Reading with Eva🕊🍁 - Travel the World

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 1] HIGHLAND LIFE of SCOTLAND What is life like for people who live in the Highlands of Scotland?  Scotland, famous for its whisky, its wool, its kilts, and many other fine things, covers about a third of the territory of Great Britain. Britain has a population of about 64 million inhabitants — yet less than ten per cent of them now live in Scotland, about 5.3 million people. And most of those 5.3 million people live in or near three cities, Glasgow, Edinburgh, and Dundee. In the Highlands, which cover most of Scotland, the population is very thin. In many places — if there is actually a road — you can drive for over 30 kilometres without seeing any human habitation, except perhaps a solitary "croft", a small farm. Yet here and there, there are small towns; most of them are beside the sea. They have their inhabitants and their economic activities, their children and their teenagers. This  document from Linguapress looks at life in the Highlands, focusing particularly on the town of Fort William. Indeed, a large part of this Focus was written with the help of staff and students at Fort William's Lochaber High School.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 2] What is "a Highlander"? If you ask someone to describe a Highlander to you, he will probably come up with the type of image you see in whisky advertisements. A man wearing a kilt and a sporran, and standing on a misty mountain near a haunted castle. The man plays the bagpipes, eats porridge and haggis, and drinks whisky. Now while it is true that whisky is indeed a favourite drink in the Highlands, the rest of the image is a long way from everyday reality. Few Highlanders wear the kilt, except on special occasions or for ceremony. What are we like, then, us Highlanders? Quite ordinary in fact! We enjoy the same things that our English, American or European counterparts enjoy. As young people everywhere, we are into fashion, music, social media, dances, all kinds of sport. We worry about the same things — unemployment, our prospects for the future, war, drugs, pollution; all these things and much more besides.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 3] Highland High School With 830 pupils aged between 12 and 18, Lochaber High School, at Fort William, is one of the largest secondary schools in the Highlands. It covers a huge area; many of the pupils come from small communities and travel up to 40 km to get into school each day. In the past, the school covered a much larger area and many pupils were obliged to stay in one of the school hostels, or — if older — to lodge with local families; but other high schools have opened in the West Highlands, so the catchment area for Lochaber High, though still very large, is not as large as it used to be. Many young people in this area feel that there are not enough opportunities here. Going to a city inevitably means new friends, a whole new lifestyle, and the prospect of a more exciting night life.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 4] Even though Fort William is, by some standards, small and relatively isolated, it is a beautiful place to live. It may not be exciting and incredibly trendy, but that doesn't matter. There is a real community atmosphere here, and many people know, or are related to, many other people. There is always something to do or see in Fort William; there is no excuse for being bored! As far as I am concerned, it is a great place to live — a beautiful place, with wide open spaces, fresh air, peace and quiet, and magnificent scenery. It is an area full of myths and legends — some of them true, others pure invention! But there is one thing that is certainly not "Scotch mist", and that is Highland hospitality. It is still very real, very alive! We look forward to seeing you! Clans, Kilts & Tartans You can't talk of the Highlands without talking of clans and kilts and tartans. A "clan" is a sort of tribe — a group of people who belong to the same extended family, or have the same historic origin. In the past, each part of the Highlands was the territory of a clan. Clans were closely linked communities, each with its own chief. Clans were — and still are — distinguished by their tartan. A tartan is a specific design, a criss-cross of couloured threads, which is used for ceremonial clothes, such as the kilt or the plaid. There are also military tartans too, each Scottish regiment having its own tartan.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 5] In the past, Scottish clans often used to fight against each other. Near Fort William, there is a big and very beautiful valley called Glencoe. This was the home of the MacDonald clan. One day, about 300 years ago, the Campbell clan descended on Glencoe, and massacred the MacDonalds. This was one of the bloodiest incidents in Scottish history. And even in the 2020s, if you go to Glencoe and say that your name is Campbell, you will not be a welcome visitor. Today, many clans still have "gatherings". They are very popular with Americans of Scottish descent! As for the kilt — well there are some men who still wear it on ordinary days, but for most it is something rather special, for weddings, for "Highland Games", for official occasions, and other ceremonies. And please note: in Scotland we always say "wear the kilt", never "wear a kilt". It's a special expression. For other types of clothes, we use "a", as in "wear a shirt" or "wear a dress".

