Australian "kiss"

What's an Australian kiss?
The same thing as a French kiss, except down under.

*It can also be called "Aussie kiss".

"The Origin Of The Phrasal Verb"

Samuel Johnson was a distinguished 18th century English author who, in 1755, published the Dictionary of the English Language. In the preface he wrote:

“There is another kind of composition more frequent in our language than perhaps in any other, from which arises to foreigners the greatest difficulty. We modify the signification of many words by a particle subjoined…”

Dr. Johnson was one of the first lexicographers to pay close attention to what is referred to in Modern English as the phrasal verb; and he couldn’t have been any more accurate in stressing just how frequently we use them, and how dumbfounded foreigners are by them.

Apparently phrasal verbs have been present in the English language for centuries. Their ancestors can be found in Old English (mid 5th century to mid 12th) in the form of a prefix verb, meaning the particle always came attached to the verb as a prefix. Post verbal particles did exist; however they were relegated to stressing only direction, place, or physical orientation, as in “to grow up(ward)” (direction) or “to stand by” (place).

Many shifts and influences occurred in the English language which gave rise to the use of the phrasal verb during its Middle English phase. By late Middle English there were a myriad of phrasal verbs in different forms, from “understand” and “overtake” (remnants of Old English) to “take up” and “write-off”.

By early Modern English (late 15th century to mid 17th) phrasal verbs had exploded onto the scene. This is evident in the works of Shakespeare who employed them widely throughout his plays. In fact they were used quite extensively in dramatic texts from this time due to their varying shades of meaning and capacity to form new idioms. Their Latin or Old English based single-word verb roots were delegated to essays and academic writing, i.e. more formal works; a rule of thumb that exists until today.

To give you an example, the phrasal verb “to break up” is synonymous with the Latin based verb “to destroy”. Whereas “to destroy” is somewhat limited to its literal meaning, which is to ruin or demolish something completely, “to break up” has various shades of meaning, from taking something apart to ending a relationship.

Over the last four hundred years phrasal verbs have truly fixed themselves in colloquial English. However have no fear, English hasn’t abandoned its perfectly good single-word verbs…they’re just not as fun to use!

;)

"April Fool's Day" or "All Fool's Day"

April Fools' Day, sometimes called All Fools' Day, is one of the most light-hearted days of the year. Its origins are uncertain. Some see it as a celebration related to the turn of the seasons, while others believe it stems from the adoption of a new calendar.

Unlike most of the other nonfoolish holidays, the history of April Fool's Day, sometimes called All Fool's Day, is not totally clear. It is not like Halloween, where despite an interesting history, most people just put on Halloween costumes, get candy, and leave it at that. There really wasn't a "first April Fool's Day" that can be pinpointed on the calendar. Some believe it sort of evolved simultaneously in several cultures at the same time, from celebrations involving the first day of spring.

The closest point in time that can be identified as the beginning of this tradition was in 1582, in France. Prior to that year, the new year was celebrated for eight days, beginning on March 25. The celebration culminated on April 1. With the reform of the calendar under Charles IX, the Gregorian Calendar was introduced, and New Year's Day was moved to January 1.

However, communications being what they were in the days when news traveled by foot, many people did not receive the news for several years. Others, the more obstinate crowd, refused to accept the new calendar and continued to celebrate the new year on April 1. These backward folk were labeled as "fools" by the general populace. They were subject to some ridicule, and were often sent on "fools errands" or were made the butt of other practical jokes.

This harassment evolved, over time, into a tradition of prank-playing on the first day of April. The tradition eventually spread to England and Scotland in the eighteenth century. It was later introduced to the American colonies of both the English and French. April Fool's Day thus developed into an international fun fest, so to speak, with different nationalities specializing in their own brand of humor at the expense of their friends and families.

 

 

Lord Alfred Tennyson

Alfred Tennyson (1809-1892), English poet often regarded as the chief representative of the Victorian age in poetry. Tennyson succeeded Wordsworth as Poet Laureate in 1850. Alfred, Lord Tennyson was born on August 5, 1809 in Somersby, Lincolnshire. His father, George Clayton Tennyson, a clergyman and rector, suffered from depression and was notoriously absentminded. Alfred began to write poetry at an early age in the style of Lord Byron. After spending four unhappy years in school he was tutored at home. Tennyson then studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he joined the literary club 'The Apostles'. Tennyson died at Aldwort on October 6, 1892 and was buried in the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.

"The Lady of Shalott" is a Victorian ballad by the English poet Alfred Tennyson.

The Lady of Shalott (painting)

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on November 29, 1832.  She and her three sisters, Anna, Elizabeth, and May, were educated by their father, philosopher/ teacher Bronson Alcott, and raised on the practical Christianity of their mother, Abigail May. For Louisa, writing was an early passion.  She had a rich imagination and often her stories became melodramas that she and her sisters would act out for friends.  Louisa’s career as an author began with poetry and short stories that appeared in popular magazines.  In 1854, when she was 22, her first book Flower Fables was published. 

When Louisa was 35 years old, her publisher in Boston, Thomas Niles, asked her to write "a book for girls."  Little Women was written at Orchard House from May to July 1868.  The novel is based on Louisa and her sisters’ coming of age and is set in Civil War New England.  "Jo March" was the first American juvenile heroine to act from her own individuality --a living, breathing person rather than the idealized stereotype then prevalent in children’s fiction.

In all, Louisa published over 30 books and collections of stories.  She died on March 6, 1888, only two days after her father, and is buried in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery in Concord.

Pães

Para se referir ao tradicional pãozinho francês diga roll, já no caso do pão de hambúrguer, redondo, a palavra correspondente em inglês é bun.

Veja no quadro abaixo alguns tipos de pão:

Pão de alho - Garlic bread

Pão de centeio - Rye bread

Pão de forma - Sliced loaf

Pão de queijo - Cheese bread

Pão integral - Wholemeal bread/Wholewheat bread

Pão sírio - Pita bread

Pão com gergelim - Sesame seed bread

Era Vitoriana

A Era Vitoriana foi o período no qual a Rainha Vitória reinou sobre a Inglaterra, no século XIX, durante 63 anos, de junho de 1837 a janeiro de 1901. Ela subiu ao trono quando seu tio Guilherme VI morreu sem deixar herdeiros. Ela  foi coroada ainda muito jovem, aos 18 anos. Durante esse longo período, a Inglaterra atingiu o apogeu de sua política industrial e colonialista. Tornou-se a grande oficina do mundo, abastecendo os mercados mundiais com seus produtos industrializados.  O reinado da rainha Vitória foi marcado pela prosperidade industrial da burguesia inglesa.

Na literatura destacaram-se a prosa de George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, das Irmãs Brontë, de Oscar Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Robert Louis Stevenson, entre outros; e a poesia de Tennyson, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Swimburne, W. B. Yeats, Robert Browning, entre outros.

Abaixo encontra-se uma lista de algumas obras de autores que marcaram a literatura Vitoriana:

“Alice no País das Maravilhas” - Lewis Carroll

“O Morro dos Ventos Uivantes” - Emily Brontë

“O Marido Ideal” - Oscar Wilde

“Orgulho e Preconceito” - Jane Austen


-> Existe um filme onde é mostrada a vida da Rainha Vitória quando jovem, a atriz que interpreta a Rainha neste filme é a Inglesa Emily Blunt.

The Young Victoria ;)