to have more questions, a scene at the Yelnat’s house will best explain Stanley and Hector’s situation. Stanley and Hector watched a commercial in which Clyde Livingston advertises sploosh, Stanley’s father’s cure for foot odor. Clyde Livingston was at Stanley’s house in person, watching the commercial as well. Hector sat with a woman who looked just like him. She sang him the same song that Madame Zeroni taught Elya Yelnats.

Louis Sachar

Louis Sachar was born on 20 March 1954 in East Meadow, New York. In 1976, he went to the University of California, where he studied economics. During university he started to write children’s books. After graduation he worked in a sweater warehouse in Connecticut and wrote at night. After he was fired from that job he moved on to law school. In his first week of study, Sideways Stories from Wayside was published. After completing his studies in 1980 he became a part-time lawyer but was compelled to concentrate on his writing full-time.

Now he lives in Austin, Texas, where he writes and plays quite a lot of bridge. His novel Holes has sold over 8 million copies worldwide and has been made into a movie of the same name by Disney. Louis is the recipient of many of the world’s most prestigious book prizes, including the National Book Award and the Newbery Award. Holes was also selected as the first Liverpool City Read title and won the Sheffield Book Award in the UK.

My opinion

I enjoyed reading this book very much and I would recommend it to all my friends, because it’s one of the books I really liked to read. This book tells a beautiful story about friendship and magic, which doesn’t start very great, but ends very nice and lucky. Also the movie is very famous and certainly beautiful.

© Athina Kostner

 

Chiara Videsott: “The absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian” by Sherman Alexie

 

 

The black eye of the Month club

Junior was a fourteen-year-old Spokane Indian, who lived on the Reservation with his family and was born “with water on the brain”, so he had to have a surgery when he was six months old. Due to this problem, he had suffered from other health problems: he had had ten teeth more than normal, but they were pulled out; his eyesight was poor, so he had to wear glasses; he had seizures and also stutter and lips. For all these reasons, he was considered a retard and retards got beaten up, so Junior belonged to the Black-Eye-of-the-Month Club. The only way to be safe was to stay at home to read and draw cartoons. Drawing made him feel important, it was also the only way he could maybe become rich and escape the reservation.

 

Why chicken means so much to me

There was one thing that his cartoons couldn’t do: alleviate his family’s poverty. His family often missed a meal, but Junior always hoped that, sooner or later, his parents would come through the door with a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken. But hunger was not the worst thing of being poor, because the worst thing was not being able to help those he loved. His best friend Oscar, the family’s dog, got sick and for Junior he was better than any human he had known. To the question, if it was possible to carry him to the vet, his mum said, that they couldn’t afford to spend money. He wanted to hate his parents for this reason, but he also knew that he couldn’t blame them, because they had always been poor. He was sure, that if someone had paid attention to their dreams, his mum would have gone to college, while his father would have become a musician: but the reservation Indians didn’t allow them to make their dreams come true.

Junior had to say goodbye to Oscar, before his dad would shoot him, in fact a bullet only cost about two cents and everybody could afford that.

 

Revenge is my middle name

After Oscar had died, Junior wanted to crawl into a hole and disappear forever. Rowdy, his best human friend, talked him out. He spent most of his time with Junior, because his father was often drunk and punched him and his mother, but Rowdy never tried to hide his wounds. Also Junior’s parents were drunkards, but they were never mean and hit him. One night, there was a party called powwow and Rowdy wanted to go there. Junior not, he was afraid someone would pick him for being a retard, but at the end Rowdy convinced him to go. During the party, Rowdy bumped his face against a window and Junior began to laugh; for this reason Rowdy got mad and almost kicked him. Rowdy began to smash windows, dent doors and knock off mirrors: Junior, who was scared of his vandalism, ran away. But he ran into one of the cruelest triplets of the world and they punched him. When Rowdy found this out, he wanted to revenge on them and cut off their braids: this was the worst thing you could do to an Indian guy.

On the other side, Rowdy was not only good for revenge, but he loved comic books like Junior. Almost every day they met to read these comics and to make him laugh Junior drew many of them. They told each other everything, they were inseparable. 

Because Geometry is not a country somewhere near France

On the first day of high school, Junior was happy, but he was especially excited about his first geometry class. His sister was the opposite: after high school she didn’t go to college, she didn’t do anything. She wasn’t excited about life, like Junior. Even if she was beautiful, strong and funny, she spent her days alone in a basement.

The geometry teacher, Mr. P, was a ‘weird-looking dude’, who sometimes fell asleep during the lessons or even forgot to come to school. He passed out the books and on Junior’s book there was written: This book belonged to Agnes Adams, Junior’s mother. In that moment he realized, that the book was at least thirty years older than him and became horrified. Instinctively, he threw the book in Mr.P’s face.

HOPE AGAINST HOPE

After he had smashed Mr.P in the face, he was suspended and his family was very disappointed in him. During his suspension, Mr.P came to visit him. At first, he asked the reason for throwing a book on him, but then he started to talk about Mary Runs Away, Junior’s sister. He said that she wanted to be a writer, but then something happened to her and she just stopped writing. Mr.P wanted something better for Junior, in fact the only thing that the reservation children were being taught was how to give up. All the rez people had given up, because they didn’t have hope. Mr. P didn’t want him to give up, so he told him, he had to leave the reservation and then he would find hope.

Go means go

After Mr.P had left, Junior thought for a long time about his life and when his parents got back home from work, he told them he wanted to change school. His parents suggested some schools, but he wanted to go to Reardan, located in a rich and white town exactly twenty-miles away from the rez. This was one of the best small schools in the state. They agreed very quickly, because they had always wanted a better to leave the rez.

Rowdy sings the blues

The day after he had decided to transfer, he wanted to tell Rowdy his plans. He knew that his comrade would get mad, in fact at first Rowdy didn’t take him seriously. Junior wanted Rowdy to come with him, but the latter hated that town. The reservation school had always lost the baseball games against Reardan and this made Rowdy furious.

When Junior it made clear that he was not joking, Rowdy began to cry and blinded by rage, he punched him in the face. At this moment, Junior realized that his best friend had become his worst enemy.

How to fight monsters

On the first day, Junior’s dad drove him to school. He gave him some money and they greeted each other. When Junior arrived, nobody was there. After a while, the white kids finally came and they just stared at him. There was also another Indian in town: the Reardan’s mascot. Junior entered the school and made his way to the front office. Then he got assigned to Mr.Grant for homeroom. He sat down and a girl named Penelope asked him his name. The teacher called him with his ‘name name’: Arnold Spirit. Penelope became angry, because Junior had introduced himself as Junior and he hadn’t told her his full name. Most of the white boys ignored him, but the big jocks paid special attention to him, they called him names. One day, after Roger had told him a racist joke, Junior punched him in the face. Roger felt insulted and all his friends were shocked. In accordance with the Spokane Indian rules he had acted correctly.

Grandmother gives me some advice

That day, Junior went home completely confused. Since he had punched Roger in the face, he expected revenge, like every Indian would have done, if he had been punched. Roger, however, walked just away. Junior wished Rowdy would still be his friend, so he could have sent him after Roger. Because his parents weren’t at home, Junior went to his grandmother. He told her what had happened that school day and after a while of thinking, she said that he had earned his respect after he punched him. Junior thought, that this idea was crazy.

The next day, his father didn’t have enough gas, so he had to go to school on foot. Fortunately Eugene, dad’s best friend, was heading to Spokane, so he gave Junior a ride to school. He arrived at school and he saw Roger walking out of the front door. Junior was prepared to get a fight, but instead Roger talked to him with respect and he was nice. Junior thought that his grandma was right. After this, he felt better and walked into the school. He greeted Penelope, who at first ignored him and then made fun of him. At this point he realized that he might have impressed the king, but the queen still hated him.

Tears of a clown

Junior remembered that he had fallen in love with an Indian girl, named Dawn, when he was twelve. She was the best traditional powwow dancer on the reservation, but she ignored him and mostly made fun of him. He knew that he was one of those guys who fell in love with the unreachable. One night, when Rowdy slept in Junior’s house, Junior made a full confession. He told him about his feelings for Dawn and Rowdy responded him, that he was just stupid, because she would never return his love. These words made Junior cry. Rowdy told him to stop crying and promised him to tell nobody that he had cried for a girl.

Halloweeen

On Halloween, Junior went to school dressed as a homeless dude; also Penelope went dressed as a homeless woman. She wore these ‘clothes’ to protest the treatment of homeless people in that country and she was going to ask spare change, that she would give all to the homeless. Because he wanted to impress her too, he told her that he was wearing these clothes to protest the treatment of homeless Native Americans and he added that he was also going to ask spare change instead of candies. They decided to pool the money and send it together. So that night, Junior went out trick-or-treating and plenty of people gave him spare change. But when he was walking home, three guys dressed as Frankenstein shoved him to the ground and stole the money from him. The day after, when he went to school, he told Penelope what had happened to him and she answered that she would still put both their names on the donation. After that moment, Junior hoped that they would become closer, but nothing changed. He understood that he had to change everything about himself, to make her fall in love with him.

 

Slouching toward thanksgiving

The white kids didn’t talk to him, he was always alone, but during that time in Reardan he had learned that he was smarter than most of those white kids. One day, when the geology teacher was talking about petrified wood, Junior dared to correct him.

The teacher couldn’t believe that an Indian could correct him and when the class genius, Gordy, confirmed that Junior was telling the truth, the teacher became dangerously angry.

One day, when he got home, Junior found his mother crying. Junior’s sister had married a flathead Indian, whom she had met at the casino and had moved to Montana. His parents were devastated, but Junior admired her courage, he was happy, that her spirit hadn’t been killed and that she was trying to live out her dream. Junior felt inspired by his sister, so the next day he approached Gordy and asked him to be his friend. And they became friends, but not like Rowdy and him. Gordy was one weird dude, but he was the smartest person Junior had ever known. Both were always lonely before they became friends. They studied together: Gordy did not only tutor and challenge him, but he made him realize that hard work was joyous.

My sister sends me an E-mail

Shortly for Thanksgiving, Junior received an email from his sister. She wrote that she had ridden a horse for the first time in her life and that she was looking for a job.

Mary wrote also that the people there were nice, Indians as well as whites. She spent her honeymoon together with her husband in a great hotel on Flathead Lake. Their suite was wonderful and on the room service menu, there was Indian fry bread. It was almost as good as grandma’s. She concluded with the sentence, that that honeymoon was a dream come true and that she loved her life, her husband and Montana.

Thanksgiving

It was a snowless Thanksgiving, although it was a feast. Junior’s mother made a lot to eat, like turkey, many vegetables and pumpkin pie. But he couldn’t understand why Indians and Pilgrims had celebrated the first Thanksgiving together and then, a few years later, the Pilgrims were shooting Indians. His father told him, Indians should be happy they didn’t kill them all. It was a good day, but Junior missed Rowdy. For the last ten years, Rowdy had always come over to his house. So he drew a cartoon of them like they used to be, walked over to Rowdy’s house and Rowdy’s father opened. The latter answered that Rowdy wasn’t at home, so he gave the cartoon to Rowdy’s father, who promised to give it to his son. Junior was going home, when he saw Rowdy through the window, who was holding his cartoon. He could see his sadness in his face. He realized, that Rowdy hadn’t torn up his cartoon .which meant that Rowdy still respected his cartoon. And so maybe he still respected him a little bit.

Hunger Pains

The lesson on the Civil War was so boring, so Junior went to the bathroom. From the other side of the wall he heard a weird noise. It was the girls’ bathroom and someone was throwing up there.

So he knocked on the door and the girl inside told him to go away. He walked away, but something pulled him back and so he waited. After a while, this girl came out: it was Penelope. She told him, that she was bulimic, but only when she was throwing up. Junior encouraged her, not to give up. At this point she started crying, she felt lonely, even if everybody thought she had a perfect life, just because she was beautiful. Over the next few weeks, they became friends with a potential. Nobody had ever thought Penelope would choose him as new friend, also her father, a racist, didn’t want them to be friends. Junior didn’t know what he really meant to her, but they enjoyed being together. Thanks to Penelope, he became popular: also other girls defined him cute, the other boys decided that he was a major student and even the teachers paid more attention to him. One day, Penelope told Junior, that she wanted to leave Readan, she wanted to become an architect, so she could build something and be remembered. They shared the same dream; both wanted to fly.

Rowdy gives me advice about love

Junior went to watch Penelope play volleyball. He was enchanted by her beauty and he wanted to know what do to with his feeling, so he went to the computer lab and wrote Rowdy an email, who had had the same address for five years. After a short time Rowdy wrote back, that he was sick of Indian guys who treated white women like bowling trophies and added Junior should get a life. Because this wasn’t what Junior hoped to hear, he decided to ask also Gordy’s opinion about that. Gordy answered, that he would go to make some research. He came back with an article and concluded that the attraction for Penelope meant he was racist as everybody else. In this way, Gordy was as tough as Rowdy.

Dance, dance, dance

Traveling between Reardan and the reservation made him feel like a stranger, because he was ‘half Indian in one place and half white in the other’. Nobody knew about Junior’s poverty in Reardan, but he knew it would be impossible to hide it forever. In December, he took Penelope to the Winter Formal. Because he had no money for gas, he told her to meet at the gym for dance. He put on his father polyester suit and Penelope liked him a lot. They had a great time dancing together and after that, Roger and some other dude invited him to go out for breakfast. Penelope was ecstatic about this idea, but Junior was worried because he had just five dollars. He ordered many things; he figured it was his last meal before his execution. Then he went to the bathroom, and after a short time, Roger went too. As an excuse, Junior told him, that he had forgotten his pocket with the money at home, so he gave him forty dollars. When they were about to go home, Penelope asked Junior if he was poor; he couldn’t lie to her anymore and so he told her the truth. She didn’t become mad and Roger, who was a little racist, but also a generous person, drove him home that night and many other nights, too. Junior concluded the day with the thought that if you let people into your life, they can be pretty damn amazing.

Don’t trust your computer

One day at school, Junior was missing Rowdy really much, so he went to the computer lab, took a photo of his face and sent it to him. Rowdy sent a photo of his bare behind. That made him laugh, but at the same time depressed. Also Gordy saw the picture and asked why Rowdy hated him.

Junior told him, that he hated him, because he had left the rez and he tried to imagine the three of them together: maybe Rowdy would beat Gordy up or they would become a superhero trio. Junior told him also, that many called him ‘apple’, because he was red on the outside and white on the inside. Gordy commented that ‘life is a constant struggle between being an individual and being a member of the community’. He added that weird people would still get banished, like he and Junior. They had now a tribe of two.

My sister sends me a letter

One day, Junior received a letter from his sister. She wrote she was still looking for a job, because they kept telling her she didn’t have enough experience. She had a lot of free time, so in the meantime she had started to write her life story and was going to call it: ‘How to run away from your house and find your home’. She wrote also, that she loved and missed everybody, and that she and her husband had moved into a new house.

Reindeer games

Junior’s dad encouraged him to try out the Reardan basketball team. There were forty boys, but only about sixteen would be cut. The first drill was a marathon and thirty-six of them finished. Immediately afterwards they had a second drill: one-on-one. Junior had to play against Roger, one of the best players. The Coach was very happy with his performance and so he could make the team. The first game was against Wellpinit, Junior’s old school. As he got off the bus, he could hear the crowd making fun of him and somebody in the crowd threw a sphere at him and so he was bleeding. Eugene stitched him up, so he could play in the third quarter. During the game, Rowdy smashed him with an elbow and knocked him unconscious. For this reason, they brought him to hospital. At night, the Coach visited him and told him that they had lost the match. He stayed with him awake all night, telling each other stories.

 

And a partridge in a pear tree

Junior’s family didn’t have money for presents, so his dad took the little money they did have and ran away to get drunk. He left on Christmas Eve and came back on January 2. After he came back home, he apologized for Christmas and Junior answered that it was okay, although it wasn’t. His dad told him, he should look in his boot and Junior found a five dollar note. He knew that dad must have really wanted to spend the last five dollars, but had saved them for Junior. It was a beautiful and ugly thing together and he kissed his father, who in the meantime had fallen asleep.

Red versus white

By staying in Reardan Junior had learned that there were plenty of white kids ignored by their parents and that people in Reardan tended to be strangers to each other; while on the rez everybody knew everybody. The best thing in Wellpinit, the rez, was his grandmother, who was also the most amazing person in the world, because she was tolerant. But one day, she was walking home from a mini powwow, when she was killed by a drunk driver. She died during the emergency surgery, but before dying she told the surgeons to forgive the murderer. The latter was taken to jail and after he got out, he moved and nobody ever saw him again. Junior’s grandma had never tasted alcohol, because she wanted to touch the world with all of her senses intact. 

Wake

They held Grandma’s wake three days later and almost two thousand Indians came to say good-bye. Junior was happy, that they let him grieve in peace, even if he had left the rez school. The ceremony took place on the football field and Mary couldn’t attend. About ten hours into the wake, a white guy stepped forward holding a big suitcase. He said, he loved the Indian people and that he collected Indian Art. In his suitcase, he had a beautiful powwow dance outfit. An Indian had sold this to him and had employed an anthropologist to determine the owner and after some researches, he said that it once belonged to Grandmother Spirit. She loved to go to powwow, but she never danced so she never owned a dance outfit. Consequently he packed the outfit back into the suitcase, hurried over to his car and sped away. Two thousand Indians laughed at the same time.

