To our Director, Prof.ssa Antonella Biancofiore, to our Mother Superior Sr. Augusta Keller, to all the teachers, the students and their families, and finally to all those who have accepted to be interviewed, my very best wishes,
Anny Ballardini, Blogmaster
Il volontariato: un’esperienza che aiuta a crescere
Anche quest’anno gli alunni/e delle Marcelline hanno deciso di “fare del bene”: un gruppo di quaranta ragazzi e ragazze hanno dato la loro disponibilità ad offrire un po’ del loro tempo libero.
La parola d’ordine è “aiutare il prossimo” e l’importante è avvicinare le persone con un sorriso, senza giudicarle ne’ criticarle.
Tutti possono provarci, anche se non sempre è facile; certo è che grazie a questa esperienza i giovani crescono positivamente dal punto di vista umano: imparano ad apprezzare ciò che hanno; capiscono meglio il prossimo; scoprono che la felicità non è data dal denaro o dall’età; scoprono anche “il peso delle parole”: una sola parola a volte può rallegrare l’intera giornata ad una persona.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.” _Gandhi.
Il video del nostro lavoro: http://youtu.be/qE6yPuJuuls
© Pansoni Caterina, II Liceo Linguistico
© Cristina Senoner, II Liceo LInguistico
© Suor Maria Grazia Cazzato, responsabile del progetto
The Fault in Our Stars
“Some infinites are bigger than other infinites”
The Fault in Our Stars is a novel by author John Green. The story talks about the main character, the seventeen year old Hazel Grace Lancaster, as she battles cancer.
One day, Hazel attends the Support Group for people who are suffering from cancer. This is where she meets Augustus Waters. They become really good friends and Hazel tells him about her favourite book, An Imperial Affliction. They talk about the end of the book, which ends in an unfinished sentence. Augustus manages to contact the author, Peter Van Houten. Hazel emails him and tells him she wants to know about the end of the book, and he invites both of them to Amsterdam.
Unfortunately Hazel’s parents don’t have the money to pay for the trip to Amsterdam so Augustus surprises Hazel by telling her that he still has his wish (a wish given to cancer sufferers) from when he had cancer and when he lost his leg and he’d happily use it to take her to Amsterdam to meet Peter Van Houten. Hazel is over the moon about the surprise but first she has to persuade her parents and her doctors to let her take the trip.
They go to Amsterdam and get to know the author of An Imperial Affliction. Peter Van Houten, who turns out to be a nasty character and who does not answer any of Hazel’s questions.
Hazel is really angry and upset about the meeting. Lidewij, Peter Van Houten’s assistant, shows Augustus and Hazel Anne Frank’s House and this is where Hazel kisses Augustus and she finally falls in love with him. While walking through the park Augustus tells her that he was diagnosed with cancer before going to Amsterdam and he does not have much time left. Hazel is shocked and breaks out in tears.
As they get back to Indianapolis Augustus wants Isaac, a friend from Support Group, and Hazel to share their eulogies that they wrote for him. Throughout it all Hazel is with him until the very end.
Augustus dies eight days later. Hazel is shocked and she can’t believe he has left her, his family and all his friends. At his funeral she gives a different eulogy, because she thinks he knew what she wrote and she wants to keep her thoughts about him to herself.
Peter Van Houten suddenly turns up out of nowhere at the funeral. She talks to him about An Imperial Affliction and he tells her that his daughter also died of cancer and the book is dedicated to her.
Isaac tells her that Augustus wrote a sequel of An Imperial Affliction that she wanted, before Augustus’ death. She contacts Lidewij and asks her if she knows anything about a sequel that Augustus wrote for her. Lidewij sends Hazel the sequel. It turns out to be a eulogy for Hazel’s funeral and not a sequel of the book.
The book ends with Hazel reading the eulogy and Augustus writing:
“ I like my choices. I hope she likes hers.”
“I do.”, she answers.
My Comment:
I have read the book about four times and I never get bored of it. It’s really emotional and inspirational. It describes the reality we are living in. We sometimes have to let go of the people we love most. It’s sad but true.
It’s not only a story about cancer, it’s a love story. John Green doesn’t want readers to think that Hazel and Augustus are special because they are both dying of cancer. He wants readers to think the opposite; that they are average teenagers, who fall in love for the first time in spite of the cancer.
