RENDERING 1

The editorial published on the website of Fox News, on January 28, 2013 is headlined “Nearly 400-year-old secret painting in Rembrandtmasterpiece revealed’’. The author (Megan Gannon) gives us some details about works of Dutch painter Rembrant Harmenszoon van Rijn. The article touches upon the fact that  the masterpiece "Old Man in Military Costume" bears faint traces of another portrait beneath its surface.

It was revealed that  new studies with more sophisticated X-ray techniques that can parse through the painting's layers give art historians hope that they may finally get to see who is depicted in the secret image.

The article carries a lot of comment on the fact that experiments demonstrate a possibility of how to reveal much of the hidden picture. Scientists used macro X-ray fluorescence analysis to examine a mock-up of Rembrandt's original, created by museum intern Andrea Sartorius, who used paints with the same chemical composition as those used by the Dutch master. Sartorius painted one portrait on the canvas and then an imitation of "Old Man in Military Costume" on top.

The main purpose of the article is to give the reader some information about  the results of these studies that enable scientists determine the best possible approach to employ in their planned upcoming study of the real Rembrandt painting.

Analyzing the situation it is necessary to emphasize that this isn't the first time scientists have delved into Rembrandt's paintings. Previous research revealed why his art possesses such calming beauty, finding the artist may have pioneered a technique that guides the viewer's gaze around a portrait, creating a special narrative and "calmer" viewing experience. Essentially, the researchers found Rembrandt painted more detail in and around the eyes of his subjects, tapping into an innate human attraction to the face.

Pleasure Reading Term 6

Sense and Sensibility by J.Austen

Chapters 1-5

Summary:

Old Mr. Dashwood is the owner of a large estate in Sussex called Norland Park. Following the death of his sister, Mr. Dashwood invites his nephew Mr. Henry Dashwood to come live with him at Norland. The younger Mr. Dashwood brings John Dashwood, his son from a previous marriage, as well as the three daughters born to his present wife. John Dashwood is grown and married, and has a four-year-old son, Harry. When Old Mr. Dashwood dies, he leaves his estate to John and little Harry, who had much endeared himself to the old man. But now John's father, Henry Dashwood, is left with no way of supporting his wife and three daughters, and he too dies one year later, leaving only ten thousand pounds for his family. Just before his death, he makes his son John promise to care for his stepmother and three half-sisters.

Mr. John Dashwood initially intends to keep his promise and treat his female relatives generously, but his wife Fanny, a narrow-minded and selfish woman, convinces him to leave them only five hundred pounds apiece. Fanny moves into Norland immediately following Mr. Henry Dashwood's death and becomes mistress of the estate, relegating John's stepmother Mrs. Dashwood and half-sisters Elinor, Marianne, and Margaret to the status of mere visitors.

Fanny's brother, Edward Ferrars, visits Norland for several weeks and develops a strong attachment to Elinor Dashwood. Edward is the eldest son of a man who died very rich; now his entire fate depends upon his mother's will. Although he is shy and not particularly handsome, he has an open, affectionate heart. His mother and sister want him to distinguish himself and earn prestige, but Edward is a simple man, who longs only for domestic comfort.

In her discussions with her mother and her older sister, Marianne Dashwood expresses her disappointment that Edward is not a more striking, artistic, poetic man. She can tell that Elinor has feelings for Edward but becomes frustrated when Elinor concedes only that she "likes" and "esteems" him; Marianne longs to hear her sister profess her passionate devotion. However, Elinor remains timid because she is still unsure that Edward reciprocates her affection; such things are not usually openly expressed until after the engagement.

Six months after Fanny installs herself as mistress at Norland, Mrs. Dashwood receives a letter from her cousin Sir John Middleton, inviting her and her daughters to reside at Barton Cottage on his property in Devonshire. Eager to distance herself from Fanny's rudeness and insensitivity, Mrs. Dashwood immediately accepts the invitation and sends three servants ahead to Barton to prepare the house for their arrival. She informs John and Fanny of their imminent departure and encourages Edward Ferrars to come visit them at Barton. Following Marianne's tearful goodbye to their home at Norland, the family sets out for Barton Cottage.

Individual Reading -the last part.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GWmbkA0q3DMazuILag4_XGMhDxLqzGEGXAttN4WHK70/edit

W.S.Maugham "In a Strange Land”

W.S.Maugham "In a Strange Land”

Interpretation

Born in Paris, of Irish ancestry, Somerset Maugham was to lead a fascinating life and would become famous for his mastery of short evocative stories that were often set in the more obscure and remote areas of the British Empire. Suffering from a bad stammer, he received a classic public school education at King's school in Canterbury, Kent. Rather more unconventionally he studied at Heidelburg university where he read philosophy and literature. He then studied in London, eventually qualifying as a surgeon at St Thomas's hospital. He conducted his year's medical practice in the slums of the East End. It was here that he found material for his first, rather lurid, novel Liza of Lambeth in 1897 and much of the material for his critically acclaimed autobiographical novel Of Human Bondage although this wasn't to be published until 1915.

