Goya's 275th Birthday Brings Aragon into the Spotlight

The 275th anniversary of Goya's birth has become an opportunity to bring the underpopulated county of Campo de Belchite and the village of Fuendetodos back to the map.  

The Guardian recently reported on the "Territorio Goya" project, which aims to exploit the 200th anniversary of Goya's Black Paintings to "stem the decline of a region where there are just 4.8 inhabitants per square kilometre". In this article, which is suitable for C1 students and above, you can come across words like: to summon, to stem [the decline],  to devour, a witches's sabbath, to drown, a printmaker, [to be] appalled, slumber, to cling [to the map], a curator, a resident, [annual] income, a profound pull, to empower, the plight [of Campo de Belchite], the hollowed [Spain], a demographic challenge, [to be] squeezed, to have a project underway, to mark [the 275th anniversary], demolished, [to be] stripped out, canvas, a mock-up [image], to commission, to reintepret, the reworked [paintings], an installation, a casualty, boom-and-bust [cycle], the [perfect] venue, artworks, [to be] displayed, to make the pilgrimage, [the project] is about [ensuring that...], to receive [his] dues, to undertake [a commission], Follies [series], rough [landscape], to be keenly aware of, a lighthouse.

The Metropolitan Museum in New York is currently offering the exhibition Goya's Graphic Imagination, which, according to The New York Times, "offers a vital tonic from an artist with (to our eyes) all the right political commitments: horrified by violence, revolted by unearned priviledge, standing up for freedom and knowledge and rights for all". If you want to read a review of the exhibition catalogue written by Mark MacDonald, you can follow this link to Enfilade, the blog of the Historians of Eighteenth Century Art & Architecture (HECAA) society. This text is suitable for C2 students and above.

Finally, you can also watch this 20':24" video below, which is a virtual tour of the exhibition with subtitles in Spanish, so, it can be accessible to C1 students and above.  The video is a fantastic visual lesson on Goya's artistic production by the curator of the exhibition, Mark MacDonald.

Abelone Kelley April 08, 2021 0

Twitter Turns an Old Quarry in Nigeria into a Tourist Hotspot

This BBC article tells the story of an old stone quarry that has become a new tourist hotspot in Nigeria after it became popular through Twitter.  The article is short and it has very illustrative pictures, so it can be accessible to B2 students.

But here you can find a lesson plan which focuses on vocabulary and speaking, basically, for C1 students.

B2 learners (and above) will find rich, descriptive vocabulary here, like an abandonded quarry, a tourist hotspot, a cliff, a moss-lined footpath, to shimmer [in the sun], [the views are] breathtaking, on the outskirts, to be thronged, food vendors, a burgeoining community, expatriates, lockdown, to be somewhat bemused, city-dwellers, tiers, a stunning view, sightseers, a winding footpath, the top terrace, [the path] snakes down to the water's edge, the brave, to plunge into, an aquifer, a fracture-prone area, tremors, to warn amateurs against hiking, fun-seekers seemed not to be deterred, chagrin, to put measures in place, to clear up a trail of plastic waste, to split, a clean-up dash, to dispose of [litter], to poison [a place], [a job or a profession] to be cut out for [me].

If you are interested in local varieties of  English worldwide, you can read here a West-Africa pidgin version of the article above from the BBC Pidgin Service, based in Lagos (Nigeria).

Abelone Kelley August 28, 2020 0