Valentine heart

A few days after Valentine’s Day, Eugene was shot by one of his good friends, Bobby. They were fighting for the last drink in a bottle of wine. A few weeks later, Bobby hung himself in jail. To get over the pain, Junior’s father went drinking, while his mother went to church every day. In a short time, they had lost their grandmother and Eugene. Junior wanted to find out everything about the word ‘grief’ and Gordy showed him a book written by Euripides, who knew the answer. In one of his plays, Medea said: ‘What greater grief than the loss of one’s native land?’ At this point, Junior realized that this had happend to the Indians, they had lost everything.

Then, after his fifteenth or twentieth missed school, he returned to Reardan. The social studies teacher mocked him for all the absences. Junior was too broken to stand up to her, but it was Gordy who defended him. He stood up to the teacher and inspired the others. As a consequence the classmates stood up one by one and walked out of the room. Before this event, Junior used to think that the world was divided by race, skin color or culture, but now he thought it was only divided into two groups: the people who are assholes and those who are not. This gave him a little bit of joy, so he made a list of the people, musicians, foods, books and basketball players who had given him the most joy in his life.

In like a lion

Junior had never guessed he would become a good basketball player, but he became one of the best players on the basketball team. He guessed it came down to the power of expectations. After they lost the first game to Wellpinit, they won twelve in a row. Then they had the rematch with Wellpinit, but this time at home. Wellpinit was the number one-ranked small school in the state, just because of Rowdy. Before the match, Junior got interviewed by the local news. The coach wanted him to guard Rowdy, although Junior thought he couldn’t do it. A few minutes after start, Junior could steal Rowdy the ball when he was about to dunk. Junior took the ball, raced across the court and scored; at the end Reardan beat them by forty points. Junior was the hero, but he was ashamed, because the Indians had nothing, while the Reardan boys had everything. He cried also because he had hurt his best friend’s heart. Wellpinit never recovered from their loss to Reardan, while Junior’s team headed into the playoffs, but there, they got beaten. It was a big upset and everybody cried. 

Rowdy and I have long and serious discussion about basketball

A few days after the basketball season had ended, Junior e-mailed Rowdy to apologize for the win. He answered back with a rebellious and insulting sentence, as always. Nevertheless Junior was happy, because it was the first time that Rowdy had talked to him since he had left the reservation and although the answer was rude, Rowdy was also a bit friendly.

Because Russian guys are not always geniuses

For Junior, the biggest difference between Indian and white people, was the amount of funerals, which you attended. Junior’s white friends could count their deaths on a hand, while he had been to 42 funerals: ninety percent of them were due to alcohol. One day, during chemistry, the guidance consulter wanted to speak in private with Junior. She told him, that his father was coming to pick him up, because his sister Mary was dead. On the way back, Junior’s father told him the reason: she and her husband had had a big party in their home in Montana and they had forgotten a soup on a hot plate. A near curtain caught the hot plate and the trailer burned down quickly. Junior’s mother was broken and she didn’t want Junior to leave her. Two days later, they buried her. During the burial, he had to get out of there and ran out of the graveyard into the woods, where he bumped into Rowdy, who was crying. Rowdy blamed Junior for her death: because he had left the rez, she did it too. Junior went back to school, where boys, girls and teachers worried for him. He was important to them. Penelope came up to him last and she was weeping. Junior felt like every planet in his solar system had exploded.

Remembering

Junior went with his parents to the cemetery and cleaned up the graves of Grandmother Spirit, Eugene, and Mary. They had a picnic and Junior’s dad played also his saxophone. His mum told him, that she was proud of him and this made Junior happy, but he missed his sister. He admired her for the courage to leave the basement. Thinking that more Spokane would die during the next year, because of booze, made him sad. He knew that he was never going to drink and that he was going to have a better life out in the white world. Junior was okay, but it also reminded him of the people who were not okay, like Rowdy. He missed him.

Talking about turtles

The school year was over and Junior enjoyed the time on the reservation, which was beautiful. The rez was surrounded by pine trees everywhere. These reminded him of Rowdy: when they were nine or ten and they decided to climb the tallest tree over by Turtle Lake. On that day, they weren’t afraid of falling. Actually, they wanted to go swimming in Turtle Lake, but since Junior was afraid and the lake was deep, they decided to climb it. Thinking about it, he couldn’t believe that they did it and he couldn’t either believe that he had survived the first year at Reardan. He missed his white friends: he wrote Penelope a couple of letters, Gordy wanted to come to the reservation and Roger had willed his basketball uniform for him. Then, one afternoon, Rowdy came to Junior’s house, with the excuse he was bored. So they decided to go to the court and play basketball. Again, Junior asked Rowdy to go with him to Reardan, but he declined. Instead he was happy for him, because he was going to follow his dreams. Junior cried a little by the thought, how much he would miss his family, his friends, the tribe and his reservation. Then, they continued to play and they didn’t keep score.

 

(c) Chiara Videsott

Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Athina Kostner’s Interpretation:

Summary

Frank was born in 1930 as the oldest son of Irish immigrants in New York. In the following years other children were born, but as the little girl Margaret died soon after the birth in 1935, his parents decided to move back to Ireland, Limerick, because of the bad economic conditions. But as they were there they soon understood that it was even worse: the relatives of his mother Angela rejected the father Malachy McCourt because of his Nordic origin and he couldn’t even prove that during the Irish civil war he fought with the republicans, so that he didn’t even get the hoped help as war veteran. The poor family lived in bad conditions, with very poor food and not even a bed for everyone. Their existence was miserable, even more as the father began to spend all their money in drinking. The family often survived just only thanks to the theft of food and heaters. Other two brothers were born before 1940. Due to the war, Frank’s father got a job in an English ordnance factory and went to England, telling the family to send money every month. But after a unique shipping, Frank and the rest of his family didn’t get any other support or information from their father. At this point Frank decided to leave school and to work instead, in order to earn money, the only money, for his family. He worked principally for the post office, were he met a fatally ill girl whom he fell in love with. But he also worked secretly for a woman who was a moneylender, where he formulated and discharged dunning and threatening letters. As he found the older lady dead in her house one day he took some money there to finally make his dream to go back to New York come true; and he did.

Comment

I think this book was beautiful from many points of view: the story, the fact that this is a real story, the way Frank McCourt wrote down his childhood with all these emotions and feelings. He is able to transmit us just only by reading it the pain he went trough and the sad moments he had to live with. I have also noticed his powerful character and his strong feelings, specially for his father and mother. His personality is very special and the fact that he never criticizes anyone makes the book so painful and dramatic. He doesn’t even ever criticise his miserable conditions or all the sad and painful moments in his life. From this book we can all learn to accept the things we have and to appreciate them more. Frank McCourt hadn’t even something to eat or to drink without making an effort, so we could all learn from this boy who never lost the hope and made his dream come true.

© Athina Kostner 2a

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Sara Ferigo’s Version:

The book “Angela’s ashes” is an autobiography of the author Frank McCourt. It began with the date of Angela and Malachy, her future husband. Their first son was Frank and after only one year, he became brother of Malachy Jr. After a few years, his mother became pregnant for the third time by the birth of Eugene and Oliver. Although, Angela and Malachy wanted to have a daughter, and after all his brothers also Margaret came on earth. She immediately became the favorite of her parents, but after only seven weeks, she died. Angela was depressed after this loss, and she didn’t pay attention to her other four kids.

Her husband had no job and the family was forced to return to Ireland, from where they moved a lot of years earlier to went to America. When they arrived in Dublin, Malachy went to the embassy to ask for money but they received it only after telling their story. The soldiers in the embassy decided to put together some money to buy tickets for them for the train to Limerick, the town in which Angela was born. The grandmother of Frank was waiting for the family at the train station and she took everybody at her home despite she didn’t know where to let them all sleep, because she didn’t have enough space for all this people in her house. Frank had to sleep with his parents and brothers in a big bed that was full of mites.

After few weeks, Angela took Oliver to the hospital because he felt bad but she returned at home without him because he died. After Oliver’s death, Malachy became more affectionate with the other kids, although he didn’t stop drinking and for this reason, Angela began to go with him when he went to take the money from the unemployment insurance so that he wouldn’t drink all the money instead of using it to buy food for the family.

The school began for Frank and his brother Malachy, but he wasn’t happy at school because some of his classmates often mocked him because of his American accent. His father had not found a job and the last twin that was alive died because of pneumonia.

After this tragedy, the family moved to another house where Michael was born, but all the economic problems the family had didn’t stop.

The year after, another kid arrived as a member of the family: Alphonsus.

After some time, Frank became old enough to celebrate his confirmation, but this day wasn’t that happy as he expected because he began to lose blood and he was taken to hospital, he had to spend a lot of time at hospital because of a terrible disease: typhus. His father was enlisted in the English army and he had to move to England, but he left his family in Ireland without any money. Because of that, Angela was forced to ask the unemployment insurance. At the age of eleven, Frank got his first job: he helped his uncle in delivering coal. This job was really hard and it provoked him a terrible conjunctivitis. After some time, he had to stop to practice this work because his uncle wasn’t able to continue because of a leg disease. So, he began to write letters for an older woman who wasn’t able anymore to write because it cost her too much effort. This work was pretty profitable and at that time he began thinking about moving back to New York. At the same time he also worked as mailman and during this job he knew his first girlfriend who died after a short time. When the older woman died while he was at her home to write a letter for one of her borrowers, he took some of her money that she kept in the house for using it to return to the US. He took also the book in which she always took note of the money that people had to give her back, so that he could throw the book in the river in order that nobody wasn’t burrow with her anymore.

At the age of sixteen, he had lost his job but he found another one: the delivery man of a factory of newspapers. Here he was able to get enough money to return to the US.

COMMENT:

I liked the book although I only read the reduced version. This story is really sad and touching because a lot of people die before reaching the age of ten.

It’s really impressive how Frank began to be a father for his brothers since he was a little kid because their father wasn’t sober for most of the time and so he wasn’t able to do his job. I also admire Frank McCourt very much because he was able to restart another life in the US, where he want after leaving Ireland.

© Sara Ferigo

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Anna Costa’s Version:

The writer and protagonist of the book is Frank McCourt. He began his memoir with the description of how his parents Angela Sheehan and Malachy McCourt met in New York City. They both really liked each other, but the problem was, that Angela became pregnant before they were married. This was a disgrace for the whole family of Angela, given they were very religious.

In this period Malachy could not find work in New York City and all the money he earned went into the pubs of New York. So Angela struggled to feed her family and was always on the dole. Her husband stopped drinking after the birth of Margaret but the baby died soon and Angela fell into a deep depression. Angela’s cousins saved the life of the family arranging the return to Ireland for them, but here the things went even worse.

Angela’s mother was not happy to see her daughter back in Ireland with her alcohol addict and irresponsible husband, and four young children but she helped them anyway. Soon Malachy continued his cycle of finding work, drinking, and losing work. Shortly, there was the next disgrace: Frank’s little twin brothers Oliver and Eugene died because of poor living conditions and the lack of nutrition.

The family had to sleep all together on one mattress that was even filled with fleas. Their house flooded so they had to move upstairs and called that room Italy, because it was warm and dry. Malachy was a good father, but in the meantime he was also a bad one: he took time with his sons and told them stories, but he still continued to drink heavily. Soon Angela gave birth to two more sons, Michael and Alphie.

After some years Frank and his brother Malachy went to school, where they had a difficult time because they were “yanks”. Even if Frank later became one of the brightest boys in school and demonstrated exceptional ability for reading and writing.

When he was ten he became ill with typhoid fever and he almost died, so he was in hospital for a long period of time.

During World War II, his father Malachy left the family to work in a British factory and wanted to send home his earnings, but he never did. So the McCourts sank even deeper into poverty, and had to rely on public aid.

When Angela became ill, Frank must take care of the family and had even to steal food and milk from outside Limerick’s richer houses. Then he turned thirteen and did different jobs and by the way he always went to school.

The McCourts had to move in with Angela’s cousin, who mistreated Frank. His mother also began sleeping with him, which made Frank angry, so he moved in with his uncle Ab, where he nearly starved.

However, Frank dreamed of returning to America, the land of his birth, and began to save money from his earnings for his ticket. One night, Mrs. Fineucne, for who he wrote collection letters in the past, died and Frank robbed all the money she owned. Thanks to that he had enough money for his fare and after a departing party he left Ireland for New York.

He took the ship, The Irish Oak and some days later he reached New York, where he started a new life.

My comment:

I think Angela’s Ashes is a beautiful book, which makes you also think about a lot of things. This book taught me, that I have to be more thankful for all the things I receive daily. We all have to appreciate more the little things in our lives, like the possibility to go to school, to have something to eat, to have a family and so many other things, which are obvious for us.

Beside these aspects, the book was very interesting and even if I just read the smaller version I loved it a lot and I would recommend to all the students in my age and also to all the older people.

(c) Anna Costa

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Evamaria Mayr’s Reading:

Angela’s Ashes, written by Frank McCourt, the story of an Irish poor childhood. In the book, the author wrote down his memory of growing up in New York and Limerick in the 1930s and 1940s.

The book begins with the with the pregnancy Frank’s sister in New York, the second of seven children. After the soon death of the much- loved baby, Frank’s Father, Malachy, started to spend his wages on drink. When Malachy felt out of work, the McCourt’s returned to Ireland, with the hope to find the expectation of a better life.

Unable to find work in Belfast or Dublin, the family moved to Angela’s hometown, Limerick.  The family is very poor, they had nothing. Living in a rat-infested tenement with only one bed for all the family and almost no food, made their life very hard.  Later in the book, Frank described the death of his twin brothers, because of cold and hunger. In the meantime Malachy continued to drink and by doing it, he spent all his earned money. So often, Frank’s mother was very depressed.

Finally, Malachy decided to move to England to find a job, to help his four sons and wife, leaving them with almost nothing in Limerick. In the first month, he sent a little money home, but then he started to spend all the money again on drinking.

At the age of ten , Frank’s health was in bad condition, so he had to stay in hospital for months.  There, he had a chance to read, anything and everything. He read a lot of Shakespeare and also a lot of other important poems and stories of the Irish history. He liked it very much to stay in hospital: he could eat how he never had eaten before, sleep in one bed and he finally he could also wear clean clothes.

Once he had left hospital, he also had left school and with just only 13 years he started to work, trying to keep his mother and brothers from starving.

However, the earned money from Frank’s job’s ,was not enough and Angela was forced to find another option to survive with her sons. So, Laman, Angela’s cousin moved in the family. In return of sexual favors from Angela, he offered them a secure place to sleep and enough food. Frank was very confused about the new situation, so often he had a lot of reasons to fight with his mother. On one side he was very disgusted, but on the other side he understood that the family had no other choice to survive.

Since years, his big dream was to move to New York City, to find a good job, but he hadn’t the necessary amount of money.

At the end of the book, Frank earned enough money to move to New York. The end of the book is the most optimistic part: in New York Frank finally would find a good job, and have a better life.

Personal Opinion: I really liked to read this book, even if I read the shorter and easier version, I could follow the story in a very detailed way. I think that it is a really dramatic story. To know that the story is based on true events, it really makes me think of how lucky I am to have the possibility to have a home, where I can eat, sleep and do what I want; to wear clean clothes every day and to go to a very good school. I can really recommend this book and I enjoyed reading it.

© Evamaria Mayr

The Notebook by Nicolas Sparks

by Evamaria Mayr

Chapter one: Miracles

The Notebook opens with an unnamed narrator asking “Who am I?” Soon the readers understand that the narrator was an 80 year old man, who lived in a type of retirement home.The man wasn’t really happy.He walked down the hall into a room, where there were two nurses . He was visiting his wife who was suffering from dementia. Soon he started to read from a notebook to her, like every day, with the hope that the miracle that had come to dominate his life would once again prevail.

Chapter two: Ghosts

The man started to narrate a story , that happened in October 1946: A young man called Noah, without a job, started to fix up an old house in New Bern. He finished 11 months later. Noah felt very lonely in New Bern- all he had was a dog called Clementine and all he did was read poems, play his guitar or think of the old happy times with his father; But sometimes he thought about his first love, Allie.

On a clear morning and a hundred miles away, the old man narrated, a 29 year old woman, called Allie, with beautiful blue eyes and blond hair wondered if she had made the right decision. The right decision to meet Noah again, after 14-years of separation, to clarify the “never forgotten things”, and to tell him about her engagement with Lon, a very successful lawyer.Lon didn’t know the real reason she had left the following morning because she had made up a good excuse. Once arrived in New Bern, Allie was still unsure about her decision to meet Noah again, until she opened her pocketbook and came to a folded- up piece of newspaper.

 

Chapter three: Reunion

Once Allie arrived at Noah’s place, the old man continued, Noah and Allie kept silent, each one lost in ones thoughts, memories and feelings. Finally, Allie broke the silence and greeted Noah. Allie admitted that she was not only engaged to be married, but that the wedding was in three weeks.

After a long talk, Noah then invited Allie to stay for a crab dinner. Allie followed Noah to the dock. While he inspected the crab cages, Allie inspected the dock and found the inscription “Noah loves Allie,” which was carved in the dock just days before she left, 14 years before.

During the Dinner Noah finally asked Allie why she had never responded to his letters, after that Allie didn’t know what to say, because she never became any letter. Then Allie understood that it was her mother who had hidden every single letter from Noah, because she didn’t want her daughter to be together with a poor boy like him.