Continuing with more peacable travels, Maugham took to the South Seas, where he visited the island of Tahiti and on which he based his novel The Moon and Sixpence. Sickness would then force Maugham to return and remain in a Scottish tubercoulosis sanatorium. However, on recovery, he returned to the Far East and collected imperial information and experiences that would form the basis of many short stories, plays and novels: East of Suez in 1922, Our Betters in 1923 and The Letter in 1927, are amongst the better known of these.

I think the title has only direct meaning, dealing with a foreign country which is unfamiliar and odd to you. The main character observed the behavior of old English who leave their native land.

The story touches upon many problems, but the major one, in my opinion, is love without borders.

The narrator  stood at the hotel in Turkey where he met Signore Niccolini - an  English woman. She was a house-keeper in service in a noble English family, and her husband Signor Niccolini was a chef. Later the couple bought a hotel and after many years she continued living there but without the husband. Signor Niccolini had died and his wife adopted his sons and she never returned back to England. This story shocked the narrator because it was strange for him to get accustomed to a place and lost the contact with the relatives.

The main idea of the story is connected with the fact that one should know one's roots. It is impossible to grow into the foreign culture fully. Origin would give oneself away.

I would like to tell about Signora Niccolini; she was an Englishwoman, living in Turkey for many years. She described directly. She looked exactly like a house-keeper in a great English house. She looked upon everyone who wasn’t English as a foreigner and therefore as someone, almost imbecile, for whom allowances must be made. She ruled her staff despotically, and everything about the hotel was clean and neat. Signora Niccolini speak Turkish very well but her cockney accent made her quite recognized for the narrator.

The story seems to me very interesting, because of the way it is organized and the number of the themes that are mentioned there.

When you are in love with someone who belongs to your usual environment, you somehow know them and things are easier. However, when you fall in love with a stranger—who may even be a foreigner—things are quite different. People that have a mentality influenced by traditions are different from people that are dominated by modernism for example, and if you are in love with someone who belongs to a family with a mentality totally different to yours, things will be quite difficult between you two. What is really important in a relationship is the other person’s personality. If their personality fits with yours, you’ll be happy!

However, if you are in love with a foreigner, you’ll have more obstacles and difficulties in order to find out who they really are, because of all the problems we have already examined and many others. So, do your best in order to learn everything you can about the unknown person before getting too involved with them, without really understanding who you are with.

Individual Reading Part 3

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GWmbkA0q3DMazuILag4_XGMhDxLqzGEGXAttN4WHK70/edit

Rendering 12

The editorial published on the website of the newspaper "The New York Times” on November 1, 2012 is headlined “As Wolves’ Numbers Rise, So Does Friction BetweenGuardians and Hunters’’. The author (STEVEN YACCINO) gives us some details about the situation in the United States. The article touches upon the fact that  Ms. Dowler cares for five full-grown purebreds. She bottle-fed them as pups and howls with them at passing sirens. The other day she gave one breath mints through a hole in the fence, passing it directly from her lips to his.

It was revealed that  Hers seems a fairy tale world compared with the legal dogfights occurring beyond these kennels. Out there, Wisconsin is three weeks into its first wolf-hunting season, sanctioned by the State Legislature in April. Minnesota is scheduled to begin its first registered wolf hunt this weekend.Moreover, the legalization of wolf hunting in both states was devised to manage a rebounding wolf population after the federal government stopped listing the species as endangered in the region last year. Both have drawn lawsuits from local and national animal rights groups that fear the undoing of nearly four decades of work to restore a healthy number of wolves.

The article carries a lot of comment on the fact that since the wolf hunt began last month, at least 42 have been killed in Wisconsin. All told, officials expect 600 wolves will die at the hands of hunters and trappers in the two states before spring. Wolves were once so numerous in the United States that ranchers and government agencies paid people to kill them. By the time the Endangered Species Act began protecting wolves in 1973, they were nearing extinction in the lower 48 states. Today, wolf numbers have grown to 4,000 and exceeded recovery goals in the western Great Lakes area, according to federal estimates. In addition, Wisconsin humane groups have filed a lawsuit to prohibit the use of dogs for hunting wolves, calling it cruel. Minnesota advocates also took legal action against their state in an attempt to stop its hunt, which lasts from Nov. 3 to Jan. 31. And Minnesota’s Chippewa tribes have banned wolf hunting and trapping on its reservation lands.

The main purpose of the article is to give the reader some information about  animal rights groups have little sympathy for the hunters. They argue that the state kill quotas do not properly account for other ways that wolves can die, like poaching and vehicular collisions and the killing of the animals by farmers and ranchers protecting their livestock. Those additional causes, they say, could put the animals at risk again.

Analyzing the situation in the word it is necessary to emphasize that people absolutely love wolves  or they absolutely hate them. There are few people in the middle. So many animals are now in danger of extinction that a list is kept in a Red Book. unfortunately, the list gets longer every year.We should do something, we can’t wait. We mustn’t wait!

Individual Reading

Without Remorse