GeographyFestivals in Britain

Britain’s ethnic communities make it a veryculturally rich country. One of the manythings the different communities bring tothe country is a celebration of theirtraditional festivals.

2 T4.26 Ascolta e leggi le informazioni su trefestività. Abbina le foto al paragrafocorrispondente.

Multicultural Britain1 Leggi il testo e rispondi alle domande.

There are four countries in the UnitedKingdom: England, Scotland, Wales andNorthern Ireland. The population of the UK is58 million. British people speak English, butthere are many other languages, too. 20% of the people in Wales speak Welsh, 17% ofScottish people speak Gaelic and around 9% of the people from Northern Ireland speak Irish.

Britain has a very large ethnic community.Nearly 30% of the population have origins in West Indian and Asian countries. This isbecause of Britain’s colonial past. Commonlanguages in the Indian community arePunjabi, Urdu and Hindi. Britain also has a large Chinese community and in LondonChinese New Year is a very popular festival.There are also large numbers of Europeans:Italians, Poles and Greeks. 49% of the peoplein London speak a second language as well as English.

1 How many countries are there in theUnited Kingdom?

2 What language do 17% of Scottish people speak?

3 What are the origins of 30% of Britain’s population?

4 What three languages are common in Britain’s Indian community?

5 What is a very popular festival in London?

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3 Rispondi alle domande.

1 When is the Italian festival? 2 Which part of London is it in? 3 What is the name of the church? 4 What is Diwali? 5 When is Diwali? 6 What do people decorate at Diwali?7 When is Chinese New Year? 8 Where is the Chinese festival?

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Pensa all’Italia...• Quanti abitanti ci sono? • Ci sono comunità etniche? • Da dove provengono?• Hanno delle feste particolari?

Confronta le tue risposte con quelle delcompagno e poi prepara una brevepresentazione per la classe (25–35 parole).

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-0 Diwali -0Hi, I’m Prem and my family are from India. I’m from Coventry. Every year theIndian community celebrates Diwali. This is the Indian Festival of Light and itrepresents our New Year. The festival takes place in October or November.Five days before the festival we decorate statues of our gods with new clothesand jewellery. We put lights next to the statues and then put them next to thedoors of our houses. Then on our New Year’s Eve we have a big party, withlots of food, music and fireworks.

e Chinese New Year fHi, my name’s Mei. My family is Chinese. I’m from London. Every year wecelebrate the Chinese New Year. It’s usually in January or February. There’salways a big celebration in London. There’s a procession with a big dragon.The dragon is an important symbol of China. Thousands of people come toChina Town in the centre of London. In the evening we have lots of fireworks.

� La Madonna del Carmine �Hello, I’m Laura. My family are originally from Parma. I’m British and I’m fromLondon. Every year there’s an important festival in Clerkenwell, the Italiandistrict of London. Clerkenwell has got an Italian church, St Peter’s. Everysummer it organises the celebration of La Madonna del Carmine. This is in July.It starts in the morning with Mass at the church. Then there is a procession with floats. Men carry the Madonna around the town centre and everyone follows. At lunchtime there is a big feast in Little Italy. You can find all kinds ofItalian specialities, for example, pizza, foccacia and pasta.

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History 7777777777777777777'''''aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Celtic Britain and the Rune alphabet Britain’s history is rich and varied. The British people are from a range of different tribes. One of these tribes was the Celts. Here is a time line of their history.

1 T4.27 Risolvi gli anagrammi e poi completa la linea del tempo con i nomi dei luoghi. Usa le parole del riquadro come aiuto. Poi ascolta e controlla.

Scotland Iceland France Wales England London Spain Ireland

500 BC Celts from 1 [CRAFEN] travel across the EnglishChannel to Britain. The Celtic name for Britain is ‘Albion’.

475 BC Celts from 2 [PNAIS] travel to Ireland.

55 BC Julius Caesar and his Roman army arrive in 3

[DALGNEN].

54 BC – The Roman army fights the Celts; the Celts are brave and strong.AD 62AD 43 The Romans win a big battle and Emperor Claudius rides into Londinium

(or 4 ) [NOOLDN] on an elephant.

AD 62 The Celts (with Queen Boudicca) fight the Roman army in Londinium;the Celts win the battle.

AD 43 – The Celts live in the west of Britain: 5 [DRAINEL],6 [DTNSOCAL], Wales and Cornwall in thesouth west of England. Welsh, Gaelic and Cornish are all names ofCeltic languages from 7 [ALEWS], Ireland andCornwall. Cornish is similar to Breton (an old Celtic language fromBrittany in the north of France).

AD 300 In the northern country of 8 [DALCIEN] Odin creates the Rune alphabet. This is a new alphabet with symbols and letters.