He explains things in a way that I never thought about and they are all so true. Every time I read the book I learn new things. It’s as if you had to find the key to a secret door.
I don’t read a lot but this book convinced me to continue reading books because you just lose yourself in them, and perhaps more importantly, learn from them.
John Green
John Green is a very popular author in Adult fiction. The Fault in Our Stars is considered his outstanding bestseller.
John Michael Green was born on August 24, 1977, in Indianapolis. He worked as a student chaplain after graduation in a children’s hospital. He wanted to become an Episcopal priest. However, the time he spent among children with terminal-illnesses convinced him to become a writer. Afterwards, he worked as a publishing assistant for Booklist, a book review journal.
He also began writing his debut Looking for Alaska. Eventually, he had his project completed and published by 2005. In 2006 he won the American Library Association’s Michael L. Printz Award.
Green quit his job at Booklist as a critic with the intention of working as a professional writer.
His success was achieved by publishing The Fault in Our Stars. It has now been adapted for the big-screen, released in June 2014. John Green’s works in collaboration with other writers include Let It Snow: Three Holiday Romances (2008) and Will Grayson, Will Grayson (2010).
© Emily Insam – 1st B Linguistic Lyceum
Sherlock Holmes Short Stories, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Introduction
The book I read gathers some of the most famous stories of the detective Sherlock Holmes and his friend Dr. Watson, selected and retold by Anthony Laude.
The stories are: The Man with the Twisted Lip, The Engineer’s Thumb, Wisteria House.
The author
The author is Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. He was born 22 May 1859 in Edinburgh (Scotland) and died 7 July 1930 in Crowborough (England)for a sudden heart attack. He was a doctor, an author and a poet. He is considered, with Edgar Allan Poe, the founder of the crime stories. He studied at the Stonyhurst Jesuit College in Clitheroe. Then he studied in Austria at another Jesuit college and finally graduated at Edinburgh University at the faculty of medicine in 1885. In this period he wrote his first book, The Mystery of Satana Valley, a horror story, and his first article about medicine, specifically about a sedative that he tried on himself. He founded a remedy for the tuberculosis, supported the reform for divorce and intervened against the atrocities in Congo. He became a very influential man. He began to write the stories of the detective Sherlock Holmes when he opened a medical office in Southsea that wasn’t successful, that is why he found time to write. He wrote the first story about Holmes in 1887, it was called A Study in Scarlet. Doctor Watson was the narrator, in which the author felt reflected.
The Man with the Twisted Lip
Under the request of Mrs. Whitney, Watson went to an opium den to find her husband. There, he found Sherlock Holmes dressed up like an old man. He was looking for a man called Neville Saint-Clair that had been missing for a few days. Watson could find Mr. Whitney and brought him home. After this, Watson and Holmes went to the house of Neville’s wife to query her. She told that a few days before she saw her husband on the second floor of the Bar of Gold, on Upper Swandam Lane. It was an opium den and he was waving at a window. Neville’s wife decided to call the police because she thought that they would never let her in. When the policeman arrived and searched the room, he could only find another person called Hugh boon. He was a beggar. There was a window that looked onto the Thames and here the police found a few blood stoins. Out of the river lied Saint-Clair’s jacket, so Holmes understood that Neville was dead. But later that night, Mrs. Saint-Claire received a reassuring letter from her husband. The day after Holmes went to the police department and paid Hugh Boone a visit. The detective cleaned the face to this beggar and discovered that Saint-Claire and Boone were the same person. He explained that for several years he was earing more money as a beggar than as an employee but he had not the courage to tell his wife the truth.
The Engineer’s Thumb
In the year 1889 a London hydraulic engineer went to Holmes’ house and told him about the strange happenings of the night before. He had a nightmare in which he saw that Mr. Hatherley’s thumb had been cut off. The Colonel Lysander Stark visited Hatherley in his office. The Colonel offered him a job at a country house to examine an hydraulic press used to compress fuller’s earth into bricks. But he could not say anything about this job, which was paid 50 guineas. He accepted because until then he had only had little work. When the next day he came to meet Stark, he had to do little repairs in his house. When he discovered that the press wasn’t used for pressing fuller’s earth he escaped, ventured death when the machine turned on, his thumb splitt. When Holmes made sense of what had happened, Watson could go to the house to interrogate Stark and his allies they arrived too late: the house was on fire with the machine, which ruined the criminals’ operation. This case is one of the few where Holmes fails to bring justice and punish the enemies.