Later Allie almost admitted, that she felt forced to come to meet Noah, after she had seen a picture of Noah´s old house in the newspaper. During the course of their conversation, Noah found out that Allie didn´t paint anymore; he was shocked because it was her passion. Noah asked to see her on the following day, and promised to show her a special place. Allie agreed to meet him. At the end of the chapter, the readers understand that Noah still loves Allie, and what happened the summer 14 years ago, was not just a summer romance for him.

Chapter four: Phone Calls

In the meantime, Lon tried to call the Hotel where Allie was staying, but he was not successful. After a few unanswered calls, Lon noticed that something was wrong. Soon he became reflective , especially because he remembered that Allie had spent a summer in the town, she was visiting. Then Lon was thinking, what Allie’s mother had told him years before about her summer romance there.

 

Chapter 5: Kayaks and Forgotten Dreams

This chapter begins whit Allie, who spent her morning with thoughts about Noah and remembered the old times from their summer together. Later, Allie was shopping in downtown and thinking about Lon. Then, Allie went in an Art shop where she bought pencils, paper and colors. She spent the rest of the morning with painting and wondering why she had ever stopped doing it. When she was ready to leave the Hotel to see Noah again the manager told her ,that Lon had called a few times, but she ignored it even though Lon tried to talk to her on the phone two minutes after she had left the hotel.

In the meantime Noah was getting ready for Allie’s arrival, he had prepared the Kayak up to the river, in front of his house.

Chapter 6: Moving Water

Noah was sitting in his chair, drinking sweat tea and listening for Allie’s car to arrive , when she finally got there . Immediately Allie wanted to see the promised surprise, so Noah explained her, that it was a mile up the river, but that they would get wet eventually, because it was about to rain. Allie didn’t care about that, so Noah brought her to the surprise.

Chapter 7: Swans and Storms

Once arrived there, Allie was embraced, hundreds of white swans surrounded the Kayak, Allie fed some of them with bread .It was very magical and beautiful. In this moment Allie realized that she still loved Noah. When they were driving back it started to rain and both got wet. Arrived at home Allie put on some dry clothes of Noah and they shared a drink in front of the fire. Later, Noah admitted to Allie that she was his first love and that he still loved her. And Allie admitted that she had never physically been with another man and that she also still loved Noah. So they spent the rest of the day and the night together.

 

Chapter 8: Courtrooms

This Chapter begins with Lon asking the judge if he could leave his job earlier, because he had to do something very important. The very important thing he had to do was driving to New Bern, so he did.

Chapter 9: An unexpected Visitor

The next morning, the old man narrated, Noah made breakfast for Allie while she slept in the living room. As soon as they had finished eating breakfast they made love again. Around noon someone knocked on the door, Noah opened the door and he stared at a beautiful woman in her early fifties, it was Allies mom Anne. Allie and Noah were shocked by her arriving. Soon Anne revealed that Lon had called her last night to ask about Noah and that he wanted to come to New Bern. Allie spoke with her mother, who handed her out all the letters from Noah as well, before leaving. Despite holding a grudge mother and daughter made peace again.

Chapter 10: Crossroads

Very confused after this, Allie was not sure if she could stay with Noah. So she decided to leave and return to her Hotel. In this chapter, readers understand that Allie loved Noah but there was still something between Allie and Lon, so she had to make a decision. As she left, she gave him a kiss and promised to return. Noah was very sad and thought that she would never come back.

Chapter 11: A letter from yesterday

When Allie was driving back to the Hotel, she started to cry. She didn’t know what do to at this point and when she got her crying under control she decided to open the last letter-it was about how much Noah loved her and how much he thought about her every day. Then Allie, with all the courage she had, went to talk to Lon, who was waiting in the Hotel for her.

 Chapter 12: Winter for two

The story ended there and the old man stopped reading. He closed the notebook, removed his glasses and wiped his eyes. Then he revealed that he had been married for 49 years and said that he would do everything for his wife, although he knew that soon she would pass away. The old man talked about poems and his experiences. Later his wife started to ask some questions:

“How does the story end and which one did she choose? Do you know these people?”

The old man smiled and answered: “By the end of the day you will know”

The old man took his wife’s hand and she asked if he had written the story and he admits he had. He was convinced that this day was a good day. His wife didn’t know who the old man was so she asked “Who are you?”. At this point readers understand the connection with the first chapter, when the narrator asks himself “Who am I”. Finally readers understand that the old man was Noah and his wife was Allie. Noah wanted to remember Allie, by reading their story every day. At the end Allie understood that the old man was Noah and for a moment she remembered everything, the miracle happened. Now the reader knows: Allie chose Noah and they got married. Noah donated the house in New Bern and transformed it in a retirement home.

The night after, Noah wanted to see Allie in her room, he knew that it was prohibited to go to Allie’s room at night, but this time he decided to break the rules. The story ends when both lied in Allie’s bed, held their hands and closed their eyes forever.

 

Nicolas Sparks:

With over 90 million copies of his books sold, Nicolas Sparks is one of the world’s most beloved storytellers. He was born in 1965 in Omaha, Nebraska. He has published eighteen novels and two non-fiction books. Several of his novels have become international bestsellers, and eleven of his romantic-drama novels have been adapted to films, like The Notebook. In 2011, he founded the Nicolas Sparks Foundation to inspire and transform student’s lives though education, curriculum development and live changing international experiences. Today the author lives in North Carolina with his wife and family.

Personal Opinion:

I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. I think that it was really romantic and dramatic. I also liked the way it was written . Sometimes I didn’t understand some words or phrases but in general is wasn’t really difficult. I also saw the film. The story is a little bit different and there are more details. Although I really recommend this book and you should read it, if you haven’t.

(c)  Evamaria Mayr

 

 

 

 

 

Roald Dahl’s MATILDA by Anna Costa

1. The Reader of Books:

In this chapter the narrator showed us the difference between different types of parents: some parents, even if their own child is the most disgusting little beasts, they still think that he is wonderful or that their child has brilliant qualities. On the other hand, there are also mothers and fathers who underrate and do not appreciate their children’s brilliant qualities and intelligence.

Matilda was an extraordinary child with notable abilities, but her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Wormwood, were so wrapped in their lives that they did not notice anything unusual about their daughter. Matilda’s brother Michael, however, was a normal boy compared with his sister. Matilda taught herself to read at age three and one year later she already hankered after books.

As soon as Matilda read her mother’s cookbook, she asked her father if he could buy her a new book. Of course he told her, he would not. Given that Matilda was alone at home almost every day, she decided to walk to the public library in the village. There, she met Mrs. Phelps, who gave her lots of books to read and she was also amazed by Matilda’s qualities. After six months she had read all the children’s books and also 14 books for adults.

Little time later, Matilda visited the library once a week and borrowed the books, so that she could read them at home, in her little room.

2. Wormwood, the Great Car Dealer:

Mr. Wormwood was a dealer in second-hand cars and he also did pretty well at it. The problem was that he earned money cheating. He sold cars with sawdust and he also drilled the mileage back with an electric drill, in order to sell all the cars. Matilda told her father already, that it was disgusting to earn money cheating, but Mr. Wormwood did not see any problems withit.

One evening, all the family was eating their supper in the living room in front of the television. Matilda asked if she could go in the dining room and read her books, while eating. Hereupon Mr. Wormwood became mad and yelled at her. Since that moment, Matilde decided that every time her father or her mother were mad to her, she would get her own back in some way. The first on her list was certainly her father.

3. The Hat and the Superglue:

The following morning, before Mr. Wormwood left for work, Matilda took her father’s hat from the cloakroom. As soon as she reached the hat, she squeezed superglue all around its inside. Her father did not notice anything and put the hat on, but when he arrived at the garage he could not get it off. Mr. Wormwood tried almost all day long to get it off, but it was useless: he even could not get it off the next day, so his wife took a pair of scissors and cut the thing off his head.

However, it was a satisfactory exercise for Matilda and thanks to this, she taught her father a lesson.

4. The Ghost:

After the Superglue episode, there was calm in the Wormwood household, but one day Matilda’s father was mad. As soon as he came home, he saw his daughter sitting on a chair while she was reading. Once he noticed this, he became even more angry, snatched the book from Matilda’s hands and began ripping the pages out of the book and throwing them into a basket.

Of course Matilda invented an appropriate punishment for her father: she borrowed her friend’s parrot Chopper for one night. She brought it in the dining room and hid him up in the chimney out of sight. That evening, while the family was having dinner, they heard strange noises from the dining room… They became scared, went into that room and kept looking around. After some time, for fear of the “ghost” they all left the dining room and went to bed.

The next afternoon Matilda returned the parrot to her friend and told him that all the family had a lovely time with the little parrot.

5. Arithmetic:

Matilda was very proud of the game she invented: in particular her father became less cocky for some days thanks to these little punishments.

The next episode came one evening, when Mr. Wormwood returned from work. He was very happy that evening, because he earned much money. At the end of the day he wanted that Michael to calculate the profit. The father told him all the amounts and given that Matilde heard them all, she calculated the sum arithmetically and gave Mr. Wormwood the exact result. But instead of praising her he yelled at her and said that she was a cheat and a liar.

6. The Platinum-Blond Man:

Like in the past, also after this episode Matilda had to invent another punishment for her father.

As she knew, Mr. Wormwood loved his hair over all: he always used “oil of violets” to cure his strong black hair. Her mother instead, used to dye her hair and utilized a very strong shampoo called “Platinum Blonde Hair-Dye Extra Strong”.

One morning Matilda got up very early and went in the bathroom, where she mixed her father’s oil with her mother’s shampoo. As soon as she did this she went to breakfast and waited until Mr. Wormwood entered in the dining-room.

After some time, Mr. Wormwood came for breakfast and once his wife saw him, she screamed loudly. He did not grasp that reaction, but then he saw himself in the mirror and noticed that his hair colour was dirty silver.

Mr. Wormwood did not understand how this could had happened, so Matilda said that he probably inverted the shampoo bottles. After this, he took instantly an appointment at the hairdresser. 

7. Miss Honey:

At age five and a half Matilda finally started with primary school. She had a very nice teacher, Miss Honey, who loved all her students and was very kind and nice. The supreme commander, Miss Trunchbull, was the opposite of her: she was a gigantic holy terror.

Miss Honey was surprised by the beginning of Matilda’s qualities, because the little girl was like a little genius: she was like an arithmetic and was already able to read fluently. She was so amazed, that she wanted to go to Miss Trunchbull and tell her about this sensation.

8. The Trunchbull:

During the break, Miss Honey headed straight for the Headmistress’s office. Normally she was terrified of Miss Trunchbull, but this time she made an exception.

Miss Honey wanted to talk with the headmistress about Matilda and about her qualities, but Miss Trunchbull did not show any interest. Instead, she said that Mr. Wormwood told her that Matilda was a beast and supposed that, the girl put a stink bomb under Miss Trunchbull’s desk in the morning.

Miss Honey tried to explain her that it was impossible that Matilda did something like that, but it was useless.

9. The parents:

Given Miss Honey did not receive any support by Miss Trunchbull, she decided to wage something by herself. She wanted to help Matilda so she borrowed some books from senior class and gave them to her, so that she would not become bored during classes.

In the evening, Miss Honey went to Mr. Wormwood’s house to have the possibility to talk with Matilda’s parents about her abilities. As soon as she arrived there, she understood everything: she recognized that Mr and Mrs Wormwood did not show any interest for their daughter and that they would never send Matilda to university and so she left the house.

10. Throwing the Hammer:

Already the first week, Matilda found a new friend called Lavender. One day, during lunch time the two met Hortensia, a tenyear-old girl who told them that they should pay attention to Miss Trunchbull. During the break she recounted them some episodes that happened after she made some jokes to the Headmistress. The worst punishment for the students was, when Miss Trunchbull put them in “The Chokey”. That was a very small room with cement walls full of broken glass and spikey nails so that nobody could lean on the walls. Inside the students could neither move because they would hurt if they did.

Given that Miss Trunchbull threw the hammer at the Olympics, she was very strong and used to throw the children like the hammer. The same thing happened this day: Miss Trunchbull saw a girl with two long braids. The problem was, that she detested braids and so she pulled the girl by her hair and threw her as far as she could, in the air.

11. Bruce Bogtrotter and the Cake:

The students got another example of how dangerous the Headmistress could be on the next day: all the children had to gather in Assembly Hall, where they saw Miss Trunchbull on the platform. After some minutes, she selected Bruce Bogtrotter and called him out. She accused him, for having eaten one slice of her chocolate cake, which was made especially for herself. Given he stole her cake, she punished him in this way: he had to eat an entire gigantic chocolate cake, and could not leave the room before he ate the entire cake.

Nobody expected that he would eat all the cake, without becoming ill, at least Miss Trunchbull, but at the end he did it.

12. Lavender:

In the first school week, Miss Honey said to the whole class, that Miss Trunchbull would make a lesson in their class every Thursday afternoon.

For this reason, the children should prepare everything for that day: they had to be clean, not argue with the Headmistress, never answer back and so on. Another important thing, they should remember was to study spelling and the two-times table. In addition one student, Lavender, would have to bring a jug of water and a glass into the classroom before she entered.

That evening, Lavender went to her pond and caught a newt; the next day she went into the class and put the newt in the Headmistress jug…

13. The Weekly Test:

At two o’ clock Miss Trunchbull entered the class and began immediately to control if the students’ hands were clean. Nigel Hicks hands were dirty, and so she made him stand in the corner on one leg with his face on the wall. She asked him also to spell a word and fortunately he spelled it correctly.

Later she picked out another student, called Rupert and asked him what two sevens was; he did not answer in the correct way, and so she grabbed him from his hair and swung him in the air. Later she left him on the floor and let him sit on his chair.

The next one was Eric Ink: he asked her a strange question and spelled a word in the false way… so she grabbed him from his ears and lifted him in the air.

After these episodes Miss Trunchbull said, that she detested that children because they could not even read and so Matilda stood up and told her that she was a very good reader. But the Headmistress was not glad about that, cause she hated clever kids and told Matilda that she would keep an eye on her…

14. The First Miracle:

The lesson went on, and as soon as Miss Trunchbull wanted to put some water in her glass she let out a yell because a newt fell into it. In a little while she became mad as hell and yelled at Matilda, accusing her for this joke. Matilda tried to convince the Headmistress, that it was not her plan, but it was useless.

So Matilda became as angry as she ever was before, and suddenly she felt a strange power in her eyes, while she stared at the glass on the desk. Her only thought was: “Tip it over!” and after some time, without even touching it, the glass fell and the water splashed on Miss Trunchbull.

The Headmistress became even angrier and wanted to accuse Matilda again, but everybody screamed that it was impossible, that she did this without touching anything and so Trunchbull left the class.

15. The Second Miracle:

Matilda could not yet believe what happened before and when she was alone with Miss Honey, she decided to tell her what happened. At the beginning also Miss Honey did not believe this story, but then Matilda gave another try and the glass toppled again. The two could not believe it and so they decided to examine better what happened, at Miss Honey’s cottage.

16. Miss Honey’s Cottage:

After school Matilda and Miss Honey went at Miss Honey’s cottage, to talk a bit about what had happened in class…

Miss Honey’s cottage was at the other side of the village, and it was a very small house, like those in the fairy tales. She did not have many things inside, there was no water and she had only few things for lunch and dinner: in fact Miss Honey was very poor.

Miss Honey and Matilda were wondering what the little girl would be able to do with this power and of course they wanted to find it out.

17. Miss Honey’s Story:

After some cups of tea Matilda asked Miss Honey if she was the only one, who didn’t receive much money, and she answered that she was. But it was fine for her, because she did not need more than what she had available.

After a while Miss Honey told Matilda a story, her story:

“Miss Honey was twenty-three years old and her mother died when she was two. Her father, a busy doctor, had to have someone to look after his daughter. He invited her aunt, her mother’s sister. Miss Honey hated this woman since the beginning, she was terrible with her and in front of the father she was different.

When Miss Honey was five, her father died very suddenly and so she was left all alone with her terrible aunt. Her aunt was horrible to her, and Miss Honey choked by her. She had to do everything for her aunt in the house and if she did not, she would be punished.

Now that Miss Honey was older, she found a house where she could live but she had to pay back everything to her aunt, who lived in her father’s house. That was the reason why she was so poor.

Even if it was not fair, that the aunt owned the house, Miss Honey could not do anything, because the woman was too powerful. In fact, her aunt was MISS TRUNCHBULL.”

18. The Names:

As soon as Matilda guessed, that Miss Trunchbull was her aunt she was shocked and after that she could not even think clearly. So Miss Honey decided to accompany her back home.

Before Matilda entered her home she wanted to know how Miss Trunchbull called her father, and the teacher told her that she called him Magnus. Her father however, called her Agatha and all together called Miss Honey Jenny…

19. The Practice:

Matilda found the house empty, when she got back home and so she went straight to her room. There she practiced to move a cigar with her eyes, like she did with the water glass. In contrast to the last try, this time she tried also to lift it and to make it move in the air. After some attempts she succeeded and became so tired that she fell asleep.

20. The Third Miracle:

The next day was Thursday, and Miss Trunchbull would again have a lesson. After lunch, she entered the class and began to ask the three-times table backwards. Given Wilfred did not recite it in the right order, she picked him up with a Karate-move and held him in the air.

Suddenly a chalk began to write something on the blackboard, even if nobody touched it; everybody stared at it with gigantic eyes. Nobody knew that Matilda caused it and so she wrote:

“Agatha, this is Magnus

This is Magnus.