AD 432 In Ireland St Patrick draws a circle, the Celtic symbol for the moon, on the Christian cross and creates the first Celtic cross.

Celtic Cross

Julius Caesar

Saint Patrick

Queen Boudicca

AD 200

Runes

Look at this message: “I � London”. The � is a symbol. It means love. The Celtsused symbols (pictures), to write messages.The symbols were also alphabet letters.These letters are runes. The Rune alphabethas got 24 letters. Some symbolscorrispond to letters in our alphabet.

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f j u

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g b n i

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2 Guarda l’alfabeto runico sulla sinistra. Ci sono le lettere del tuo nome nell’alfabetorunico?

Yes ■■ No ■

3 Decifra le parole e mettile nella categoriacorretta.

People

Colours

Animals

Objects

4 Usa l’alfabeto runico per scrivere altre treparole.

English word Rune123

r

h m

e

This rune is the Celtic letter ‘L’. It also means ‘water’.

This rune is the Celtic letter ‘D’. It also means ‘morning’or ‘the start of the day’.

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���� ���ScienceThe Animal Kingdom There are six basic groups of animals. These are: mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles, insects and fish. The groups are different in many ways.

1 T4.28 Ascolta e leggi il brano. Poi scrivi la classe corretta sotto ogni figura e abbina l’immagine al testo.

Amphibians Fish Mammals Insects Reptiles Birds

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They are the only animals with fur orhair on their bodies. They drink milk from

their mothers when they are young. They arevertebrates. This means they’ve got a backbone.They give birth to live young; they don’t layeggs. They are warm-blooded. Monkeys,elephants, cows and sheep are mammals. We are mammals, too.

They are vertebrates and they are alsowarm-blooded. They’ve got feathers andwings, so they can usually fly. They haven’tgot teeth or mouths, but they’ve got beaks.They lay eggs and they often build nests.Penguins, owls and pigeons are all birds.

They are vertebrates, but they are cold-blooded. They lay eggs and their young areborn in water. Their body shape changes a lotas they grow. They eat insects. They live in ornear water. Frogs and toads are amphibians.

They are vertebrates and they are alsocold-blooded. Most of them lay eggs. Theirskin is very hard. They usually live in hotcountries. Some are very dangerous.Crocodiles, snakes and lizards are reptiles.

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fur

beak

wingfeather

nest

2 Ora fai una lista di tutti gli animali menzionati nel testo e mettili nella colonnacorretta. Fai attenzione: alcuni animali possono comparire in più di una colonna.

Vertebrates

Invertebrates

Warm-blooded

Cold-blooded

3 Vero (T) o falso (F)? Correggi le affermazionifalse.

1 Mammals have got fur or hair on their bodies. ■■

2 All birds have wings. ■3 Amphibians live in or near water. ■4 Some reptiles are very dangerous. ■5 Insects have eight legs. ■6 Fish are invertebrates. ■

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Pensa all’Italia e rispondi alle domande.Poi usa le tue risposte per scrivere unparagrafo sugli animali in Italia (25 – 35 parole).

• Quali uccelli, mammiferi o rettili si trovano in Italia?

• Qual è il tuo animale selvatico preferito?Dove vive? Di che cosa si nutre?

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They are invertebrates. They haven’t gota backbone. They usually have six legs andsome have wings. The majority lay eggs, butsome give birth to live young. Beetles,cockroaches and ants are all insects.

They are vertebrates and they are alsocold-blooded. They live in water and cannotlive on land. They don’t give birth to liveyoung; they lay eggs. Examples of fish aregoldfish, sharks and trout.

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Maths

3 Calcola quante monete e banconote tiservono per comprare gli oggetti seguenti.Usa il minor numero possibile di monete e banconote.

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Conversions1 In coppie, fatevi domande e rispondete.

• How much money have you got in your pocket / bag?

• How far do you travel to school? • How much do you weigh? • How tall are you? • How much water do you drink in a day?

British money

2 Leggi il testo sulla valuta inglese e scrivi ilvalore sotto ciascuna figura.

The currency in the UK is pounds (£) and pence (p).The proper name for the pound is ‘the pound sterling’.There are 100 p in a pound. The face of the king or queen is always on British notes and coins.

The colours of the coins and notes are: The 1p (called ‘one pee’) and 2 p (‘two pee’) coinsare copper.The 5 p, 10 p, 20 p and 50 p coins are silver.The £ 1 coin is gold.The £ 2 coin is gold and silver.The £ 5 note is blue. The £ 10 note is brown.The £ 20 is purple and the £ 50 is red.