Wisteria house
There were some strange events at the house of Garcia, a friend of Scott Eccles went to Holmes to relate about then. Garcia was dead and the police wanted to interrogate Eccles. He was invited by Garcia to stay a few days at his house with his two servants. At dinner, Garcia was distracted, especially when he received a note. At one o’clock in the morning Garcia went to wake up Eccles because he thought that Eccles had rung a bell to ask for assistance. The next day Eccles was alone in the house. The police said that Garcia was killed before a rainfall at one o’clock. The police arrested the cook that worked for Garcia because they thought that he had a connection with the crime. Holmes believed that Garcia invited Eccles to his house to witness that he was home at one o’clock. He believed also that the nearby house on high Gable had to do with the crime. An old evil man lived here called Mr. Henderson. Miss Burnet, a woman that lived there, said that she wasn’t able to see anything since Garcia’s murder. When Holmes and Watson tried to climb into Burnet’s room at the house, they all escaped. At the end Holmes discovered that the police had arrested the wrong man, the cook, to make Henderson feel safer and so to save Miss Burnet.
Personal opinion
I personally like crime stories but I always read books written by Agatha Christie in Italian. I’ve never read Sherlock Holmes. It was my first book by the author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I liked it because there is a lot of psychology about the thoughts of Sherlock Holmes and this is why this book is different from the others. I would suggest it. It was a great pleasure to read this book. I will also read other books of Holmes. The language is not too difficult also because at the end of the book there is a little vocabulary with the explanation of the most difficult words. There are also some activities for the comprehension of the three short stories. This book is especially made for those who study English. This book is simplified for the upper-intermediate level (B2).
Après avoir assisté le 17 novembre dernier au spectacle “Notre Dame des Banlieues”de la Compagnie France Théâtre la classe 5a a écrit quelques réflexions sur une des chansons entendue.
La chanson “Coeur de bombe” de Diam’s raconte un amour qui finit mal comme dans le roman de Victor Hugo Notre Dame de Paris ( qui a inspiré le spectacle écrit par Frédéric Lachkar) et aussi comme les amours de nos jours qui trop souvent donnent lieu à des explosions de violence.
Texte de la chanson:
Coeur de bombe – Diam’s
Petit coeur est tombé… sur une bombe. (x2)
Petit coeur est tombé… et ça fait mal, ça fait mal.
Ҫa commence par des regards,des promesses,
des « Oui mais… », de la romance tard le soir,
des sms, des emails,des ballades près du canal,
des blablas, des silences.
On se partage nos balafres et là voilà, c’est l’évidence.
Les lèvres, la langue, le coeur et la lenteur,
le rêve, la chance, les heures d’apesanteur.
Délirer sur l’avenir des nuits passées en autarcie.
« On le fait ? »
« Pas tout d’suite, attends non chérie pas tout d’suite. »
Coupés du monde, à fond dans la relation,
toi t’es ma bombe, les autres c’étaient tous des cons
de toute façon, toi c’est pas pareil t’es une perle tu sais, t’es rare.
Je crois que ‘Je t’aime’ etc, etc…
Petit coeur est tombé… sur une bombe. (x3)
Petit coeur est tombé… et ça fait mal, ça fait mal.
Quelques mois plus tard, je déménage, on emménage.
Les nuages cachent l’orage, on le sait, on l’envisage.
La bombe est tranquille,
la femme un peu moins sûre, reflexe de fille,
je veux tout vite et bien plus.
Puis la folie reprend vite, mais la vie la bousille*. (=rovina)
Et oui, faut-il encore savoir gérer la routine.
Venus et Mars s’accusent parce que l’amour ça tue le temps,
mais quand le temps tue l’amour alors Venus s’excuse.
Feminine passionée, horloge biologique,
Masculin dépassé, problèmes psycholoqiques.
« Le mariage pourquoi attendre ? Pourquoi pas, vas-y, dis-moi.
Non mais attends tu peux comprendre chérie, ça ne fait que huit mois.
Et les enfants tu y penses ? Et si on devenait parents ?
