Category: the conversation

Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Boomeranging

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence

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Amy Yau, Cardiff University
Sofia Christidi, University of South Wales

Picture this: a man in his forties unpacks his holiday suitcase, only to find an entire rack of lamb and a giant cheese pie carefully tucked in by his mother.

For many adult children, like the participants in our study, the experience of receiving well-meaning but unsolicited parental care is both endearing and exasperating. And it symbolises a deeper tension in modern family dynamics.

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Banksy’s London animal murals

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence

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Nicholas Jenkins, University of the West of Scotland

Banksy fans were delighted in August, as nine animal-themed murals by the street artist appeared across London in as many days. Speculation is rife about what deeper meanings may lie behind the new artworks. Yet, according to Pest Control (the body that authenticates Banksy’s work) far too much has been made of them already.

I’m a sociologist, not an art critic, but I don’t think the murals are deep meditations on the nature of society. Nor do I think some coded political message will reveal itself now that all the images can be viewed together. The murals have captured the public imagination, not because they’re artistic masterpieces, but because they play with something beyond the world of pop art – our love, fear and fascination with animals.

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Smash through the intermediate plateau

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence

by
Jill Boggs, University of Swansea

How can I improve my English? This was a question frequently posed by my students in South Korea. My initial advice was straightforward – dedicate time and effort.

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Whatchamacallit, thingamajig

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This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence

by
Ursula Kania, University of Liverpool

Over 50,000 years ago, humans started speaking and we’ve not shut up since. Sometimes, though, we struggle to remember the name of an object, a place, or a person we want to talk about. The technical term for this phenomenon is “lethologica”.

While severe word-finding difficulties can be due to serious neurological issues, such as a stroke or dementia, drawing the occasional, temporary blank is very common. Unsurprisingly, stress doesn’t help, and it gets worse as we age.

But what can we do if we’re coming up empty yet still want to keep the conversation going?

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: The king’s first portrait

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by
Gabriele Neher, University of Nottingham

It looks as if many people are “seeing red” when it comes to the first official portrait of King Charles III. Reactions to Jonathan Yeo’s monumental portrait have certainly been mixed.

Fundamentally, this is the most traditional of images. It’s a portrait painted in oil on a monumental scale (it measures nearly seven feet by nine feet) of the monarch.

Charles wears the red coat of the Welsh Guards, the regiment for which he was made regimental colonel in 1975. A lot of attention has been lavished on his uniform, displaying a range of medals including the striking chain of the Order of the Garter. The colour palette of the painting plays with the rich red hues of that coat.

There are no royal insignia, because this is not the image of a king, this is the image of the patron of The Most Worshipful Company of Drapers, a guild with medieval origins. The portrait was commissioned to mark Charles’s association with the guild for over 50 years.

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Finding your purpose

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Nilufar Ahmed, University of Bristol

Perché non provi inizialmente ad ascoltare l’audio senza leggere il testo?

Often presented as the solution for people lacking direction, the notion of “finding your purpose” might sound like a cliche. But having a sense of purpose has been linked with a range of physical and mental health benefits. So what actually is purpose, why does it matter, and how can you find yours?

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: Deepfakes

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Manos Tsakiris, Royal Holloway University of London

Even if you think you are good at analysing faces, research shows many people cannot reliably distinguish between photos of real faces and images that have been computer-generated. This is particularly problematic now that computer systems can create realistic-looking photos of people who don’t exist.

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Lettura e ascolto intermediate in inglese: The Nordic model of Equality

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Geoffrey M Hodgson, University of Hertfordshire

Rising inequality is one of the biggest social and economic issues of our time. It is linked to poorer economic growth and fosters social discontent and unrest. So, given that the five Nordic countries – Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden – are some of the world’s most equal on a number of measures, it makes sense to look to them for lessons in how to build a more equal society.

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