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Distance

4 Leggi il testo e poi calcola le distanze in basealle unità di misura del riquadro.

To speak about distance, British and Americanpeople traditionally use miles (m), yards (yd), feet (ft) and inches (in.). Speed limits are in milesand in British cars you can see the speed inmiles. When people use a map to find thedistance between two places, it is in miles, notkilometres (km). European law says all Britishpeople must use kilometres, metres (m) andcentimetres (cm) for distance by 2009.

1 How long is 16 inches? cm2 How long is 7 feet? m cm3 How long is 20 yards? m cm4 How tall are you in feet and inches?

ft in.

Weight

5 Leggi il testo e poi calcola il valore dei pesiin base alle unità di misura del riquadro.

Traditionally, the British use pounds (lb) andstones (st) to measure weight. This is changingto kilograms (kg), also called kilos and grams (g),but many people still use pounds when they talkabout weights. Cookery books, scales andsupermarkets now use both pounds andkilograms. There are 14 pounds in a stone and16 ounces (oz) in one pound. The table shows theconversion of pounds into metric measurements.

1 How many kilos are 112 pounds?

2 How many pounds are 10 kilos?

3 How many grams are 11 ounces?

4 How much is 72 lb 15 oz in kilos and grams?

5 How much is a 500 g packet of pasta in pounds?

Liquid measurements

6 Leggi il testo e poi calcola le misure per i liquidi in base alle unità di misura delriquadro.

The pint is the traditional form of liquidmeasurement for the British. European law saysBritish people must use litres by the year 2009.The British can use pints for two things after 2009– beer and milk. In a pub, they can still ask for ‘a pint of beer’ and they can buy ‘a pint of milk’ in a shop.

1 How much are 3 pints of beer in litres?

2 How much are 4 litres of milk in pints?

3 How much are 3 gallons of water in litres?

4 How much are 15 litres of cola in pints?

5 How much are 75 gallons of coffee in litres?

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1 stone (st) = 6.36 kg1 pound (lb) = 0.45 kg1 ounce (oz) = 0.28 g

1 gallon (gal.) = 4.55 litres1 pint (pt) = 0.57 litres

1 mile (m) = 1.61 km1 yard (yd) = 91.44 cm1 foot (ft) = 30.48 cm1 inch (in.) = 2.54 cm

���� ���ScienceEnergy

1 T4.29 Leggi e ascolta il testo sull’energia. Poi prepara una lista dellediverse fonti di energia.

Energy is fundamental for life. But what is energy and where do youget it from?

• Humans get energy from food. Without energy we cannot walk, run or think.

• Animals get energy from food, too. • Plants get energy from the Sun. Sunlight helps them grow. • A car gets energy from petrol.• A TV gets energy from electricity.• A yacht gets energy from the wind.

2 Ora guarda il diagramma.

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The energy cycleEnergy is all around you. Often,you cannot see it, but all movingthings are using energy. Energycomes from the Sun. Look at theenergy cycle.

Energy comes from the Sun.

Heat and light from the Sun reach the Earth.

The heat and light make the grass grow.

A cow eats the grass.

The cow grows big and fatand it produces milk.

We drink the milk and eat the cow’s meat.

Experiment

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3 T4.30 Leggi e ascolta il testo e decidi se leaffermazioni sono vere (T) o false (F).Correggi le affermazioni false.

Solar energy

Light is another type of energy. Light comesfrom the Sun. Light travels very fast. The Sunis millions of kilometres away, but it takes nine minutes for the Sun’s light to reach the Earth.

Sunlight looks white, but it is made up ofmany different colours. When sunlight shinesthrough drops of water, you can see all thedifferent colours. This makes a rainbow.

1 Light is a type of energy. ■■2 Light doesn’t travel fast. ■3 The Sun is millions of kilometres away. ■4 Heat and light from the Sun don’t

reach the Earth. ■5 It takes a long time for the Sun’s light

to reach the Earth. ■6 Sunlight is made up of different

colours. ■7 You can sometimes see the different

colours of sunlight. ■8 When sunlight shines through water

it makes a rainbow. ■

4 Guarda l’esperimento a destra e rispondialle domande.

1 What colours can you see on the paper?2 Does it look like a rainbow?3 What are the seven colours of the

rainbow?

In coppie, preparate una lista delle cose che richiedono energia. Di’ da dove pensi che provenga l’energia che serve per farlefunzionare.Per esempio: car–petrol

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Make your own rainbow

Put a dish next to awindow.

Put a mirror in it.

The mirror looks up at the Sun.

Don’t look at themirror. Hold a paperabove the dish.

Move the mirror around to reflect theSun onto the paper.

You need:

• a dish with water • a small mirror • a piece of paper

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