Mais attends tu peux comprendre ma belle, ça ne fait que 3 ans.
T’es tarée, t’es trop speed, trop triste pour moi.
Ma chérie ‘Je ne t’aime plus’ etc, etc… »
Petit coeur est tombé… sur une bombe.
Petit coeur est tombé… et ça fait mal, ça fait mal. (x3)
J’te laisse imaginer la suite, la rage et les pleurs.
« Qui garde l’appart» et le partage des meubles ?’
Il m’insulte, me lynche, me tire même son chapeau.
C’est donc vrai derrière les princes, y’a toujours un crapaud.
Je laisse les anges répondrent
et me donner de la force, car pour sûr ma jolie bombe
reviendra taper à ma porte.
Je le sais, il me dira ce que je rêvais d’entendre, qu’il veut enfants
et me marier sans attendre.
Il me dira combien il lutte et souffre, se rappelant de nous deux
sous la lune recherchant la grande ourse.
A peine 3 mois après la rupture, je le verrai ramper,
camper sous la pluie au pied de mon appart trempé.
A tous les hommes qui en bavent car la femme est plutôt chiante,
mais si douce, possessive et attachante.
N’attendez pas qu’elle parte, retenez-la, épousez-la,
avant qu’une autre bombe ne lui dise « Je t’aime » etc, etc…
Petit coeur est tombé… sur une bombe.
Petit coeur est tombé… et ça fait mal, ça fait mal.
Je suis tombée sur une bombe, une bombe comme on en voit rarement.
Le coeur fait « boum» puis tombe.
Sur une bombe.
Je suis tombée sur une bombe, une bombe qui te parle d’enfants.
Le coeur fait « boum » puis tombe.
Sur une bombe à retardement.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy5AyGT5TfE
“Une relation qui n’est pas du tout normale est une relation de dépendance aussi bien affective qu’économique, dans laquelle la femme est soumise et considérée par l’homme comme un objet qu’il doit posséder. Et ça ce n’est pas une relation d’amour, c’est une relation destructrice qui ne finit pas simplement mal, mais franchement pire! “ Melanie Paro
“ Je crois que l’amour n’est pas facile… en fait beaucoup de poètes ont dédié leur vie à ce sentiment.L’amour est le sentiment le plus beau et le plus destructif! Au début, quand on tombe amoureux, tout est vraiment magnifique mais avec le temps on comprend que la réalité est un peu différente. Je ne crois pas que toutes les histories d’amour soient comme celle que raconte Diam’s mais je crois qu’on doit comprendre bien l’autre personne et se respecter pendant toute la vie. On doit être intelligent et comprendre quand une histoire est finie et aussi laisser s’en aller l’autre personne. C’est important de rester dans une relation tranquille. On peut aimer une personne et comprendre ses limites. On doit être comme nous voudrions que l’autre soit avec nous.” Jasmine Gabrieli
“Le passage “Féminine passionée, horloge biologique,Masculin dépassé, problèmes psychologiques” décrit les deux façons de vivre, d’être et de penser quand on parle des hommes et des femmes dans une relation. La femme sensible et passionée se jette à corps perdu dans l’histoire, au contraire, l’homme agit avec prudence et circonspection et il n’est pas disposé à suivre l’horloge biologique de la femme qui sent en elle-même le besoin de se marier et d’avoir des enfants à un certain instant de sa vie. L’homme est dépassé par les évènements et quand il ne réussit pas surmonter ces moments cela lui crée des problèmes psychologiques.” Valentina DePinto
“ La dernière strophe de la chanson est dramatique en général parce qu’elle parle plus directement de la violence et du fait que l’homme viendra toujours chercher sa femme, sa proie. Il y a une phrase qui me touche beaucoup :” c’est donc vrai derrière les princes il y a toujours un crapaud. Je laisse les anges répondre et me donner la force.” C’est une phrase très triste qui souligne qu’il est difficile d’avoir confiance en un homme car le même homme que nous avons un jour aimé s’est brusquement transformé en un monstre. La femme alors, n’a pas d’autre possibilité que de se laisser aider par les anges. “ Francesca Bormolini
© Isabelle Rohmer
© Melanie Paro
© Jasmine Gabrieli
© Valentina DePinto
© Francesca Bormolini
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