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    Indirizzi: LI04, EA03 - LICEO LINGUISTICO Tema Di: Lingua E Cultura Straniera 1 (Inglese) Lingua E Cultura Straniera 3 (Francese)

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    Mariangela Rizzo
    The passage describes a story told by the narrator's Kiowa grandmother about the origins of Tai-me, the most sacred fetish of the Kiowa people. It discusses how the grandmother, unable to read or write, taught the narrator the importance of storytelling and listening as a way to understand language and culture. It explores how her telling of the story represented the revered oral tradition and oldest ideas about humanity held by the Kiowa people.

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    Indirizzi: LI04, EA03 - LICEO LINGUISTICO Tema Di: Lingua E Cultura Straniera 1 (Inglese) Lingua E Cultura Straniera 3 (Francese)

    Uploaded by

    Mariangela Rizzo
    192 views2 pages
    The passage describes a story told by the narrator's Kiowa grandmother about the origins of Tai-me, the most sacred fetish of the Kiowa people. It discusses how the grandmother, unable to read or write, taught the narrator the importance of storytelling and listening as a way to understand language and culture. It explores how her telling of the story represented the revered oral tradition and oldest ideas about humanity held by the Kiowa people.

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    The passage describes a story told by the narrator's Kiowa grandmother about the origins of Tai-me, the most sacred fetish of the Kiowa people. It discusses how the grandmother, unable to read or write, taught the narrator the importance of storytelling and listening as a way to understand language and culture. It explores how her telling of the story represented the revered oral tradition and oldest ideas about humanity held by the Kiowa people.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    192 views2 pages

    Indirizzi: LI04, EA03 - LICEO LINGUISTICO Tema Di: Lingua E Cultura Straniera 1 (Inglese) Lingua E Cultura Straniera 3 (Francese)

    Uploaded by

    Mariangela Rizzo
    The passage describes a story told by the narrator's Kiowa grandmother about the origins of Tai-me, the most sacred fetish of the Kiowa people. It discusses how the grandmother, unable to read or write, taught the narrator the importance of storytelling and listening as a way to understand language and culture. It explores how her telling of the story represented the revered oral tradition and oldest ideas about humanity held by the Kiowa people.

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    PROVE SCRITTE PER L’ESAME DI STATO - INGLESE (pagina 1/4)

    NOME ............................................................................................ CLASSE ....................................... DATA .......................................

    SECONDA PROVA SCRITTA

    Indirizzi: LI04, EA03 – LICEO LINGUISTICO


    Tema di: L INGUA E CULTURA STRANIERA 1 (INGLESE)
    LINGUA E CULTURA STRANIERA 3 (FRANCESE)

    PART 1 • COMPREHENSION AND INTERPRETATION

    Read the text below.


    “My grandmother was a storyteller; she knew her way around words. She never learned to read
    and write, but somehow she knew the good of reading and writing; she had learned how to listen
    and delight. She had learned that in words and in language, and there only, she could have whole
    and consummate being. She told me stories, and she taught me how to listen. I was a child
    5 and I listened. She could neither read nor write, you see, but she taught me how to live among
    her words, how to listen and delight. ‘Storytelling; to utter and to hear...’ And the simple act of
    listening is crucial to the concept of language, more crucial even than reading and writing and
    language in turn is crucial to human society. There is proof of that, I think, in all the histories and
    prehistories of human experience. When that old Kiowa woman told me stories, I listened with only
    10 one ear. I was a child, and I took the words for granted. I did not know what all of them meant,
    but somehow I held on to them; I remembered them, and I remember them now. The stories
    were old and dear; they meant a great deal to my grandmother. It was not until she died that I
    knew how much they meant to her. I began to think about it, and then I knew. When she told
    me those old stories, something strange and good and powerful was going on. I was a child, and
    15 that old woman was asking me to come directly into the presence of her mind and spirit; she was
    taking hold of my imagination, giving me to share in the great fortune of her wonder and delight.
    She was asking me to go with her to the confrontation of something that was sacred and eternal.
    It was a timeless, timeless thing; nothing of her old age or of my childhood came between us.
    “Children have a greater sense of the power and beauty of words than have the rest of us
    20 in general. And if that is so, it is because there occurs – or reoccurs – in the mind of every
    child something like a reflection of all human experience. I have heard that the human foetus
    corresponds in its development, stage by stage, to the scale of evolution. Surely it is no less
    reasonable to suppose that the waking mind of a child corresponds in the same way to the whole
    evolution of human thought and perception. […]
    25 “My grandmother used to tell me the story of Tai-me, of how Tai-me came to the Kiowas. The
    Kiowas were a sun dance culture, and Tai-me was their sun dance doll, their most sacred fetish;
    no medicine was ever more powerful. There is a story about the coming of Tai-me. This is what
    my grandmother told me:
    Long ago there were bad times. The Kiowas were hungry and there was no food. There was a man who
    30 heard his children cry from hunger, and he began to search for food. He walked four days an.d became
    very weak. On the fourth day he came to a great canyon. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning.
    A Voice spoke to him and said, “Why are you following me? What do you want?” The man was afraid.
    The thing standing before him had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered with feathers. The man
    answered that the Kiowas were hungry. “Take me with you,” the Voice said, “and I will give you whatever
    35 you want.” From that day Tai-me has belonged to the Kiowas.
    “Do you see? There, far off in the darkness, something happened. Do you see? Far, far away
    in the nothingness something happened. There was a voice, a sound, a word – and everything
    began. The story of the coming of Tai-me has existed for hundreds of years by word of mouth. It
    represents the oldest and best idea that man has of himself. It represents a very rich literature,
    40 which, because it was never written down, was always but one generation from extinction.
    But for the same reason it was cherished and revered. I could see that reverence in my
    grandmother’s eyes, and I could hear it in her voice.
    (717 words)
    from House Made of Dawn (1968), N. Scott Momaday (1934-)

    Prove scritte per l’Esame di Stato – INGLESE La riproduzione di questa pagina tramite stampa o fotocopia è autorizzata
    Marina Spiazzi, Marina Tavella, Margaret Layton © Zanichelli 2020 ai soli fini dell’utilizzo nell’attività didattica
    Read the following statements and say whether each one is True (T), False (F) or Not Stated
    (NS). Put a cross in the correct box.
    1. The narrator’s grandmother didn’t appreciate the importance of reading and writing and
    didn’t find delight in writing wonderful stories.
    T F NS

    2. She taught her grandson the crucial skill of learning to write.


    T F NS
    3. The grandmother and the child never shared something extraordinarily creative and
    eternal.
    T F NS

    4. Children have an instinctive feel for words.


    T F NS

    5. The story of the Tai-me’s coming is revered by the Kiowas because it is the oldest story
    passed down through the generations.
    T F NS

    Answer the questions below. Use complete sentences and your own words.
    6. Examine how the author’s choice of the first-person narrator adds interest and authenticity to
    the text. Comment on the use of descriptive adjectives and the atmosphere created. Justify
    your answer by referring to the text.
    7. Explain what the narrator means when he says that ‘She was asking me to go with her
    to the confrontation of something that was sacred and eternal. (line 17).
    8. Why is the story of Tai-me so important to the Kiowa people? What does it represent?

    PART 2 • WRITTEN
    PRODUCTION

    We have two ears and only one tongue in order that we may hear more and speak less.
    Diogenes Laërtius (3rd century AD)
    Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more
    acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on.
    Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just
    waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.
    Eudora Welty, One Writer’s Beginnings (1984)

    Discuss the quotations in a 300-word essay. Support your ideas by referring to your
    readings and/or to your personal experience.

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