Benutzer:Vogt Rebecca

Aus RMG-Wiki
Wechseln zu: Navigation, Suche

Inhaltsverzeichnis

K 12

The election in Germany

  • I think "Schwarz-Gelb" would not be that good for Germany, especially because of their nuclear atom policy.
  • Maybe it's going to be a "Große Koalition" again.
  • No matter who is going to win this election - he will have to deal with a lot of problems mainly because of the economyic crisis, I suppose.


Barack Obama

  1. Obama@MySpace Obama at myspace.com, some comments from different people
  2. Nationalreview Article: Obama - The Great American Hope?


Hispanics about Obama

  1. Hispanic Business Magazine Underrepresentation of Hispanics in federal agencies
  2. VOA News Expectations and hopes of Hispanics concerning Obama and his government

Summaries of the two texts above:

Article 1 (Hispanic Business Magazine):

  • Hispanics are underrepresented in federal employment → President Obama wants to change this.
  • Obama has already appointed many Hispanics to "high level administration positions".
  • The text also mentions two examples of Hispanics living the "American Dream": Ken Salazar and Hilda Solis - the first Hispanic woman to serve in the U.S. Cabinet.

Article 2 (VOA News):

  • Many Hispanics voted for Barack Obama.
  • They want Obama to be fair and to pay attention to the requests of the steadily growing Hispanic population in the US.
  • They for example want Obama and his government to offer them the opportunity to get a good education and to put an end to the war in Iraq, where also many Hispanic soldiers fight for the US.
  • Furthermore the Hispanics stand up for a immigration reform.


Queen's (King's) English

  1. Wikipedia Definition of the "Queen's English"
  2. Queen's English Background & Features of the "Queen's English"
  3. YouTube.com The Queen's speech at the French State Banquet
  • The "Queen's or King's English" is the kind of English the British monarch speaks.
  • Today the British Royal Family basically speaks "Standard English".
  • Nowadays the "Queen's English" is very similar to the "Received Pronunciation".


Poetry

Edna St. Vincent Millay: I shall forget you presently, my dear

  • rhyme scheme: four lined stanzas (abab,cdcd,efef); the last two lines build a couplet (gg)
  • metre: 5-footed iamb (exception: "whether or not" in the penultimate line)


Razorlight - Wire to wire

The song "Wire to wire" from the group "Razorlight" is about love and its consequences. The speaker of the song has been let down and searches now someone who he can trust again. The song is composed of seven stanzas, it doesn't have a continuous rhyme scheme, but it is full of repetitions. The title of the song - "Wire to wire" - symbolizes the connection between two people - emotional on the one hand and with telephones on the other if these two people are far away from each other. Already the first line of the song shows that the speaker has been let down and that he has discovered that there is not only a nice side of love but also a dark one. Therefore he calls love "the strangest of feelings". He also calls it "a sin you swallow for the rest of your life". In the following lines he says that he has been "looking for someone to believe in". He repeats this several times. That he wants to be loved until he is happy again, shows the phrase: "To love you until your eyes run dry." However he still uses the more impersonal pronoun "you", which later changes into "I". The second stanza shows that he has found someone who shares "the same scar". So he has found someone who has been let down too and therefore might be able to understand him. In this stanza the sentence "love me, wherever you are" also appears for the first time. This sentence shows that he wants to be loved and represents the leitmotif of the song. During the following stanzas he questions himself again and again how he shall love someone if his feelings slowly disappear. Furthermore he repeats the leitmotif several times and stresses the fact that he is looking for someone who he can "trust" and "believe in". All in all the speaker somehow seems to be restless and desperate because he asks himself lots of questions and makes a lot of repetitions.