It is Magnus

And you’d better believe it.

Agatha, give my Jenny back her house.

Give my Jenny her wages

Give my Jenny the house

Then get out of here.

If you don’t I will come and get you

I will come and get you like you got me.

I am watching you Agatha.”

The chalk stopped writing and fell on the floor and also Miss Trunchbull had fallen down. They called the school-doctor and took her to the medical’s practice.

After this all the students left the room and Miss Honey thanked Matilda for what she did.

21. A New Home:

The next morning, Mr Trilby, the Deputy Head, telephoned Miss Trunchbull but she did not answer the phone. So he went to her house, but it was empty, without any clothes or shoes inside… Miss Trunchbull was definitely gone.

Miss Honey finally moved in her father’s house and inherited also his money. Since that day, she lived in that house and Matilda went visiting her every day. Something strange also happened to her: after what she did with the chalk she lost her power, to move things with her eyes.

Later in the evening, Matilda went back home, where she saw something terrible: her parents were packing, because they wanted to leave the country and move to Spain. The little girl did not want to leave, so she fetched Miss Honey to help her. She wanted to live with Miss Honey, instead of leaving with her family, because of their problems with the law. Given her family did not care about her, they let her stay with Miss Honey.

Since that, Matilda kept on living with Miss Honey and they were never as happy as then.

 

My comment:

At the beginning I thought, that this was just a children’s book, but it is also a good book for adults and I liked it anyway. It is a very nice book and understanding was not too difficult.

I liked the story very much, because it was exciting and fascinating.

Roald Dahl:

Roald Dahl was born in 1916, in South Wales. In 1953, he published the story collection Someone Like You and married an actress. In 1961 he published the popular book James and the Giant Peach and in 1964, he released another highly successful work, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Over his long writing career, Dahl wrote 19 children’s books. He died on November 23, 1990, in Oxford, England.

(c) Anna Costa

 

 

La Ricchezza del nostro territorio, classe 1a, Scienze

La Classe 1a ha realizzato un lavoro notevole all’interno del progetto: “La ricchezza del nostro territorio” con l’insegnante di scienze, Prof.ssa Martina Bodner, in italiano e in tedesco.

La Classe 1a ha realizzato un lavoro notevole all’interno del progetto: “La ricchezza del nostro territorio” con l’insegnante di scienze, Prof.ssa Martina Bodner.

ENERGIA SOLARE

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

CHE COSA E’ L’ENERGIA SOLARE:

L’energia solare è quella fonte rinnovabile che trasforma la luce del sole in energia, attraverso sistemi tecnologici come, ad esempio, le cellule fotovoltaiche. A differenza di altre forme di energia come il carbone, l’energia solare non produce inquinamento e non ha nessun impatto negativo sull’ambiente.

L’energia solare può essere trasformata in energia elettrica mediane due tipi di centrale, che utilizzano rispettivamente la conversione termodinamica e la conversione fotovoltaica.

Una centrale termodinamica si trova in Germania e la captazione dell’energia solare avviene mediante un sistema di grandi specchi orientabili, che riflettono i raggi solari concentrandoli su una caldaia posta alla sommità di una torre. Nella caldaia, per effetto del calore solare si genera vapore che viene inviato alla turbina. Nella centrale fotovoltaica la conversione viene realizzata mediante le celle fotovoltaiche, che sono costruite da particolari semiconduttori, come il silicio, i quali hanno la proprietà di generare corrente elettrica quando vengono colpiti dalla radiazione solare.

COME VIENE USATA IN ITALIA:                             

L’attuale situazione del mercato fotovoltaico in Italia è caratterizzata dalla presenza di più di 520.000 impianti sparsi su tutto il territorio nazionale, con una particolare concentrazione sulle regioni di Lombardia, Emilia Romagna e Triveneto.

I PANNELLI:

Il pannello solare serve a catturare l’energia che giunge dal Sole sulla Terra e ad utilizzarla per produrre acqua calda ad una temperatura che può raggiungere anche 60 -70°C.

L’insolazione dipende dalla nuvolosità e dall’orientamento del pannello rispetto al sole e un pannello riceve più energia solare quando è orientato direttamente verso il sole. Si potrebbe pensare alla possibilità di dotare i pannelli di sistemi ad inseguimento della traiettoria apparente del sole ma, sebbene sia tecnicamente possibile, non è una soluzione valida dal punto di vista economico.

Ci sono anche dei fattori negativi:

Uno dei fattori negativi è la discontinuità dovuta all’alternanza del giorno e della notte, al ciclo delle stagioni e alla variazione delle condizioni meteorologiche. Un altro è la bassa densità energetica che rende necessario l’impiego di ampie superfici di raccolta con elevati costi di impianto.

ENERGIA SOLARE IN TRENTINO:

Anche TrentinoSolare ha scelto di schierarsi con l’ambiente proponendosi sul mercato dell’energia con la tecnologia degli impianti fotovoltaici, che costituiscono attualmente l’unico strumento di sfruttamento dell’energia solare.

ENERGIA SOLARE NEL MAROCCO

Il re del Marocco, Mohamed IV, inaugura oggi il più grande impianto solare termodinamico del mondo. La mega centrale Noor 1 è stata costruita nel deserto del Sahara, vicino alla città di Ouarzazate. Secondo i dati del Ministero dell’Energia marocchino, il costo del progetto sarebbe di 652 milioni di dollari, e la capacità dell’impianto 160 megawatt.

SOLARENERGIE

 

WAS IST SONNENENERGIE?

Solarenergie, auch Sonnenenergie genannt, bezeichnet die Energie der Sonnenstrahlung, die vom Menschen technisch genutzt werden kann. Die Nutzung kann dabei in Form von elektrischem Strom, als Wärme, aber auch als chemische Energie erfolgen. Die Solarenergie kann in elektrische Energie oder photovoltaische Energie umgewandelt werden. Die Sonne gibt, seitdem die Solarenergie überhaupt messbar ist, eine beinahe konstante Strahlungsenergie ab. Schwankungen sind selbst aus längst vergangenen Zeiten nicht bekannt. Somit stellt die Solarenergie eine schier grenzenlose Energiequelle dar, die, anders als fossile Energieträger, kaum erschöpfbar ist. Die Sonne, bzw. die Solarenergie, ist demnach die größte, verfügbare Energiequelle der Menschheit und mit moderner Solartechnik in verschiedenen Energiebereichen für den Menschen nutzbar.

Eine thermodynamische Zentrale befindet sich in Deutschland: die Sonnenenergie wird durch riesige Spiegel, welche die Sonnenstrahlen reflektieren, produziert. In der Fotovoltaik Zentrale wird die Sonnenenergie mit Photovoltaikanlagen produziert.

WIE WIRD SIE IN ITALIEN GENUTZT?

In Italien gib es rund 520000 Solaranlagen welche auf dem ganzen Territorium verteilt sind. Sehr viele davon befinden sich in den Regionen der Lombardei, Emilia Romagna und Triveneto.

DIE PHOTOVOLTAIKANLAGEN

Eine Anlage benutzt man um die Energie der Sonne auf der Erde aufzunehmen. Außerdem wird sie auch benutzt um heises Wasser, das bis zu 60°-70° Celsius erreichen kann, herzustellen. Die Anzahl der sonnigen Tagen haegt von der §Wolkenmenge und der Orientierung der Photovoltaikanlage ab. Eine Photovoltaikanlage kann mehr Energie aufnehmen, wenn sie zur Sonne gedreht ist.

ES gibt auch negative Aspekte: einer der negativen Aspekte ist die Diskontinuität, welche vom Wechsel zwischen Tag und Nacht, der Jahreszeiten und dem Wetter abhängt. Ein nächster negativer Aspekt ist die geringe Energiedichte, Welche die Verwendung von großen Sammelflaechen mit hohen Anlagekosten notwendig macht.

SOLARENERGIE IM TRENTINO:

Auch TrentinoSolare hat sich dazu entschlossen mit der Umwelt zusammenzuarbeiten. Sie haben auf dem Markt vorgeschlagen die Energie mit der Technologie der Photovoltaikanlagen zu produzieren.

SONNENENERGIE IN MAROKKO

König Mohammed IV. lies in Marokko eine hochmoderne Solarenergiefabrik entstehen mit technologischer und finanzieller Unterstützung aus Deutschland. Von den rund 2,2 Milliarden Euro, die das Kraftwerk kostet, übernimmt ein internationales Geberkonsortium, zu dem auch Deutschland gehört, rund 850 Millionen Euro. Es ist so groß wie 650 Fußballfelder und soll noch grösser werden, denn auf Noor I folgen noch Noor II, Noor III und Noor IV. Das komplette Solarkraftwerk erzeugt dann eine elektrische Leistung von insgesamt 580 Megawatt, das ist etwa so viel wie ein Block eines mittleren Kohlekraftwerks liefert. Die Solarenergiefabrik wird sich auf einer Fläche von über 3000 Hektar erstrecken, was der Größe von 4200 Fußballfeldern entspricht.

Die Windenergie [if gte vml 1]>

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Die Energie des Windes, wird schon seit einigen Jahrhunderten vom Menschen verwendet. Frueher wurde diese nur zum betaetigen der Windmuehlen angewendet, hingegen heute, erlaubt die Windenergie, dank den windbetriebenen Turbinen Energie zu produzieren. Einer der Faktoren, der für die Installation einer Windkraftanlage notwendig ist, ist das Vorhandensein einer stetigen Windgeschwindigkeit, die aber im Suedtiroler Gebiet schwer zu finden ist.

Bereits in der Antike diente der Wind zum Segeln und die Fluegel der Mühlen zum Mahlen von Getreide,  zum Oliven auspressen oder Wasser zu pumpen. Nur seit wenigen Jahrzehnten wird Windkraft auch fuer die Stromerzeugung genutzt.

Die Windkraft verwendet die kinetische Kraft des Windes. Die wichtigsten Vorteile dieser Energiequelle sind die  “Sauberkeit” und Erneuerbarkeit der Energie, die verwendet und verwandelt wird. Einer der Nachteile hingegen ist, die visuelle Wirkung auf die Landschaft und in einigen Faellen auch der verursachte Laerm.

Strom produziert man durch die Nutzbarmachung der kinetischen Energie des Windes, die die Drehung der Blätter einer Windmuehle verursacht; Diese sind wiederum mit einem Generator verbunden, der die mechanische Energie in elektrische Energie umwandelt. Diese modernen Windmühlen nennt man aero-Generatoren.

Die Windkraft und Windenergieerzeugung stieg in den letzen Jahren enorm an. Bisher befinden sich 85 % der installierten Leistung der Welt in zehn Ländern: China, USA, Deutschland, Spanien, Italien, Frankreich, Großbritannien, Indien, Kanada und Dänemark.

Seit Beginn der Nutzung des Windes als Stromquelle, waren Deutschland, Spanien und die USA die  Länder die am meisten investiert und produziert haben. Deutschland war schon immer das erste in der Rangliste, wurde aber im Jahr 2011 von China und den USA überholt.

In der Tat ist China in den letzten fuenf Jahren das wichtigsten Land der Windenergie-Branche geworden.

Im Jahr 2011 belegte Italien Nummer sieben in der Weltrangliste der Windkraft, da die Bedingungen für die Windenergieproduktion in diesem Land nicht die günstigsten sind. Der Grund dafuer ist die schmale und längliche Konformation des Gebietes, sowie das Vorhandensein der Alpen, die Hindernisse für den Wind darstellen.

Trotzdem gibt es lokal viele günstige Situationen fuer die Windenergie, wie zum Beispiel entlang der Apenninen Ridge Adria Küste und den Inseln.

Am Ende des Jahres 2012 waren in Italien 1. 054 Turbinen installiert. Wegen physiographischen Eigenschaften unseres Territoriums und das resultierende System der Winde, ist die Verteilung derselben in den verschiedenen Regionen ungleich. Die größte Anzahl von Installationen liegt in Apulien gefolt von Kampanien und  Basilikata.

Wir sehen dadurch dass  die südlichen und zentralen Regionen Italiens am produktivsten sind.

In Suedtirol hat stattdessen Windkraft aufgrund der niedrigen Durchschnittsgeschwindigkeit vom Wind und schwierigen Konformationen des Territoriums eine untergeordnete Rolle.

Neben der Windmuehlen von der Muta von Mals un Sand in Taufers, wurden mehrere Windmuehlen von kleinerer Dimension realisiert.

Windenergie wird durch zwei Arten von Windkraftanlagen produziert: vertikale und horizontale.

Die Turbinen die man in der Regel in den modernen Windparks sieht, bestehen aus einem Turm und einer Dreiblatt-horizontaler Achse, von denen haben sie ihren Namen (horizontale Windkraftanlagen).

Die vertikalen Windkraftanlagen sind seltener und weniger effizient als die horizontalen Windkraftanlagen, jedoch sind sie in der Lage den Wind in alle Richtungen ,und auch bei schwachenWinden, schnell kanalisieren zu können. Sie bestehen aus einem zentralen Turm, umdessen die vertikalen Klingen angeordnet sind.

An der Spitze des Turms befinden sich der Rotor,der elektrische Generator und ein Motor, der von einem von einem Computer gesteuert wird, derdafür sorgt, dass sich die Blaetter der Windmuehlen immer drehen, damit sie den Wind soviel wie moeglich nutzen koennen.

Die Energie wird durch die Rotation der Blaetter der Windmuehle erzeugt, durch die Drehung,, dreht sich eine Antriebswelle, die den elektrischenGenerator antreibt.

Das Vorhandensein einer Vielzahl von Windenergieanlagen könnte unsicher scheinen. In der Tat können die modernstenWindmuehlen sich in der Nähevon Wohngebieten befinden, da ihre Sicherheit sehr hohes Ausmaß erreicht. In Windparks ist die Sicherheit übrigens so, dass wir noch den Raum nutzen können und die unbesetzten Gebiete auch für die Landwirtschaft oder Weidewirtschaft benuetzen koennen.

ENERGIA EOLICA:

 La forza del vento è sfruttata dall’uomo già da diversi secoli. Un tempo veniva impiegata per azionare i mulini, mentre oggi consente, grazie alle turbine eoliche, di produrre energia elettrica. Uno dei fattori necessari per l’installazione di una turbina eolica è la presenza di una velocità del vento costante, cosa che tuttavia è difficile da trovare nel territorio altoatesino.

Già nell’antichità veniva sfruttato il vento per navigare e per muovere le pale dei mulini, utilizzati per macinare i cereali, per spremere olive o per pompare l’acqua. Solo da pochi decenni l’energia eolica viene impiegata per produrre elettricità.

L’energia eolica utilizza la forza  cinetica del vento. I principali vantaggi di questa fonte energetica sono la “pulizia” e la rinnovabilità dell’energia utilizzata e trasformata.Uno degli svantaggi invece è dato dall’impatto estetico sul paesaggio e in alcuni casi dalla rumorosità.

L’energia elettrica si ottiene sfruttando l’energia cinetica del vento che fa girare le pale di un’elica; queste a loro volta sono collegate ad un generatore che trasforma l’energia meccanica in energia elettrica. Questi moderni mulini a vento sono chiamati aero-generatori.

Negli ultimi anni la potenza eolica e la produzione di energia elettrica del vento hanno subito una grande crescita. Finora l’85% della potenza installata nel mondo si trova in dieci Paesi: Cina, USA, Germania, Spagna, India, Gran Bretagna, Italia, Francia, Canada e Danimarca.

Tradizionalmente, fin dall’inizio dell’utilizzo del vento come fonte di energia elettrica, i Paesi che più hanno investito e prodotto sono stati Germania, Spagna e USA: la Germania è sempre stata la prima in classifica, ma nel 2011 è stata sorpassata da Cina e Stati Uniti. Infatti, negli ultimi 5 anni la Cina è diventato il principale Paese emergente nel settore eolico.

Nel 2011 l’Italia si è posizionata al 7° posto nel mondo nella classifica per la potenza eolica.

Le condizioni per la produzione di energia eolica nel nostro Paese, inoltre, non sono delle più favorevoli, a causa della conformazione allungata e stretta del territorio e della presenza di rilievi elevati, come l’arco alpino, che fanno da ostacolo ai venti, tuttavia localmente vi sono molte situazioni favorevoli, in particolare lungo il crinale appenninico adriatico e sulle isole.

Alla fine del 2012, in Italia risultano installati 1.054 impianti eolici. A causa delle caratteristiche fisiografiche del nostro territorio e del conseguente regime dei venti, tuttavia, la distribuzione non è uniforme nelle diverse Regioni. Il maggior numero di impianti si trova in Puglia, seguita da Campania , Basilicata.

Si vede quindi come le Regioni dell’Italia meridionale e centrale siano le più produttive.

In Alto Adige invece, l’energia eolica ha un ruolo di secondo piano a causa della scarsa velocità media dei venti e della difficile conformazione del territorio.

Accanto agli impianti della Muta di Malles e di Campo Tures, sono stati realizzati alcuni impianti di piccole dimensioni.

l’energia eolica risulta poco sviluppato in Alto Adige, a causa delle condizioni sfavorevoli del territorio.

L’energia eolica viene utilizzata attraverso due tipi di pale eoliche: quelle ad asse verticale e quelle ad asse orizzontale.

Le turbine che si vedono abitualmente nei moderni parchi eolici, sono costituite da una torre e tre pale ad asse orizzontale, dalle quali prendono il nome (generatori eolici ad asse orizzontale).