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 6] Salmon, Sea-food and Other Opportunities If you go to a restaurant in Spain, and eat a paella with lots of sea-food in it, think of Scotland. If you go to a restaurant in France and eat salmon, think of Scotland. In the last forty years, the Highlands of Scotland have found an important new industry: fish-farming. And today, Scottish lobsters, shrimps, (crustaceans) and fish are exported all over the world. Around Fort William, there are several fish-farms. These are places where salmon and trout (in particular) are bred and raised in special cages. Some of these are in salt-water lochs, others in fresh-water lochs. Other related industries have FishingTraditional fishing still provides some jobsfollowed, creating opportunities for young people to find work. However, in and around Fort William, the principal industries are paper, aluminium, and tourism. All of them are relatively recent.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 7] Traditional industries such as farming, sea fishing, and weaving, cannot provide many interesting opportunities for young people who want a good job. The situation, nevertheless, is not a bad one, compared to some other parts of Britain. The population is small, and the industries that do exist are not dying ones. There is less unemployment in the Highlands than in many parts of Britain. There are openings for young people who want to follow a Youth Training programme after they leave school; and there are various types of help for young people who want to create their own jobs. Of course, there are limited opportunities for some types of job; but on the whole, there are plenty of advantages to counteract the disadvantages. Today's young Highlanders are not all wanting to leave.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 8] THE TRUTH ABOUT WHISKY Whisky is probably the most famous product of Scotland. Whisky distilling provides work for several thousand people in the Scottish Highlands and islands, and whisky is Scotland's biggest export... The qualities of whisky come from the water which is used to make it — the rich "peaty" water of Scotland. When whisky is first made, it is actually transparent, not brown in colour. The colour comes from the wooden barrels in which the whisky is stored for several years, to allow it to mature, and from a little added caramel. For many years, whisky has been a very popular drink all over the world, and Scotland has produced more and more of it ; but whisky sales have not increased as fast, so there are now large reserves of whisky in Scotland, specially the good and more expensive whiskies.. Thus a lot of the whisky sold today was made several years ago, when people imagined that whisky would get more and more popular. That is one of the reasons why, today, a lot of the whisky in the shops is labelled "Ten years old", or even "Fifteen years old".

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Highland Life Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 9] WORD GUIDE kilt: a sort of dress worn by Highlanders sporran: a small bag, worn at the waist misty - cloudy, fogggy bagpipes: the classic traditional Scottish musical instrument porridge: a sort of very thick soup made of oats (a type of cereal) haggis: a kind of sausage made from lamb and cereals counterpart: equivalent be into: be interested in remote: distant hostel: a hotel for young people higher grade exams: final school exams in Scotland college: educational institution which follows school area: region night life: things to do in the evening by some standards: compared to some things trendy: fashionable, modern mist: fog salmon: big fish with pink meat lobster: similar to a crab bred: grown loch: Scottish lake (as in Loch Ness, which is near Fort William) to weave: make fabrics, textiles to distil: to extract the alcohol peaty: containing peat, a type of very rich organic earth mature: to age, to ripen linked: joined a criss-cross: crossing lines thread: a thin cord of wool or cotton, etc. plaid: a kind of blanket to massacre: kill - a gathering: a coming together of Scottish descent: whose ancestors were Scottish wedding: marriage.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 10] THE STORY of LONDON A VERY HISTORIC CITY When the French poet and traveller Théophile Gautier first went to London in 1843, by ship, he was quite astonished. He wrote that London was the "capital of enormities and of proud rebellion". "On this gigantic scale," he continued, "industry almost becomes poetry, a poetry in which nature plays no part, but which is a result of the immense development of human will." In 1843, London really was very different from any other city. It was much bigger than any other city, and it was the capital of the most industrialised nation in the world. It was already a city with a long history, of course. London had become the British capital in Roman times, but since then, it had been built and destroyed and rebuilt so many times that there were few traces left of the capital city of Roman Britain, except deep below the ground. Today, the oldest buildings in London include the Tower of London and Westminster Abbey, which are almost a thousand years old.