The advert "Buckle up ..."
question answer
what product? road safety measures
aim and target group? car drivers
elements (description, relation between them?) four photos with four people, three of these photos are marked with a black ribbon => the three people are dead, in the fourth picture the black ribbon works as a safety belt
how is "customers'" attention attracted? no text, one has to think about it to get its message
message (of text and image)? buckling up can save your life
how does the advert work, how are people influenced/convinced?
  • advert appeals to car drivers
  • message is supported by the four photos
  • advert uses customers' fear of death (in order to convince them to buckle up)
  • viewer is reminded of how fast car accidents can happen and how bad this can end


On the advert one can see four photos with one person on each of these photos. The photos are arranged side by side. The first three of them are marked with a black ribbon, so the three people on these photos are probably dead. On the fourth image, however, the black ribbon doesn't symbolize death. On this photo it works as a safety belt for the fourth person. Although the advert doesn't have a slogan, it transfers a rather clear message: Buckling up can save your life.
So the advert is obviously directed towards car drivers. Seeing this advert they are reminded of how fast accidents can happen and of how terrible these accidents can end. So the advert implies that if car drivers are buckled up car accidents at least won't end that often with the death of the drivers. Furthermore car drivers are not only advised to buckle up, having seen this advert they might also start to drive more carefully in order to cause less car accidents. In addition to this the advert shows with the small change between pictures three and four how easy it is to do something for your safety as a car driver.


K 13

Changing Places by David Lodge

Two Main Characters: Personality, Family, Career

Morris Zapp

  • 40 years old
  • smoker
  • he never left America so far
  • long gorilla-like arms
  • professor of English
  • cannot swim
  • light-headed
  • veteran of long distance flying
  • he exaggerates
  • he's got a wife (Désirée is his second wife but she wants the divorce)
  • he's got three children (one with his first wife)
  • he is distinguished
  • possesses will and ambition so he published five books and many articles in PMLA
  • is depressed because he has everything achieved that he wanted to achieve
  • neither has affection nor respect for the British

Philipp Swallow

  • afraid of flying
  • 40 years old
  • smoker
  • unaccustomed to travelling
  • unconfident
  • infinitely suggestable
  • observes other people
  • conservative/traditional
  • married too (he and his wife Hilary have three children; they live in a large, damp and draughty Victorian villa)
  • good imagination
  • professor of English
  • excited about flying/travelling
  • he isn't distinguished
  • he is intelligent but lacks ambition so he has only published a few essays and reviews
  • he liked examinations and was good at writing them
  • loves literature in all its various forms
  • scrupulous, painstaking and stern
  • feels guilty because he is probably not going to miss his wife and his children

University Life And Academical System

Euphoric State University

  • State University of Euphoria (formal name)
  • one of America's major universities (designed like a replica of the leaning Tower of Pisa; built of white stone)
  • situated on the west coast of America between Northern and Southern California: mountains, lakes, rivers, redwood forests, blond beaches and an incomparable bay
  • with the most distinguished scholars
  • equipped with expensive laboratories and libraries; research grants (wealthy university)
  • it is not too difficult to obtain a bachelor's degree in America
  • the students are mainly left to their own devices and can cheat easily
  • the pressure begins at the postgraduate level with many courses and assessments

Rummidge

  • an average university (middling size and reputation)
  • situated in a large, graceless industrial city which is sprawled over the English Midlands (intersection of three motorways, twenty-six railway lines and half-a-dozen stagnant canals)
  • old building of red brick (designed like a replica of the leaning Tower of Pisa too => exchange programme between the two universities)
  • in the British educational system competition begins and ends much earlier than in the US

Life In The USA vs. Life In Britain

USA

  • Philip Swallow connotes to America: showers, cold beer, supermarkets, heated open-air swimming pools, infinite varieties of ice cream, sunshine, parties and drinks, cheap tobacco
  • violent and melodramatic land
  • deep divisions of race and ideology
  • political assassinations
  • campuses in revolt
  • growing cities and devastated countryside

Britain

  • it rains all day long
  • the British act like fags and then turn out not to be (Morris Zapp)
  • they wolf canapés and gulp the gin (Zapp)
  • they talk in high, twittering voices (Zapp)
  • many industrial cities in the Midlands (like Rummidge)
  • drink tea every day (teatime)
  • Zapp: " ... sank into the bottomless morass of English manners ... "