Meno frequenti sono le turbine ad asse verticale, meno efficienti delle prime, sono in grado tuttavia, di incanalare il vento in tutte le direzioni e, anche con venti deboli, riescono a ruotare rapidamente. Sono costituite da una torre centrale intorno alla quale sono disposte le pale verticali.

In cima alla torre trovano spazio il rotore, il generatore elettrico e un motore controllato da un computer che fa in modo che le pale siano sempre ruotate verso il vento per sfruttarlo quanto più possibile.

L’energia è generata dalla rotazione della pala che, ruotando, fa girare un albero motore che alimenta il generatore elettrico.

La presenza di una vasta quantità di pale eoliche potrebbe sembrare non sicura. In realtà, le più moderne pale possono tranquillamente essere situate vicino a zone abitate, in quanto il loro grado di sicurezza ha raggiunto livelli estremamente elevati. Inoltre, nei parchi eolici, la sicurezza è tale da poter comunque utilizzare le aree di spazio rimaste libere, anche per l’agricoltura o la pastorizia.

Cos’è l’idrogeno

L’idrogeno (dal greco  significa «generare», quindi «generatore d’acqua») è il primo elemento chimico della tavola periodica, è il più leggero, ha numero atomico 1 e simbolo H. L’idrogeno è l’elemento più abbondante dell’universo osservabile. È presente nell’acqua (11,19%) e in tutti i composti organici e organismi viventi. A pressione atmosferica e a temperatura ambiente (298 K), l’idrogeno si trova sotto forma di un gas biatomico avente la formula H2. Tale gas è incolore, inodore, insapore ed altamente infiammabile, con un punto di ebollizione di soli 20,27 K e un punto di fusione di 14,02 K.V

Le stelle sono principalmente composte di idrogeno nello stato di plasma, mentre sulla Terra è scarsamente presente allo stato libero e molecolare e deve quindi essere prodotto per i suoi vari usi. In particolare è usato nella produzione di ammoniaca, nell’idrogenazione degli oli vegetali, in aeronautica (in passato nei dirigibili), come combustibile alternativo e, di recente, come riserva di energia nelle pile a combustibile. Inoltre è occluso in alcune rocce, come il granito.

Cos’è una la pila a combustibile:

Una cella a combustibile (detta anche pila a combustibile o dal inglese fuel cell) è un dispositivo elettrochimico che permette di ottenere elettricità direttamente da certe sostanze, tipicamente da idrogeno ed ossigeno, senza che avvenga alcun processo di combustione termica.
Il rendimento delle pile a combustibile può essere molto alta, e uno dei pochi limiti alla sua diffusione è il costo fin ora elevato che è giustificato dall’utilizzo di platino al loro interno.

Come funziona

L’idrogeno può essere usato come portatore di energia ed è molto diffuso nel mondo (vengono prodotti circa 900 miliardi di metri cubi all’anno corrispondenti a 42 milioni di tonnellate), perché non inquina la Terra dato che esso viene carburato solamente con ossigeno formando acqua. L’idrogeno viene tolto dall’H2O, quindi dall’acqua, tramite energia elettrica in modo che resti solamente l’H2.In seguito l’idrogeno viene immagazzinato, invece l’ossigeno(O) non viene più utilizzato e si disperde nell’aria. Quando l’H2 viene bruciato con l’ossigeno dell’atmosfera (per esempio nel serbatoio di una macchina) forma acqua e libera energia. Questo procedimento può essere rifatto per infinite volte. L’idrogeno è anche un ottimo combustibile e al giorno d’oggi tante macchine funzionano attraverso questo metodo. Nel loro serbatoio avviene il procedimento spiegato sopra.

Come viene utilizzato nel mondo

L’economia a idrogeno può essere vista sotto due profili: da una parte esistono luoghi in cui è disponibile (o si costruisce) un sovrabbondante potenziale di generazione di energia elettrica, dall’altra parte esistono ricche città come Londra, e regioni densamente popolate, che hanno bisogno di generare elettricità inquinando poco (ad esempio con la pila a combustibile) e di alimentare il trasporto pubblico con carburanti a basso tenore di inquinanti.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            L’idrogeno  viene utilizzato come carburante per le navette spaziali della NASA.

L’energia dell’idrogeno attualmente prodotta viene usata per convertire le fonti pesanti di petrolio in frazioni più leggere ed adatte per essere impiegate come carburante (questo processo è noto come hydrocracking).                                                                                                                                                                                L’idrogeno può essere utilizzato per produrre altri composti o come combustibile per produrre energia. In particolare, l’idrogeno prodotto è impiegato nell’industria chimica, per produrre ammoniaca, alcool metilico (metanolo), concimi per l’agricoltura e prodotti petroliferi, e nell’industria metallurgica per il trattamento dei metalli. L’idrogeno è poi un ottimo combustibile che può essere utilizzato per produrre energia in due modi. Il primo metodo consiste nel bruciare l’idrogeno da solo, oppure aggiunto ad altri combustibili. Il secondo metodo consiste nel far reagire l’idrogeno in modo chimico con l’ossigeno (non bruciandolo), ottenendo direttamente energia elettrica attraverso un dispositivo chiamato cella a combustibile.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      La produzione mondiale annua di idrogeno è di 500 miliardi di metri cubi, equivalenti a 44 milioni di tonnellate.

Dove viene utilizzato nel mondo

Grandi quantità di idrogeno sono necessarie per applicazioni industriali.

In altri settori gli impieghi sono di portata inferiore e vengono tipicamente gestiti dall’industria dei gas tecnici. Viene usato ad esempio: nelle raffinerie petrolchimiche, nell’industria metallurgica, nell’industria alimentare, nell’industria del vetro e nell’industria elettronica.                                                                                                                                                                                                         raffinerie petrolchimiche

L’idrogeno viene usato anche nei motori delle macchine e dei mezzi di trasporto pubblico, come autobus. Grazie a ciò le macchine producono meno gas e non inquinano l’aria.

Come e dove viene usato in Trentino Alto Adige

L’Alto Adige sottolinea, ancora una volta, il suo impegno verso un futuro senza emissioni nocive con l’apertura del primo Centro Idrogeno in Italia, dell’Istituto per le Innovazioni tecnologiche.

L’appuntamento è per giovedì 5 giugno quando, alla Fiera di Bolzano con Klima energy e Klima mobility, inaugureranno il nuovo centro in Via  Agruzzo a Bolzano. Il nuovo Centro H2 Alto Adige, oltre alla mobilità, offrirà ampie opportunità all’economia locale e nuove prospettive di lavoro. Tramite questo progetto europeo saranno offerte delle alternative ai carburanti fossili nella vita quotidiana.

Grazie all’ innovativa tecnica di produzione di idrogeno, sfruttando energia elettrica da fonte rinnovabile, ogni anno, a partire dal 2014, sono stati sostituiti circa 500.000 litri di carburante fossile con l’idrogeno. Una centrale a idrogeno è una centrale che produce energia elettrica a partire dall’idrogeno.

Come e dove viene usato in Italia

Centrale di Fusina:

Dal 2010 a Marghera, con un investimento di 47 milioni di euro, è attiva la centrale a idrogeno più grande del mondo, nonché la prima al mondo di livello industriale, con una potenza installata di 16MW.

La questione principale, ipotizzando un futuro ad idrogeno, è da sempre quella di riuscire a produrre in grandi quantità questo prezioso elemento, per poi immagazzinarlo ed utilizzarlo nelle diverse applicazioni al centro degli studi e delle ricerche di tutto il mondo.

Questa difficoltà è in parte attenuata nello scenario presente a Marghera.

A Marghera, una delle più vaste ed attrezzate aree industriali d’Europa, l’idrogeno è infatti presente su larga scala come prodotto residuale di produzioni chimiche. Inoltre, vi sono in quest’area importanti strutture industriali che già gestiscono la filiera dell’idrogeno e garantiscono un solido know how per l’applicazione nel settore stazionario e in quello dei trasporti.

Lo sfruttamento di risorse preesistenti, ragioni di opportunità e l’interesse dimostrato dalle industrie presenti nell’area sono i motivi che hanno eletto Porto Marghera come sito ideale per l’avvio di tale iniziativa.

Centrale Milano Bicocca:

Rappresenta il primo impianto Europeo di produzione elettrica tramite celle a combustibile è entrata in

funzione nel 1992 a scopo sperimentale. Nel 1998, come previsto, è stata fermata la produzione. L’impianto è stato poi revisionato ed è ripartito nel 2004.                                                                                                                                                                    Questa centrale produceva idrogeno a partire dal metano.

L’impianto è costituito da sotto-impianti di: trattamento del combustibile, aria di processo, celle a combustibile, raffreddamento dei moduli elettrochimici, smaltimento del calore, condizionamento di potenza.

WASSERSTOFF

WAS IST WASSERSTOFF?

Wasserstoff ist ein chemisches Element mit dem Symbol H (zuerst vom altgriechischen „entstehen“, danach vom Begriff ,,Wasserentstehung “) und im Periodensystemsteht er an erster Stelle.

Wasserstoff ist das häufigste chemische Element im Universum. Er ist Bestandteil des Wassers(11,19%) und beinahe aller organischen Verbindungen. Somit kommt gebundener Wasserstoff in sämtlichen lebenden Organismen vor.

Er ist ein farbloses, geruchloses, geschmackloses, erheblich entzündbares Gas, mit ein Siedepunkt von nur 20,27 K und ein Schmelzpunkt von 14,02 K. Bei Atmosphärendruck und bei Raumtemperatur (298 K), ist der Wasserstoff eine Form eines zweiatomigen Gases mit der Formel H2.

Die Sterne sind in der ersten Schicht im Plasmazustand aus Wasserstoff   gemacht, während auf der Erde ist der Wasserstoff   kaum im wilden und molekularen Zustand gegenwertig und muss deswegen für seine verschiedenen Verwendungen hergestellt werden. Insbesondere wird bei der Herstellung von Ammoniak, die Hydrierung von pflanzlichen Ölen, Luftfahrt- (in der Vergangenheit in Luftschiffe), als alternativer Verbrennstoff, und seit kurzem als Brennstoff als Energiereserve in Brennstoffzellen verwendet. Es kann auch in einigen Felsen wie Granit vorkommen.

WAS IST EINE BRENNSTOFFZELLE?

Eine Brennstoffzelle wandelt wasserstoffreiche Brennstoffe in Elektrizität um. Statt einer klassischen (und emissionsintensiven) Verbrennung arbeiten Brennstoffzellen mit einer elektrochemischen Reaktion.

Die Effizienz von Brennstoffzellen kann sehr hoch sein und eine der wenigen Einschränkungen seiner Ausbreitung ist ihr Preis, der sehr teuer für die Verwendung von Platin in ihren Inneren ist.

Wie kann man mit Wasserstoff Energie herstellen?

Wasserstoff kann als Energiereserve gebraucht werden. Diese Methode ist sehr verbreitet(es werden jährlich mehr als 42 Millionen Tonnen hergestellt), überhaupt weil es umweltfreundlich ist und die Natur nicht verschmutzt, da man ihn nur mit Sauerstoff verbrennt.

Der Wasserstoff wird erstmals vom H2O, also vom Wasser, mit elektrischer Energie entnommen sodass nur noch dasH2 übrig bleibt. Daraufhin wird der Wasserstoff gespeichert, während der übrige Sauerstoff nicht mehr gebraucht ist und in der Luft verloren geht. Wenn der Wasserstoff dann wieder mit Sauerstoff in Kontakt kommt wird Energie ausgesetzt. Nachdem das H2 und das O wieder Wasser gebildet haben kann man das Wasser wieder spalten und diesen Prozess erneut vorgehen lassen. Man kann somit auch Autos antreiben ohne die Luft zu verschmutzen.

WIE WIRD WASSERSTOFF IN DER WELT VERWENDET?

Man kann die Wasserstoffwirtschaft in zweierlei Hinsichten sehen: auf der einen Seite gibt es Orte, wo ein reichliches Potenzial an Energie verfügbar ist(oder wo man es baut), auf der anderen Seite gibt es reiche Städte wie London, oder dicht bevölkerte Regionen, die Energie auf naturfreundliche Weise herstellen(wie z.B. mit der Brennstoffzelle) und den Verkehr mit einem geringen Gehalt an umweltbelastenden Brennstoffen betreiben.

Wasserstoff wird auch als Energiequelle der Raumschiffe der NASA verwendet.

Die aktuell produzierte Energie des Wasserstoffs wird für die Umwandlung von schweren Erdölquellen in leichtere Fraktionen und ist als Brennstoff geeignet(dieser Vorgang wird Wasserstoff kann um andere Verbindungen herzustellen oder als Brennstoff zur Erzeugung von Energie verwendet werden. Insbesondere wird der erzeugte Wasserstoff in der chemischen Industrie eingesetzt, um Ammoniak, Methylalkohol (Methanol), Düngemittel für die Landwirtschaft und Erdölprodukte herzustellen( in der metallurgischen Industrie zur Behandlung von Metallen).

Wasserstoff ist eine ausgezeichnete Brennstoffzelle, die auf zwei Arten verwendet werden kann, Energie zu erzeugen.

Die erste Methode ist, den Wasserstoff allein oder mit einem anderen Brennstoff zu verbrennen.

Der zweite Vorgang besteht daraus den Wasserstoff chemisch mit Sauerstoff reagieren zu lassen(ohne ihn zu verbrennen), indem man dank einer Vorrichtung namens Brennstoffzelle direkt elektrische Energie(Strom) gewinnt.

Die jährliche Weltproduktion von Wasserstoff beträgt 500 Milliarden Kubikmeter , das entspricht 44 Millionen Tonnen.

WO ES VERWENDET WIRD

Große Mengen von Wasserstoff sind für industrielle Anwendungen erforderlich. In anderen Bereichen sind die Verwendungen niedriger und sind in der Regel durch die technischen Gase der Industrie behandelt. Es wird zum Beispiel in Raffinerien, Petrochemie, in der metallurgischen Industrie, in der Lebensmittelindustrie, in der Glasindustrie und in der Elektronikindustrie verwendet.

Wasserstoff wird auch in den Motoren von Pkws und öffentlichen Verkehrsmittel wie Bussen eingesetzt. Dank dieser Maschinen wird weniger Gas produziert und die Luft wird nicht verschmutzt.

                                                                LA GEOTERMIA

-INTRODUZIONE

Il termine ‘geotermico’ ha il suo etimo dal greco “gê” e “thermòs”, che significa letteralmente “calore della Terra”.

Con il termine energia geotermica si vuole intendere l’energia, sotto forma di calore, posseduta dalla Terra al suo interno. Nelle zone più profonde tale calore può raggiungere temperature fino ai 4000 °C. Il calore della terra è del tutto naturale, soprattutto di quantità molto elevata ed è sempre presente, non è intermittente ed è inesauribile. Per questo motivo l’energia geotermica è considerata una fonte rinnovabile di energia.

In certe zone l’acqua e i gas scaldati nel sottosuolo salgono fino in superficie ad alta pressione sotto forma di geyser o soffioni e si possono usare per la produzione di energia elettrica.

Esistono due tipi di geotermia:

La geotermia di profondità sfrutta il calore del sottosuolo mediante delle specifiche turbine dove vengono raccolti i vapori prodotti dalle sorgenti di acqua che si trovano nel sottosuolo con l’obiettivo di produrre energia elettrica.

La geotermia di superficie, invece, viene usata per la climatizzazione dell’ambiente sia per riscaldare che per rinfrescare attraverso l’uso di pompe di calore elettriche e ad assorbimento.

L’UTILIZZO

Gli attuali sistemi di riscaldamento e raffreddamento che utilizzano pompe di calore geotermiche, si basano sul principio, che orientativamente, la temperatura del terreno si mantiene quasi costante durante il corso dell’anno.

Questo aspetto comporta benefici sia durante la stagione invernale, poiché il terreno in questo periodo ha una temperatura un po’ più calda rispetto a quella dell’aria esterna, sia durante la stagione estiva poiché la temperatura è più bassa di quella dell’aria. Le pompe adottano un sistema di tubi interrati collegati a degli scambiatori, che sfruttano il flusso liquido per aggiungere o togliere calore nei vari ambienti.

Lo scambiatore e il serbatoio dell’impianto per l’acqua vanno collocati sottoterra. La pompa di calore invece va collocata anche in luoghi come la cantina, il garage, nell’ antibagno o può anche essere posizionata fuori ad un balcone all’ esterno, l’importante è che sia protetta.                       

FUNZIONAMENTO    

La Terra ha un gradiente termico che aumenta di 3°C mediamente ogni 100 metri di profondità. D’estate in profondità c’è più fresco rispetto alla superficie, mentre d’inverno avviene l’inverso: in profondità c’è più caldo che in superficie terrestre.

Le centrali geotermiche sfruttano il calore delle profondità terrestri.

Attraverso le eruzioni vulcaniche, le acque e i vapori riscaldatisi in profondità salgono verso la superficie e possono essere utilizzati come fonte di calore oppure per produrre energia elettrica.

Se il vapore è presente ad alta temperatura (200°-300°) viene convogliato direttamente alla turbina che ne trasforma l’energia cinetica in energia meccanica di rotazione. L’asse della turbina è collegato al rotore dell’alternatore che, ruotando, trasforma l’energia meccanica ricevuta in energia elettrica alternata che viene trasmessa al trasformatore.

Il trasformatore innalza il valore della tensione (400.000.v) e la immette nella rete di distribuzione.

