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MF's Reading/Listening Proposal for Elementary Students EPONYMS Listen here: Eponyms are proper names that have become nouns or adjectives. (Or well, as people think, nouns which come from proper names!) Eponyms can come from real life, literature, mythology, trademarks... Can you think of any eponyms in your own language? MEDUSA Medusa, a Greek myth, was a beautiful woman. Poseidon, the god of the sea, fell in love with her. They got involved. The goddess Athena was very jealous. She punished Medusa. Athena changed Medusa's hair into serpents and her face into something horrible--if you looked at Medusa you turned to stone. ¡Poor Medusa! Today medusas are jellyfish. You can find them in the sea, when you go on holidays. HOOLIGAN Patrick Hooligan was born in Ireland. He travel(l)ed to England and he became a criminal. He was active in the 1890s. He and his family met the members of their gang every night. They all met at The Lamb & The Flag, a pub in south London. By the way, pubs are “public houses”, places to eat and drink, to socialize and sometimes to sleep! At the beginning, hooligans were lawless people. Today hooligans are violent football supporters. JACUZZI The Jacuzzis were Italian inventors. Candido created a pump for ornamental gardens. In 1968 Roy used this pump for massage in baths because he had a son who was ill, and he wanted to cure the child. Today jacuzzis are very popular. But they are very expensive, too. SANDWICH John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich (1718-92), was an English diplomat. He was addicted to gambling. He could play cards for two days non-stop! So he told his servants to bring him food--slices of cold beef and bread. This had never been done before. It was very strange and very funny. Today a sandwich is a snack made with sliced bread, not French bread. CEREAL Ceres was the Roman goddess of grain and agriculture. So the Romans called cerealis their grains. Then the Anglo Saxons used the Latin word (a borrowing), but adapted it to English-they said "cereal". "Cereal" is pronounced like "serial". They are homophones. Tell me, why are people obsessed with cereal killers? PANIC Pan was the Greek god of woods, shepherds and flocks. He had a human body and human ears. But he had the horns and the legs of a goat. He was very naughty. He scared people in the forest--he appeared suddenly and made weird noises at night. Today “to panic” is to be terrified, very scared or frightened. 1 BLOODY MARY Mary I was the last Catholic Queen of England (1553-58). She tried to re-introduce Catholicism and repressed the Protestants. Mary burned nearly 300 people at the stake for their beliefs. Her father Henry VIII burned 81 people and her younger sister Elizabeth I, 5 people. This was why Mary was called "Bloody Mary". Today a bloody mary is a drink made with vodka and tomato juice! QUIXOTIC, DON QUIXOTE Don Quixote is the hero of the most famous novel by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (15471616), one of the most relevant Spanish writers ever! The novel was written to make fun of chivalry and the very popular chivalric novels, which were extremely popular at the time. Don Quixote, infatuated by stories of chivalry, travels Castilla in pursuit of noble adventures and fights windmills thinking these are threatening giants. Strangely enough (or not), today being quixotic or a Quixote means being idealistic, and this is meant to be derogatory! 0_0 CASSANDRA Cassandra was the daughter of Priam, the king of Troy, in Greek mythology. She had the gift of prophecy, but after she rejected Apollo*, she was punished: her prophecies would never be believed. Cassandra prophesied the sacking of Troy. Today a cassandra is a person whose analysis is ignored in spite of its value to speak about real events. Feminists are a bit like modern cassandras in spite of all the good things their struggle has brought to the human race. * In Greek and Roman mythology gods used to rape women but storytelling presented it as seduction. DALTONISM John Dalton (1766-1844) was a scientist, but he was not permitted to attend Cambridge or Oxford because those schools were only for members of the Church of England, and Dalton was a Quaker. So after Elementary School he became self-taught. Dalton created a law for gases and an atomic theory, and he was awarded a medal for this. Dalton and his brother were color blind, so he also devoted research time to this visual defect and was the first to describe the condition in 1794. Today daltonism means color blindness. For eponym lovers, follow-up online crossword (difficult): http://www.talkingpeople.net/tp/hotpot/crosswordseponyms01.htm In Spanish, by field of knowledge, http://espanolinternacional.blogspot.com.es/2010/10/eponimos-ciencia-tecnologia.html 2 POEMS This Is Just To Say, by W. Carlos Williams Dreams, by Langston Hughes I have eaten the plums that were in the icebox Hold fast to dreams For if dreams die Life is a broken-winged bird That cannot fly. and which you were probably saving for breakfast Hold fast to dreams For when dreams go Life is a barren field Frozen with snow. Listen here: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tppodcast/2009/10/23/poe ms-this-is-just-to-say-by-william-carlos-williams/ Listen here: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tppodcast/2010/12/23/poe ms-dreams-by-langston-hughes/ Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold Autobio Autobiography In Five Short Chapters, by Portia Nelson Listen here: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tppodcast/2009/06/14/poems-autobiography-in-5-short-chapters-by-portianelson/ III I I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I see it is there. I still fall in ... it's a habit. my eyes are open I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately. I walk down the street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk I fall in. I am lost ... I am helpless. It isn't my fault. It takes me forever to find a way out. II IV I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again. I can't believe I am in the same place but, it isn't my fault. It still takes a long time to get out. I walk down the same street. There is a deep hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it. V I walk down another street. 3 Story-telling The Housing Poem, by Dian Million Listen here: http://www.talkingpeople.net/tppodcast/2009/08/29/poems-the-housing-poem-by-dian-million/ Minnie had a house which had trees in the yard and lots of flowers she especially liked the kitchen because it had a large old cast iron stove and that the landlord said was the reason the house was so cheap. Pretty soon Minnie's brother Rupert came along and his wife Onna and they set up housekeeping in the living room on the fold-out couch, so the house warmed and rocked and sang because Minnie and Rupert laughed a lot. Pretty soon their mom Elsie came to live with them too because she liked being with the laughing young people and she knew how the stove worked the best. Minnie gave up her bed and slept on a cot. Well pretty soon Dar and Shar their cousins came to town looking for work. They were twins the pride of Elsie's sister Jo and boy could those girls sing. They pitched a tent under the cedar patch in the yard and could be heard singing around the house mixtures of old Indian tunes and country western. When it was winter Elsie worried about her mother Sarah who was still living by herself in Moose Glen back home. Elsie went in the car with Dar and Shar and Minnie and Rupert and got her. They all missed her anyway and her funny stories. She didn't have any teeth so she dipped all chewable items in grease which is how they're tasty she said. She sat in a chair in front of the stove usually or would cook up a big pot of something for the others. By and by Rupert and Onna had a baby who they named Lester, or nicknamed Bumper, and they were glad that Elsie and Sarah were there to help. 4 One night the landlord came by to fix the leak in the bathroom pipe and was surprised to find Minnie, Rupert and Onna, Sarah and Elsie, Shar and Dar all singing around the drum next to the big stove in the kitchen and even a baby named Lester who smiled waving a big greasy piece of dried fish. He was disturbed he went to court to evict them he said the house was designed for single-family occupancy which surprised the family because that's what they thought they were. NURSERY RHYMES ABC - ABCDEFG HIJK LMNOP QRS TUV WXYZ http://youtu.be/yseWMJS8IHw FIVE LITTLE MONKEYS - Don't look for the lyrics. Let's see if you can hear the words you don't understand! http://youtu.be/b0NHrFNZWh0 RAIN, RAIN http://youtu.be/nB0hPuG7Kjc finish later on... 5