Sistemi a vapore secco “a vapore dominante”: costituiti soprattutto da vapore secco che si trova a pressioni e temperature elevate accompagnato da altri gas o sostanze solubili. Il vapore può essere utilizzato direttamente per la produzione di energia elettrica convogliandolo ad una turbina. Nel mondo sono noti pochi sistemi di questo tipo.

Sistemi ad acqua calda: contengono acqua a temperatura inferiore ai 100° C (50-82° C) utilizzabile soprattutto per usi diretti (riscaldamento delle abitazioni, delle serre, impianti industriali).

Sistemi magmatici: sono sistemi artificiali che mirano a sfruttare il calore diretto di un magma per riscaldare un fluido di lavoro. Sono al primo stadio di sperimentazione.     

LE CENTRALI GEOTERMICHE IN ITALIA 

In Italia la produzione di energia elettrica dalla geotermia è fortemente concentrata in Toscana. I giacimenti naturali di vapore in Toscana producono ogni anno oltre 4 miliardi di Kilowattora di elettricità nelle sole centrali toscane di Larderello (Pisa) e di Montieri. A Larderello si trova il primo impianto geotermico costruito al mondo:

DEUTSCH

Der Begriff “Geothermie” hat seinen Ursprung aus dem griechischen „Gê ” und „Thermòs”, das bedeutet buchstäblich “Wärme aus der Erde“.

Mi dem Begriff Geothermie versteht man die Energie in Form von Wärme, welche in der Erde enthalten ist. In tieferen Bereichen kann diese Wärme Temperaturen von bis zu 4000° c erreichen. Erdwärme ist natürlich, vor allem bei sehr hohen Betrag und ist immer präsent und ist unerschöpflich. Darum wird die geothermische Energie als erneuerbare Energiequelle   betrachtet.

In einigen Bereichen steigen erhitzte Gase und das Wasser bis an die Oberfläche mit hohem Druck in Form von Geysiren oder Duschköpfe und wir verwenden sie, um Strom zu erzeugen.
Es gibt zwei Arten von Geothermie: die tiefe Geothermie nutzt die Wärme des Untergrundes
die oberflächennahe Geothermie verwendet Energie für Klimaanlagen

Die vorhandenen Heiz– und Kühlsysteme, nutzen die geothermische Wärmepumpen, die auf dem Prinzip basieren, dass die Bodentemperatur im Laufe des Jahres nahezu konstant bleibt.
Dieser Aspekt bringt Vorteile sowohl im Winter, da der Boden in dieser Zeit ein bisschen wärmer als die Außenluft ist, sowohl während des Sommers, weil die Temperatur niedriger als die der Luft ist. Die Pumpen verwenden unterirdische Leitungen, die Wärmetauscher, in denen eine Flüssigkeit ist, http://it.pons.com/traduzione/tedesco-italiano/flie%C3%9Fen die zum Hinzufügen oder Entfernen von Hitze in verschiedenen Umgebungen dient.

Wärmetauscher und das Wassersystem Tank müssen sich unter der Erde befinden. Die warme Pumpe befindet sich auch an Orten wie Keller oder Garage, das wichtigste ist, dass sie geschützt ist.

GEBRAUCH

Die Erde hat einen Temperaturgradienten, der um 3°C pro100 m Tiefe steigt. Geothermie-Kraftwerke nutzen die Wärme der tieferen Erde.
Durch Vulkanausbrüche, steigen Wasser und Dampf an die Oberfläche und können als Quelle von Wärme oder Strom verwendet werden.
Wenn der Dampf mit hoher Temperatur vorhanden ist (200°-300 °) wird er direkt an  die Turbine vermittelt, die die kinetische Energie  in mechanische Energie umwandelt. Die Achse der Turbine ist mit dem  Rotor des Generators verbunden, der drehend, die mechanische Energie in elektrische Energie umwandelt,   die an den Transformator übertragen wird. Der Transformator erhöht den Spannungswert (400. 000) und speist es in das Vertriebsnetz.
Heiß Wasser-Systeme: enthalten Wasser mit Temperaturen unter 100° C                      (50-82° C) und eignen sich besonders für direkte Anwendungen

(Gehäuse, Beheizung vonGewächshäusern, Industrieanlagen).
Magmatische Systeme: sind künstliche Systeme, die darauf abzielen, die direkte Hitze des Magmas,  nutzbar zu machen. Sie sind in den frühen Stadien des Experimentierens.

Geothermische Energie in der Welt

Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika sind  auf dem ersten Platz für die Produktion von geothermischer Energie. Geothermische Energie-Produktion: 3086 MW.

Die Philippinen sind an zweiter Stelle: Geothermische Energie-Produktion: 1904 MW.

Mexiko ist auf dem dritten Platz. Geothermie: 958 MW.

Italien liegt auf dem fünften Platz nach Indonesien. Geothermische Energie-Produktion: 843 MW.

Geothermie in Südtirol und Italien

In Südtirol gibt‘s keine Geothermie-Anlage.

In Italien konzentriert sich die Produktion von Strom aus Erdwärme stark in der Toskana. Natürliche Dampffeldern in der Toskana (Larderello und Montieri) produzieren jährlich mehr als 4Milliarden Kilowattstunden Strom. In Larderello ist das erste geothermische Kraftwerk der Welt gebaut worden.

La Ricchezza del nostro territorio: classe 1a, Religione

Suor Maria Grazia Cazzato ha realizzato con le studentesse della classe prima il progetto: La Ricchezza del nostro territorio. In religione hanno descritto alcune delle bellissime chiese che si trovano a Bolzano.

La chiesa del Sacro Cuore

LA STORIA
La chiesa è stata costruita in stile neoromanico fra il 1897 ed il 1899.
La chiesa come pure il convento “Michaelsburg” (oggi sede della Caritas) furono costruiti da Johann Bittner.
La costruzione della chiesa ebbe inizio il 25 giugno del 1897, festa del Sacro Cuore, con la posa della prima pietra.
I Padri del Santo Sacramento, che nel 1897 vennero a Bolzano per fondarvi un convento e costruire una chiesa, crearono il primo centro di adorazione eucaristico in un paese di lingua tedesca. La loro congregazione era stata fondata da San Pietro Giuliano Eymard (1811-1868).
Per la costruzione della chiesa la famiglia von Zallinger – Stillendorf mise a disposizione un terreno di proprietà.
Il 9 giugno, festa del Sacro Cuore, del 1899 la chiesa fu consacrata dal vescovo di Trento in presenza dell’erede al trono Francesco Ferdinando.
Francesco Giuseppe I. Imperatore dell’impero austro ungarico divenne il, protettore della chiesa nel 1898.
La chiesa del Sacro Cuore non subì danni durante la II Guerra Mondiale e fu l’unica chiesa accessibile della città fra il 1944 ed il 1945.

DESCRIZIONE DELLA CHIESA

Il materiale per la costruzione è il porfido proveniente dalle cave di Bronzolo, Campodazzo e Sinigo, tutte in vicinanza della ferrovia per facilitarne il trasporto.
Sopra il portale (timpano) troviamo un rilievo di pietra arenaria che rappresenta Rodolfo d’Asburgo che cede il cavallo al sacerdote per poter arrivare dal malato col Santissimo sul fiume in piena.
I due campanili, sud e nord, raggiungono un’altezza di 40 metri e sono dotati di sette campane.
L’orologio della torre, opera di Jakob Unterkircher, fu aggiunto nel 1900, un anno dopo l’inaugurazione, la Luna con le fasi lunari ancora più tardi (una sfera che gira con l’orologio con una rotazione al mese, indicando le fasi lunari).

INTERNO DELLA CHIESA

È una basilica a tre navate con una lunghezza di 50 m e una larghezza e altezza di 20 m. La navata centrale è molto alta per avere più fonti di luce dalla parte sud.
Sono presenti pitture decorative che troviamo soprattutto sotto il mosaico nel coro dei religiosi e pitture figurative, che sono tutte indirizzate all’Eucarestia.
Troviamo dipinti figurativi sotto la cantoria, nel soffitto, sui lati nel coro dei religiosi, nell’arco verso l’altare della Madonna e dietro l’altare della Madonna.
Sono anche presenti molteplici mosaici; quello più importante si trova sopra il ciborio (baldacchino sopra l’altare maggiore) e raffigura l’adorazione dell’Agnello con la Trinità con i quattro simboli degli Evangelisti.
All’interno della chiesa ci sono sei altari, uno dei quali è l’altare maggiore con sculture in legno e con simboli eucaristici, gli altri cinque sono altari laterali che a loro volta raffigurano il Sacro Cuore di Gesù, San Giuseppe, San Pio X, San Pier Giuliano Eymard e la Madonna del Santissimo Sacramento.
Il pavimento è in marmo.

VICISSITUDINI DELLA CHIESA

Sotto l’Austria il tempio servì come Chiesa di guarigione per i soldati; dopo il secondo conflitto mondiale servì all’esercito italiano. In seguito ai bombardamenti su Bolzano servì anche da Chiesa Parrocchiale essendo il duomo gravemente danneggiato.

RESTAURI DELLA CHIESA

Nel 1954 furono eseguiti diversi lavori di manutenzione, nel 1980 vennero rinnovate tutte le pitture, vennero cambiati i telai delle finestre e tolti i danni dai muri.
Otto anni dopo la chiesa venne pulita una seconda volta dalla polvere e dallo sporco.

MISSIONE DEI SACRAMENTINO OGGI

C’è un duplice fine: adorare e far adorare Gesù nel Santissimo Sacramento, cura della liturgia, esercizi spirituali, catechesi e portare i fedeli ad avere una vita più profonda.

LA VIA CRUCIS EUCARISTICA
Accanto alla raffigurazione della via dolorosa di Gesù c’è quella eucaristica con citazioni della Bibbia che interpretano i quadri.

Il duomo di Bolzano

Il duomo di Bolzano, dedicato a santa Maria Assunta, è la chiesa più importante della città di Bolzano e concattedrale della diocesi di Bolzano-Bressanone.

L’interno dell’edificio

La storia dell’edificio

Nell’autunno dell’anno 1948, con il restauro del duomo di Bolzano gravemente danneggiato dai bombardamenti alleati del 1944, si rinvennero sotto la sua pavimentazione le fondamenta d’altre tre chiese, che datavano dal IV secolo d.C. al XII secolo e si rinvenne una lapide con iscrizione d’età romana.

La basilica paleocristiana: IV secolo d.C.

Le fondamenta della chiesa più antica risalgono al IV secolo d.C. e probabilmente era consacrata a San Vigilio, poiché molte chiese paleocristiane dei dintorni erano consacrate a lui. L’edificio aveva una pianta rettangolare, era lungo 38 metri e largo 14 ed era diviso in tre ambienti grazie a muri divisori. I muri laterali della chiesa erano provvisti di 8 contrafforti.

 La chiesa altomedievale: VIII secolo d.C.

Scavando sotto la costruzione si scoprì un muro leggermente più lungo che risaliva all’età carolingia. Di quest’epoca non si rinvenne solo il muro, ma anche cinque frammenti di affreschi, raffiguranti visi volti alla preghiera.

La prima chiesa medievale: XI-XII secolo d.C.

Si rinvennero le fondamenta di una chiesa medievale, con una pianta assai particolare: aveva infatti solo una fila di colonne e due navate asimmetriche. Questa costruzione aveva una torre dai muri di grande spessore, forse per proteggerla dalle frequenti e violente inondazioni dell’Isarco.

La chiesa tardogotica: XV-XVI secolo d.C.

La chiesa medievale sorgeva sui resti della basilica paleocristiana del VI secolo: la struttura gotica fu completata nel 1519 con l’innalzamento del campanile in stile tardo-gotico di 65 metri, sul progetto dell’architetto Burkhard Engelberg di Augusta. L’edificio è una chiesa a sala divisa in tre navate da pilastri quadrati, con coro circondato da deambulatorio e cappella absidale.

Campane

Dal 2010 il duomo dispone di un particolare carillon di campane opera dell’artista Ivo Radakovich di Egna realizzata dalla nota fonderia Grassmayr di Innsbruck. Dispone di 25 campane che eseguono diverse melodie ogni sabato e domenica alle ore 11.00.

Vigilio di Trento (Roma 355– Val Rendena, 405) fu missionario nella valle dell’Adige e nella zona di Trento e fu il terzo vescovo di Trento; è venerato come martire della fede e santo dalla Chiesa cattolica.

La chiesa dei Domenicani

• Dove è situata?

La chiesa è situata nell’attuale piazza Domenicani, mentre ai tempi della sua costruzione la zona del convento dei Domenicani era al di fuori della città. L’area dell’attuale chiesa, inoltre, è molto più ristretta rispetto a quella originale.

• La storia

I lavori di costruzione iniziarono nei primi anni del Trecento, mentre nel corso del XIV secolo venne dotata di cappelle e venne avviata la costruzione del complesso conventuale attorno a un chiostro. Tra il 1458 e il 1468 la chiesa venne suddivisa in tre navate e anche la costruzione di volte gotiche a questo periodo. In epoca barocca venne inoltre aggiunta la cappella dei Mercanti e decorato il coro gotico con affreschi e stucchi.

La chiesa e il convento dei Domenicani conservano i migliori esempi di pittura giottesca in tutta la città.

• Gli interni

La chiesa è una dei più pregiati gioielli artistici di Bolzano e fu in questa chiesa che gli artisti svilupparono il cosiddetto stile della “Scuola di Bolzano”. L’interno della chiesa è diviso in tre navate da pilastri ottagonali reggenti volte reticolate.

Originariamente c’erano quattro cappelle, danneggiate gravemente durante la seconda guerra mondiale. Fra il 1971 e il 1972 venne ricostruita tuttavia la cappella che attorno al 1600 fu costruita dai commercianti bolzanini. In passato erano visibili più affreschi rispetto ad oggi. Haus Stotzinger da Ulma dipinse l’importante affresco Madonna tra santi (1404) che univa elementi tedeschi ad altri italiani; inoltre sono conservati una Madonna in Trono (1379) e Quattro santi (1400).

• Il coro

Passando attraverso l’arco centrale del pontile si arriva al luminoso coro presbiterale, che ha una pianta rettangolare allungata.

L’ambiente si trova, dopo diverse ricostruzioni e restauri, nella foggia costruita attorno al 1740 attraverso un forte intervento di barocchizzazione: ricche decorazioni e cornici ricoprono l’intera superficie di muri e delle volte.

Nella volta, sono presenti dei medaglioni affrescati con i Misteri del Rosario, forse opera di Giacomo Antonio Delai.

Dalla parete di destra, invece si accede alla cappella di S. Giovanni.

• Capella di S. Giovanni

Dal coro della chiesa si arriva nella cappella di San Giovanni, un’aula alta e stretta che custodisce i più importanti affreschi della città, eseguiti da pittori italiani di scuola giottesca.

Nella chiesa si può ritrovare un’opera del Guercino (La visione di Soriano). La presenza di questo artista emiliano in un contesto del tutto estraneo colpisce, ma è ovviamente spiegabile con la grande fama di cui godeva l’artista (peraltro di questo dipinto esistono 3 schizzi preparatori, di cui 2 sono conservati a Dublino ed uno a Stoccarda). Decisamente degna di nota la Cappella di San Giovanni che conserva pitture giottesche.

• Il pontile a 5 arcate

Il pontile è una muraria trecentesca ad un piano, con un palco superiore.

Il pontile è formato da 5 arcate, e questo fungeva da separazione tra l’aula liturgica dei fedeli e il coro.

Sul fondo della seconda cappella, è presente un affresco con una Santa e una figura frammentata di un Santo.

• Il chiostro e sala capitolare:

Nella sala capitolare un plastico fornisce indicazioni dettagliate sulla storia del convento.

In questa sala, che era il centro di raccolta dei monaci per le riunioni più importanti, emerge il passaggio dal romanico al gotico.

Ai primordi del romanico la copertura dei chiostri era lignea e piana, sostenuta da travature e gli affreschi arrivarono al limite alla copertura. Successivamente furono introdotte le coperture gotiche a volta che andarono a coprire parzialmente gli affreschi esistenti, ai quali spesso vennero sovrapposte nuove pitture, adattate alla curvatura delle volte.

Una curiosità: la definizione di sala capitolare deve la sua origine al fatto che qui si tennero abitualmente le riunioni più importanti precedute sempre dalla lettura di un capitolo delle Sacre Scritture.

Il chiostro dell’antico convento dei Domenicani venne menzionato per la prima volta nel 1308. L’arco costale venne costruito nel 1495 dal maestro Hans Hueber. Con Friedrich Pacher il chiostro assunse una configurazione uniforme. Le pitture murali che vanno dal XIV al XVI secolo, raccontano le tappe della Vita di Cristo. Dal chiostro è possibile entrare nella Cappella di Santa Caterina, dove sono conservati affreschi giotteschi del Quattrocento.

VECCHIA E NUOVA PARROCCHIALE GRIES

La vecchia parrocchiale di Gries di cui si hanno traccia a partire dal IX secolo, viene costruita inizialmente come chiesa in stile romanico poi viene convertita allo stile gotico. Una parte della chiesa è più massiccia e tozza, rispetto all’altra, più slanciata ed elegante, probabilmente è stata costruita successivamente. All’entrata principale della chiesa è presente un porticato che viene chiamato protiro. Il campanile è stato fatto dallo stesso costruttore che ha realizzato il campanile del duomo, Hans von Schussenried, alla fine del 1500, nelle trifore sono presenti dei ricami di pizzo simili a quelli del duomo. La parte più sporgente della chiese è la cappella di Sant Erardo, che è ultima parte che viene aggiunta alla chiesa. Gries, essendo un quartiere indipendente e assestante, la vecchia parrocchiale vi ha anche è un cimitero attorno. Lo stile Barocco in questo caso riusciamo a capirlo molto facilmente perché abbiamo l’uso di un sacco di elementi decorativi, con la predominanza dell’oro. L’oro lo troviamo nei bordi, nell’affresco sul soffitto e sulla parte alta dell’altare. La scala dell’altare e l’affresco sul soffitto sono realizzati, come moltissime altre sculture presenti in questa Chiesa. Abbiamo un uso del colore tipicamente italiano, quindi questa ricerca dei contrasti di colore, quindi il bianco al di sotto, sullo sfondo contrastato dal blu, quasi elettrico, dal rosso e altri toni di colore; però anche una grande ricerca del particolare sono tipiche di una zona più nordica. La decorazione sul soffitto è indovinatissima commissione di uno stile narrativo, si vede, ad esempio, in questo caso, abbiamo una parte del dipinto che esce addirittura dal dipinto stesso e poi abbiamo nel mezzo un cerchio che ci sta a raccontare che li c’è una parte di tetto che si sovralza , una specie di tabernacolo che si alza, da cui entra la luce. Tutti questi accorgimenti, hanno l’effetto, vogliono raccontarci una storia ancora più spettacolare. Il dipinto rappresenta la gloria di Gesù Cristo, con la croce che viene portata da degli angeli, però Cristo non è sulla croce ma è seduto su una nuvola in alto, quindi è contornato ed è abbigliato da un capo rosso. Il rosso non è solo il colore della passione ma è anche il colore della maestà, quindi in questo caso non è il Cristo che patisce ma un Cristo vittorioso, vincente.

Bisogna fare attenzione a dei piccoli dettagli che ci portano a cogliere a capire una storia. Le figure in grigio, le cosiddette grisarie, sono delle figure che vengono dipinte in grigio perchè con questo grigio si da maggiore risalto al colore che troviamo nell’affresco. Sono quattro e rappresentano i 4 continenti, perchè il quinto non era stato ancora scoperto. Il dettaglio della prospettiva è molto importante e spettacolare che rende il dipinto molto realistico.

Tutta la Chiesa è decorata con stucco lustro, che all’apparenza sembra marmo. Lo stucco lustro è dello stucco colorato, che poi viene lisciato in modo da dare una parvenza di lucidità. Questa cancello proviene da un convento, che non c’è più, un convento femminile.

Quello é un altare a portale, questi altari a portelle hanno anche delle porte sui lati che quando non si fa messa o in periodi particolari dell’anno, come per esempio al periodo di pasqua, vengono chiusi. E vengono invece aperti quando si fanno le messe. Questo altare è un altare che é un altare che viene fatto, realizzato da Michael Bacher. Siamo sul finire degli anni 70 del 1400 e abbiamo un personaggio di un grandissimo spicco Michael Bacher é un genio del suo genere e realizza degli altari spettacolari come questo per esempio. Che cosa vediamo in questa rappresentazione? Vediamo un’ alea che praticamente viene benedetta dal padre, dal figlio e la tromba su in alto rappresento lo spirito santo. Ai lati abbiamo San Giorgio. Normalmente i Santi vengono rappresentati con degli elementi che sono un riconoscimento. In questo caso abbiamo San Giorgio che uccide un drago. In questa rappresentazione noi vediamo un drago e un Santo con una spada un mano e sappiamo che é sempre San Giorgio. Spesso volentieri viene anche rappresentato a cavallo. Cos’è interessante di questo gruppo è il fatto che ci sono degli angeli musicanti. Ci sono 4 angeli che suonano è una figura abbastanza particolare e racconta molto bene quello che è il sentimento della festa.

Gries diventa parte di Bolzano a partire dal 1925, questo naturalmente significa che tutto quello che ha a che fare con la chiesa, quindi la parrocchiale il fatto di avere un cimitero è tutt’ora esistente si trova dove ci troviamo adesso, la nuova parrocchiale “nuova” si fa per dire perché è del 1769 è una chiesa che viene costruita da un architetto italiano, il roveretano Antonio Giuseppe Sartori il quale viene chiamato perché si sa che in Italia il barocco è uno stile molto usato infatti il Barocco prevede moltissime decorazioni, quasi un sovraccarico e molto uso del color oro e naturalmente quando si trovano queste caratteristiche si tratta sicuramente del barocco appunto.

La facciata della chiesa però non è barocca perché come vediamo è molto liscia e semplice infatti si tratta di una facciata neoclassica perché la maggior parte delle opere che vengono realizzate in Alto Adige sono realizzate con un certo ritardo rispetto alle mode che ci sono, significa che se altrove gia comincia a passare la moda qui invece abbiamo ancora il perdurare di questo stile adesso andiamo all’interno e vedremo solo alcuni dettagli perché non è necessario vedere tutto. Questa Madonna con il bambino é antica ma che è stata restaurata probabilmente agli inizi del ‘900 in maniera abbastanza ingenua anche perché i restauri fatti nel passato servivano a riportare il pezzo con qualsiasi mezzo possibile senza cercare di fare quello che noi oggi chiamiamo restauro conservativo, ovvero dare di nuovo dignità ad un’opera senza necessariamente attaccare i pezzi che mancano in questo caso invece lo hanno fatto, hanno attaccato un braccio al bambino e la mano di Maria, che originalmente doveva portare un globo per indicare che tiene in mano il mondo e si possono vedere le differenze. Questa è la rappresentazione di un Cristo in croce, uno dei più antichi sul territorio altoatesino probabilmente è stato realizzato nel 1200, è molto particolare perché prima di tutto è una rappresentazione quasi sicuramente proviene dall’aria francese quindi non è del territorio ma viene da altrove, non era qui in origine ma era in case private che l’hanno poi donato a questa chiesa.

Questo Cristo ha di particolare sostanzialmente 2 cose rispetto a quello che siamo abituati a vedere: il viso che è sereno e non sofferente come quelli del periodo dell’umanesimo e i piedi che sono inchiodati separatamente appoggiati su una specie di piedistallo che dal punto anatomico è molto più verosimile anche questo ci indica che siamo nel periodo precedente all’umanesimo.

La chiesa dei Francescani

Situata a ridosso del centro storico cittadino, in via dei Francescani, è un notevole esempio di architettura gotica che ha subito varie modifiche agli interni.

Descrizione:

Esternamente, la chiesa si presenta con la facciata in stile neogotico assunto nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento, comunque molto semplice e con chiari rimandi all’architettura tradizionale locale. Gli spioventi molto inclinati del tetto conferiscono alla facciata un notevole accenno verticale.

I fianchi della chiesa mantengono i l’aspetto originale, con le sporgenze delle cappelle aggiunte nel tempo. In particolare nella zona del presbiterio e dell’abside poligonale, si possono osservare gli alti finestroni gotici che illuminano l’interno e il campanile di 44 metri d’altezza.

All’interno, la chiesa è impostata su una pianta a tre navate senza transetto, con un profondo presbiterio concluso da un’abside poligonale.

I pilastri divisori fra le tre navate sono invece di pianta ottagonale, molto semplici. La maggior parte di queste strutture, comunque, risale alle riparazioni del secondo dopoguerra e non sono molte le parti originali. Le pareti, oltretutto, sono tutte bianche.

Nel presbiterio sono posti gli stalli lignei del coro, mentre nell’abside spiccano le tre alte monofore decorate da vetrate, il tutto coperto nuovamente da fitte volte a crociera.

L’altare della natività:

Fra le varie opere minori conservate nella chiesa spicca notevolmente l’altare maggiore, opera di inizio Cinquecento di Hans Klocker e dedicato alla Natività di Gesù. Si tratta di un complesso ligneo di stile ricorrente per l’epoca di costruzione: un largo basamento sostiene un più stretto piedistallo, sul quale si imposta il corpo centrale dell’altare costituito da un vano coperto dotato di ante, in modo da poter essere chiuso. Nel vano, mediante statue sempre lignee, è riprodotta la scena della Natività, mentre sia sulle ante, fronte e retro, sia sul piedistallo inferiore sono posti riquadri raffiguranti scene affini sul tema della Sacra Famiglia.

Il chiostro:

Il chiostro del convento, risalente al Trecento, è in stile gotico con archi gotici trilobati, il tutto decorato da un prezioso ciclo di affreschi della prima metà del Trecento di scuola giottesca

Il Chiostro

 

Le volte del chiostro

 

Storia :

Le prime notizie sull’esistenza della chiesa risalgono al 1221 circa, ma i frati francescani si erano insediati a Bolzano almeno dall’inizio del XII secolo. La preesistente cappella di San Ingenuino, successivamente dedicata a sant’Erardo, appartenente al capitolo del duomo di Bressanone, viene inglobata nel 1237 nel nuovo complesso in costruzione. La chiesa, comunque, viene edificata su un terreno di proprietà del vescovo di Bressanone. La chiesa viene danneggiata in un incendio nel 1291 e una effettiva ricostruzione si ha solamente nel1348. Anche il coro viene ricostruito in quell’occasione. All’inizio del Trecento, inoltre, viene eretta la cappella della Vergine e poco dopo quella di San Giovanni, poi intitolata a sant’Anna. Nel 1376 viene completato il campanile.

L’interno della chiesa viene modificato durante il 400 : le tre navate vengono coperte da volte reticolate verso il 1450. e le pareti vengono affrescate. Anche le volte del chiostro vengono rifatte in questo periodo. Nel 1500 viene installato l’altare della Natività di Hans Klocker. Verso i primi anni del Seicento i francescani, chiamano a Bolzano da Roma il pittore tedesco Ludwig Pfendter che giunge con un grande numero di aiutanti per fare l’incarico. Fortemente contestato dai pittori locali, che temevano la concorrenza, viene costretto entro poco tempo ad abbandonare Bolzano, lasciando incompleta la decorazione delle volte dei lati sud e nord del chiostro. I nuovi affreschi, comunque, non avranno molta fortuna e verranno in parte ricoperti da affreschi settecenteschi.

Entrata della Cappella di Sant’Erardo

Nel 1616 viene costruito l’organo con le ante dipinte da Georg Vischer, raffigurante le Storie di Gesù Bambino. Verso il 1680 vengono aggiunte le cappelle laterali sul lato sud^.

Nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento la facciata viene rifatta in stile neogotico. La chiesa subisce ingenti danni durante i bombardamenti della seconda guerra mondiale. La chiesa viene in seguito riparata, ma molti degli affreschi vanno perduti. Per contro, emergono cinque sepolcri di nobili di Greifenstein e di Rafenstein risalenti al Trecento. L’ultimo importante restauro risale al 1992.

 

 

(c) Anna Costa, Athina Kostner, Ilaria D’Amicis, Ludovica Galli

 

2ndB wins the “Serendipity” Prize

On May 31^st, the class 2^nd B won the first place in the “Serendipity” competition open to all the High School students of the Province of Bolzano, promoted by professor Santuari. WE presented and elaborated a video about the book 1984 written by the famous author George Orwell. We were officially given the prize, of 150 € to spend on books at the Mardi Gras Library here in Bolzano, by professor Santuari, handed to us by the director Mrs. Biancofiore. The awarding ceremony was here at school with all the other participants and we had a little refreshment to follow.

Link to our winning video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bb9DfAdX6OI

The article we wrote for the local newspaper: Alto Adige

Al liceo linguistico Marcelline Concorso “Serendipity” 2016 Premiati i vincitori

Dieci squadre di studenti degli istituti superiori della provincia di Bolzano si sono ritrovate nell’Aula Magna del Liceo “Marcelline” per la conclusione e premiazione del concorso indetto dall’Associazione Bibliotecari(AESSEBI) della provincia. Si tratta di una competizione che promuove, ormai da otto anni la lettura tra i giovani, associandola alla creazione di elaborati di varie tipologie nell’ottica di “Serendipity”. Questo termine, sconosciuto a molti, coniato nel XVIII secolo, rappresenta la scoperta di qualcosa di inaspettato mentre si è alla ricerca di qualcos’altro, ed è utilizzato in diversi ambiti. Caratterizzata dalla serendipità è anche la vittoria dell’edizione 2016 della classe seconda B del liceo linguistico Marcelline che, pensando solo di realizzare un lavoro concreto a fianco delle attività scolastiche curricolari, si è trovata inaspettatamente vincitrice della categoria “lavori di gruppo”. Per la categoria “lavoro individuale” invece, si è classificato primo Lorenzo Buonarota della classe prima backstage dell’ Istituto Einaudi. Al termine della premiazione un rinfresco con un brindisi e un arrivederci all’edizione 2017.

End of the Academic year: 2ndA

I asked my students of the 2ndA to write an essay on our two years together. I am publishing here some of the most meaningful comments. 

Anny Ballardini

During these two years I’ve learned a lot.

During the first year I learned a lot of grammar. I already knew some of the grammar rules that we did but I didn’t know when we had to use a certain tense or quantifier.

By learning in a more specific way , I had the chance to talk better, without making, quite, any mistakes.

I learned some literature, too. When we had to go to Rome, we studied Caravaggio and that really helped me because I could recognize some paintings and I knew what they represented.

Reading “Frankenstein” and “The Hobbit” in English made me realize how beautiful reading a classic book in its original language is. Reading these books and learning about famous people, like Benjamin Franklin, during the English class, made me realize how beautiful it is to study a culture.

I already loved English but I didn’t know the value of knowing it.

When we went on our school trip in Bournemouth, I was so happy to speak with English people but not just because I love the language, but because they could understand me. I could talk to them without the need to stop  because I didn’t know how to use a tense.

Grammar can be boring but it helps you, it has helped me reach my goal.

In these two years I understood that it was really important to know the culture of a language, its history.

In the English class I realized, that if I study hard, I can get to my goal and set another one, just higher.

Since middle-school I have wanted to speak English fluently and thanks to all the grammar that we did in the English class, I did it. I will always be thankful for this.

© Mirna Vezzali

When I first arrived in Italy two years ago and started to attend this school, English was the language that I could best speak at. It has always been my favorite foreign language and fortunately the one that I have been studying in-depth in Albania. When I started to live here in Italy, I had to dedicate a lot of time to the Italian language as I couldn’t speak fluently and initially I had difficulties to understand properly or entirely the didactic Italian lessons. So, my deep dedication in the Italian, made me have fear that I wouldn’t have the same quantity of time to dedicate to my favorite language and use it also outside school as I used to do in Albania. Fortunately, even though I couldn’t speak in English for a lot of time out of school, my fear of my progress in English is these two years, has disappeared. The English school lesson in this two years period has helped me a lot to strengthen all the grammar rules, not only to learn and repeat theory, but also by putting into practice all these rules and by being continually corrected by the teacher in my spoken mistakes, besides the ones in writing.

      The lessons have been organized in a very interactive way. We have always developed new and very interesting activities in class like : discussions on different topics; presentations; the analysis of documentaries about historical figures or events, together with plenty of other topics. This has enriched a lot not only my English personal vocabulary, but also my personal cultural knowledge in different fields of life. These two years have helped me to develop my self-confidence when I speak in English, and consequently become much more fluent.

     So, in few words, these two years were a really beautiful experience for me , being always immersed in the English world during each English-class and I’m really glad that this experience was concluded in the best way with the beautiful trip to England which will be unforgettable for me.

( C ) RAFAELA ISUFI

These two years were really full of information (written without the “s”) because I learned a lot of things, between grammar rules and new topics… I have to say that my English level was low when I first came here, and now the quality of my spoken English is better. During the first year I studied more, and I was always concentrated on the school; these last months I left the school go where the wind blew, and as the register shows, I received a beautiful 4…

I can say “thank you” to the teacher, because she really helped me to increase my English, even if I have to work still a lot to become better. Apart form this I’m happy to have worked and learned a lot, and I’m sure that this test will be full of mistakes, because I’m like this, I always make errors… Thank you!

© Alex Aufderklamm

When I came to high school I was already able to read and speak in English, but my grammar knowledge was very limited. Since the beginning of past school year I have studied grammar and I realized how important it is, not only to correct writing and speaking, but also to understand the structure of the English language.

In these two years we have followed our grammar course book which particularly focuses on the employment of the time tenses. English grammar isn’t considered too difficult, but the right use of the tenses is fundamental. Thanks to the variety of them and the little differences in meaning we can explain exactly what we intend to say, what may be more difficult for those who learned English from watching films.

We didn’t do a lot of writing in class during our lessons. Instead we learned this out of the summaries we did of a book we read and our teacher corrected. We did many speaking and oral exercises all together in class which improved a lot our pronunciation. We learned to speak more fluently and to express ourselves correctly. This is fundamental in learning a language. Probably some us us might study English at university, but all of us will have to use their speaking skills later in life. Speaking is so important and everybody needs these skills; good writing and reading can be studied more detailed later by interested students. Trough the books we had to read and summarize we improved our reading skills and at the same time we have augmented our vocabulary, without too many efforts.

Now sometimes I read short articles or watch English documentaries and every time I’m impressed by how much I understand and how familiar this language has become to me.

© Jenny Kostner   II A

We have already spent two years together. I think I have learned a lot in this first two-year-period of high school. We have had a lot of discussion in class, read some books and did a lot of exercises. I think the fact of reading entire books has enriched me a lot . It was a completely new experience for me, but I enjoyed it very much, even if I usually don’t love reading. I gained a lot of new vocabulary and could analyze different kinds of writing. A part from this, it was also very helpful for my writing, indeed I could use the new words and memorize them better, by summarizing the chapters. By reading books, having discussions about common themes and doing exercises, I was able to learn without noticing. I think all this has improved me not only as a student, but also as a person. My “culture” has increased and I didn’t really do it on purpose. I didn’t really sit down to start learning. This was what I liked the most: I could learn every day in class. I obviously had some difficulties, because logically it is impossible to learn a language without efforts and all the grammar rules. Fortunately I have had good English teachers in middle-school, who gave me the basis for my English, that I managed to study better during this period. The grammar rules that we learned were much more specific and helped me a lot. It is a success for me, because now I’m able to speak and understand people without having too many problems. This two-year-period of high school has been a positive experience for me.

© Celine Lantschner

This first two-year-period of high school has brought many changes to my life. I think that in this short period of time I have grown up as a person, my mind has developed thanks to the help of my teachers and new experiences. I’ve learned much from every teacher and everyone has given me something that I’ll take with me in my life journey.

In English I’ve learned many new things, not only about grammar, which I studied by heart, but also general information about history, literature and contemporary arts and technology. Thanks to our American English teacher I have enjoyed listening to the little speeches she did in class, and by listening I’ve learned a very good pronunciation. In these two years my vocabulary has been enriched with a lot of words and synonyms that are very helpful in writing a good essay. The lessons we had were sometimes funny and easy-going, because we talked a lot about interesting things and without making too much effort we learned and understood many different things. Personally I think that after these two years I have a good overview of the English-world.

English has been one of my favorite languages since I started studying it at the elementary school. It was never very difficult for me to study this foreign language, and when I had to do some efforts, I did them happily. After this two-years-period and the trip to Bournemouth I think that I understood the importance of this language, being it the language spoken in the entire world. All the efforts I put in the learning of this language have been paid back. The English language is a very valuable personal baggage that I’ll take with me forever. I hope my English studies will be helpful in my future life and that I’ll have the possibility to go on speaking English.

© Chiara Bernardi

 

End of the Academic Year: 1st Class

I asked my 1st class students to write a short essay on “What I have learned this academic year in English: comparing my expectations with my results.” I chose some of the most meaningful writings to share here with everybody. Congratulations to my 1^st class students, it has been my pleasure to spend so much time with you!

© Anny Ballardini

This was the first year for me in this school. At the other schools I was, I didn’t have good English teachers, they were not mother tongue. Because of that, I didn’t learn English very well. But I want to have a good English because I know that this is an important language.

My expectations for this year, where very high. I hoped that I would have a good teacher, who could speak a good English. Now I’m happy; my teacher speaks always English with me and with my class. I have to thank her because I’ve learned a lot. At the beginning of this academic year, I was bad at this language, but I put a lot of commitment in studying and now I can see the results.

A few days ago, some American friends of a friend came to Italy and we had a nice time together, we spoke a lot and I noticed that it wasn’t so difficult for me. I could explain many things about the history of my town and about the flowers of the botanic garden.

I was very happy, they also asked me to go to Tennessee one day, where they live.

I was surprised of my English, once I couldn’t speak one entire minute in English, without stopping. Now I can and I am very happy and proud of this. I did a good progress.

I am also very happy because I know that this school will give me a good basis in languages., so I’ll be able to travel around the world. I would like to live in the United States, so I have to learn English very well. If I continue studying as I have done this year, I will have good results and I will be able to go living in the U.S.

I can see my progress in English because when I am watching English movies or videos, I can understand the biggest part of what the actors say. I often watch the videos of an American man, who teaches how to play ukulele. Thanks to my English I can understand what to do.

Once I couldn’t understand anything.

This makes me so happy.

 

© SARA FERIGO

I have studied English since the 3^rd elementary class and I have always loved this language. Last year I already knew a good English, but I hoped that I would become better this year.

I learned a lot of new things, especially in grammar. After this year it seems to me I have more confidence with the English grammar rules. Another thing that makes me very proud, is that I have learned a lot of interesting topics and now I can also explain them to other people.

If I compare my expectations with my results now, I have to say that I never thought that I would learn so much in just one academic year at the Marcelline School.

As soon as I arrived at this school I thought that I would study only from the book, but it was not so: we did a lot of different things like projects, a movie and some essays.

Last year I never did an essay, so I was very surprised with my results. I can also say that it helped me very much to summarize a book after reading it.

Another thing that helped me to learn a better English, was doing research, like that one about my personal inspiration. With this I had the opportunity to learn a lot of new words. We learned also a lot of things about famous people, like Frida Kahlo and Alfred Hitchkock. These where the most interesting things lessons, because I love to learn new things about foreign or famous people.

Comparing all these things with those that I learned last year, I am very proud that I have studied so many new things that I will also need in the rest of my life. I am also very happy and proud of my results. In the past I never thought that I would speak in English so easily. I know that I have to learn and to study more English to become even better, but t the moment I am proud of my English-level.

I have learned a lot of new things, and I am very happy I have chosen this school; in another school, maybe I would not learn so much.

In conclusion I am happy with my marks and I am surprised that I have learned more than what I have expected.

 

© ANNA COSTA

 

Now we are almost at the end of may, this means, that the school-year is almost over. I’m really glad to finish this, at the beginning, very hard year, and not only in English, I have reached very good results.

I must say, that at the beginning my expectations for this school and especially for the languages, that are learned here, were very high, because this is a very good school. I really like the teachers and I think that in English, compared with the beginning, my level has raised a lot.

I love the way we learn English here: from making a video of our town, to writing a text, to reading different books or doing exercises, we do really everything. I must say that it was never really hard for me to learn English or any other languages, but sometimes I asked myself :” how can I master this?” But only by learning hard, it has brought me good results. I think, that I did a big progress from the beginning of the year in English, especially in writing. Such a progress was really unexpected. This is a school with a quite high level, with very good teachers and very intelligent students. Because of this, before I joined this school, my expectations were even higher, perhaps too high. I never thought that I was going to have these good results, but I also never thought that my English level would improve that much. For example, reading a book in English, helped me a lot, also studying again the irregular verbs helped me.

I finish this year being happy, speaking better in English and having good expectations for the next year.

© Evamaria Mayr

Paola Donagrandi and Nature

The Wheat Field by Claude Monet

Nature is very important for man, because it is something amazing for the territory and also for people. Many trees, animals, rivers, mountains are always beautiful to see. When tourists go on holiday, the go to place where there is nature and peace. I think nature is relaxing, when you are angry or sad you can there your calmness and happiness. Nature is also various: flowers, plants and other. It isn’t boring, because if you look at trees, animals, you can always see something different. Animals are very important because without them, we do not have the food that we need and also because they are something essential. With plants, that produce oxygen, we can live. The colours of nature are incredible and different: red, orange, pink, yellow, blue, green. A rainbow of colours! Without animals and plants we can’t have the ecosystem and every place or city would be full of houses, industries and shops. But in the past twenty year, pollution has been increasing. We have many types of pollution: light pollution, industry pollution. Many industries are built near green-areas and they produce an enormous quantity of CO₂ and the air has become polluted. The animals and the people breathe it and it damages our organism. There is deforestation, which destroys natural habitats of animals, they can’t live and they must leave. So animals go to zoos and live in cages. There are acid rains which are caused by the production of the acidity emitted from the industries. Acid rains destroys the plants, the plants and flowers, but also the structures. The Global Warming is one of the most extreme examples of pollution in these years. Earth is getting hotter because the ozonosphere is getting smaller and it can’t stop the radiation of the Sun, so the Earth receives much warmth. How can we solve the enormous problems we have? At first we have to think about nature and animals. Which damage do they receive? Animals are endangered because they do not have their habitats. We can build green-areas where animals can live free and close the zoos, because they aren’t of any help. For the plants, that are subjected to pollution, we can reduce the quantity of industry or build them in areas not near nature. It is something difficult because politicians don’t think so much about nature, and without the help of politicians we can’t do anything. This is horrible, the politicians think about economy, money but when the problem is nature it is if it was something of no importance. So, before saying that we have to reduce pollution, we have to believe in it and want to save nature, because it is amazing and without it, we are nothing.

© PAOLA DONAGRANDI

 

Our journey to BOURNEMOUTH -2ndA and 2ndB

This year, the second and the third classes of High School at the Marcelline Institute had the idea to go on their school trip to England. After months of work and time dedicated by our English teacher and the ones in England for its organization, we – students of the second A class – together with all the other students departed on April 24 and spent one week in the beautiful town of Bournemouth. The choice fell on this town, well -known for its schools and study trips, to give us the opportunity to practice the English language.

To further encourage the students to speak as much as possible in English, we were hosted by some local families. —They were all very welcoming and nice. Many of us had never been to England before, so it gave us the opportunity to learn a lot about the English culture and different family traditions. The houses we stayed in were traditional English houses and quite different from the tyrolean houses. —
The students attended language courses in the morning for five days. The established program included the development of some activities in the afternoon like the visit to the Jurassic Coast, the bowling game and the small trips to the cities of Portsmouth and Bath.

MONDAY: Jurassic Coast

It is a 95 miles (153 km) long beach in the south of England. We spent an hour and a half on the coach from Bournemouth and, as we arrived, we had a little walk. There were stairs from the path to the gravel beach. The water was fabulous! We also took some pictures and watched the geologists at work. This coast, in fact, is one of the most popular for its Jurassic fossils. —Luckily we had good weather! As we all know the British weather is not very good because it changes very quickly during the day. It still was quite cold and windy but when the sun shone it was warm. —
We restarted to walk towards a little fishermen’s village, where we had a short stop. We got on the coach and returned back home.

TUESDAY: Bowling + Movie

The bowling alley was in the northern part of Bournemouth and we went there by a line bus. Due to the changing weather, the alley is a meeting point for the British population; that’s why in the alley there were also a little restaurant and a lot of games for children and adults.

We spent there about 2 hours and then went back to school, where we watched the film: “The Martian”. It was a really good movie and we found it an alternative way to spend our time together.

WEDNESDAY: Portsmouth

Portsmouth is a town in Hampshire and it was and still is one of the most important ports for the Royal Navy. Most of the city is located on an island. We visited the HMS Victory, a vessel built in 1760 and rebuilt in 1803, used in the fleet by Lord Nelson during the battle of Trafalgar. At the end Nelson was killed and the Victory had the task to bring his body back to England. The HMS Victory was also used in the Baltic Sea to stop the Russian fleet and to maintain the Swedish supplies. After this it became a depot ship and was anchored in Portsmouth.

In this city we also visited the municipality museum that depicted the history of the town. It was interesting since Arthur Conan Doyle lived here and many were the objects that portrayed his stay. The life of the ‘50s was depicted, as well as other interesting things. The last important monument that we saw was the Spinnaker Tower, owned now by the Arab Emirates.

We had also a little time for shopping then we went back to Bournemouth.

THURSDAY: Russell Cotes Museum and Hengsbury Head

In the morning we visited the Russell Cotes Museum, that is hosted in a villa on a cliff in Bournemouth. This museum is an art gallery, but was also a home. In this building we have found a lot of beautiful paintings and the rooms were perfectly preserved. We stayed also in the curate and green garden.

During the afternoon we took the service bus and went to the beginning of the path that leads to Hengistbury Head; it is a sandstone headland in the countryside in Dorset. In 1990 it was recognized as a Local Natural Reserve.

The nearest settlement is Christchurch, we reached it by ferry. There we had some free time and finally headed back to Bournemouth.

FRIDAY: Shopping

During the last day we had all the afternoon free and did a lot of shopping with our friends. We spent a great time in the many shops in the centre!

SATURDAY: Salisbury Cathedral, Stonehenge and Bath

The Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury. It’s one of the most important examples of Early English architecture. The church was built in only thirty-eight years, from 1220 to 1258. That is why it has a single consistent architectural style, the Early English Gothic. The main tower reaches 404 feet and dominated the skyline in the early thirteen hundreds. There was only one big change in the construction of the cathedral made in 1790 by the architect James Wyatt. He replaced the original rood screen and demolished the bell tower which stood one hundred meters north-west of the main building. The enormous bell strikes the time every fifteen minutes.

According to the legend the Bishop of Old Sarum shot an arrow in the direction he would build the cathedral but the arrow hit a white deer that ran farther and died in the place where Salisbury Cathedral is to be found now. Before the years 1220 the city of Salisbury was situated a few miles away from the actual city on a small hill.

One of the main parts of the building is the central spire. It is the tallest in England, it is 404 feet high and weighs 6,400 tons. People can visit the tower, but only with a guided tour. They have to climb up 332 steps and from the top you have a beautiful view on the whole city and the surrounding countryside. Outside the cathedral there are a lot statues dedicated to different Saints. The entire inside is built in the Early English Gothic style of the 13th century. There we can also find Europe’s oldest clock brought there in 1368. Originally it was situated in the bell tower, now people can look at it in the northern part of the church. In the middle of the corridor there is a new designed baptismal built in 2008 and it is made of hand-wrought iron. The water in it is running all time and it reflects the whole inside building of the cathedral. In Salisbury Cathedral we can find the largest and oldest set of choir of the country built under King Henry III. It is all original except for the front rows which were replaced in the 17th century. Behind the choir at the east end of the cathedral there is the Trinity Chapel which was built in 1225. The chapter house, built in 1263-84, is a beautiful example of the Geometrical Decorated style. Along the wall there are more than sixty reliefs of scenes of the Bible. In the east wing we have the English Gothic cloister which is the largest in England. It was used as a prison during the 17th century. In the library, many are the precious manuscripts, including the Gallican Psalter of the 10th century.

Magna Carta (Latin for “Great Charter”) is one of the most celebrated documents in English history. At the time it was the solution to a political crisis in Medieval England but its importance has endured as it has become recognised as a cornerstone of liberty influencing much of the civilized world.

Only four copies of Magna Carta dating from 1215 have survived the ravages of time and Salisbury Cathedral is proud to be home to the best preserved original manuscript. Elias of Dereham, priest and steward of the archbishop of Canterbury is thought to have brought Salisbury’s copy of to Old Sarum in the days following the events at Runnymede and it has remained in the Cathedral’s care ever since.

On our way to Bath, we saw also Stonehenge, a prehistoric monument built with rocks. We didn’t see it properly, but we were anyway happy to get a glimpse of it, and to take pictures.

We arrived in Bath at lunch time. Our guide, took us to different parts of the city, and told us the story of it. He told us that the city, was founded by the Romans, who built a temple and the baths. Bath was a SPA that became popular during the 17th century, because people thought that its springs were curative.

We saw the Bath Abbey, because it was near the baths. It was founded in the 7th century and it became a religious centre. Then it was re-built in the 16th and 12th centuries.

Most of the buildings in Bath are made of the Bath Stone and the dominant style is the Georgian.

After seeing the baths, our guide showed us the Victoria Park. Once, it was closed, but now it is open to the public. This park leads to The Royal Crescent. Here, the third class had the honor to introduce the building.

The Royal Crescent was built between 1767 and 1774 and designed by the younger John Wood.

He designed the great curved façade, with 30 houses. A lot of people lived or stayed in the Royal Cresent since it was first built, over 230 years ago. Some people, that stayed in the terrace, are commemorated on special plaques attached to the relevant buildings. The street near the building is today called “The Royal Crescent” but its original name was “ The Crescent”. People added the adjective “Royal” after Prince Frederick, Duke of York and Albany, had stayed there, at the end of the 18th century.

After the presentation we went to see The Circus.

The Circus, originally called King’s Circus, was designed by the architect John Wood, the Elder, even though he died before finishing the building. His son, John Wood, the Younger, completed the building.

John Wood the Elder wanted to recreate a classical Palladian architectural landscape for the city. On the facades three styles are used: Doric, Roman and Corinthian.

In 1800 the Circus residents used the central part of the open space as a garden. Now, the central area is home to a group of old plane trees.

During the Bath Blitz of 25/26 April 1942 a bomb fell into the Circus, destroying several houses. These have been reconstructed in the original style.

After this, we could go and eat something, because it was well past lunch time and then we had our free time until 5pm. At 5pm we had the meeting in the main square and went back to Bounemouth.

SATURDAY – SUNDAY: Our trip home

We spent our Saturday evening at the school because we had to wait for the bus that then took us to Stansted Airport, in London. It was a long night but we had a lot of fun. The school offered us a pizza, we played darts, billiard, table football and a few of us rested. The bus came to pick us up at 11:00 pm. We all tried to sleep during the 4 hour journey. Once we got to London we waited for the check-in to open (4 am). The teachers gave us our boarding passes and after having checked- in our bags we passed the controls. We got on the plane around 6.15 am. The flight was on time and there was a very smooth landing once we got to Verona. In Verona, a coach picked us up and drove us back to Bolzano. It was very nice to meet our families again and share our experience with them.

This was a beautiful trip that all the students really enjoyed. The group was always on time and participated actively to all the excursions and the activities organised. This school trip has allowed us to have a full immersion in the English world, to practise our knowledge at school, during the activities… and in many other situations. Schools organise school trips in order to complete and verify the language level of students, to feed our minds, to unify the class group, to socialize with new people and bond with new people by creating friendships that could last forever. We think that the real goal of field trips is this. This trip was very well organised, therefore we would like to come back and maybe stay there more time instead of just one week!

(c) 2ndA and 2ndB