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 11] Though the Tower was always a part of London, Westminster Abbey was once over a mile from the capital city. For centuries, "London" just covered the area corresponding more or less to the Roman city. Today, this part of London is still called the City of London, and is the heart of the bigger "London". Until recently, "the City" was home to hundreds of thousands of people; but today its population is actually well less than ten thousand! Today the City is the heart of London's financial district, full of bankers and businessmen by day, almost deserted by night. Back in the Middle Ages, the City was already becoming too small. In the 11th century, monks built a big new abbey at Westminster, and King Cnut began to build a palace beside it. King Ethelred, his successor, then decided to move his court from the city of Winchester, to the palace of Westminster. Westminster has been the seat of the English, then British, parliament since 1265, and London has been the capital city for even longer.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 12] While the parliament was established in Westminster, the City's growing population kept spreading to other villages all round. Villages like Chelsea and Hackney eventually became swallowed up by the metropolis which kept growing and growing. Today, Westminster, which contains Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, and London's most famous shopping district, is part of the "West End' of Central London. Nearby, Chelsea is an expensive residential area, and Hackney is a working-class district: they are all parts of London. In spite of its age, Central London does not have many very old buildings. The City itself was burnt to the ground in the terrible fire of 1666, and was almost totally rebuilt after it. Large parts of London were also rebuilt in the nineteenth century and have been rebuilt again since then, for different reasons.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 13] Charles Dickens, the author of Oliver Twist and other famous novels, lived in the London that Théophile Gautier visited, and has left us with terrible descriptions of the conditions in which the poor of London lived and worked in those days. Millions of people worked in the great city, with its docks, its offices and shops, and its services. In those days most people who lived in cities were poor, and lived in squalid conditions. But a new "middle class" was growing, specially in London, where there were lots of jobs. In this way, London, the biggest city in the world, was also the first "modern" city. It remained the world's biggest city until after the second world war. Since then it has continued to change, but got smaller; but with over seven million inhabitants , today's "Greater London" is, with Paris, one of the two biggest cities in Europe; and also one of the most fascinating.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 14] LONDON RICH, LONDON POOR London is one of the richest cities in Europe, and lots of people in London have plenty of money to spend. But like almost every big city, London has its prosperity but also its poverty. Most tourists visit the "West End", with its shops, cinemas, theatres and monuments. This is London's front window, where the streets are clean and most people, including the tourists, have jobs, and money to spend. Harrod's store, in Knightsbridge, claims it is the most famous shop in the world; in theory you can buy anything there, from an elephant to a pencil (though naturally, they would have to order the elephant specially for you, there are none on the shelves!) In the small streets behind Regent Street, there are all sorts of specialist shops, selling high-quality products to people who can afford them. "Gentlemen's tailor since 1788," says the sign outside a tiny shop with beautiful suits in its window. Expensive suits. Most of this shop's customers are businessmen, celebrities and diplomats; here at least, the foreign customer, after his first English lesson, can say "my tailor is rich".

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 15] Two miles to the north east of Regent Street, the scene is very different. Here you are in the "inner city" district of London, where many of the streets are dirty, the shops look cheap, and the people do not look rich. Few tourists visit Islington, Bethnal Green, Brixton and London's other depressed areas. A lot of the inhabitants here are from minorities — mostly West Indian or Asian — and many of them do not have any work. Those who do have work are often in unskilled jobs which do not pay well; cleaners, dustmen, shop assistants. Nevertheless, though these areas of London are poor, they cannot be described as ghettoes, and while levels of crime are above average in many parts of the inner city, these are not dangerous areas. Twenty years ago, there was rioting and violence in the streets in Brixton, but since then things have been generally calm.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Story of London Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 16] WORD GUIDE abbey - big church (can) afford: have enough money for - average: normal century: period of 100 years customer: client deserted: empty eventually : later, in time dustman: man who empties dustbins, rubbish fail: not be a success fair number: some fashions: popular styles imply: signify, mean Middle Ages - the mediaeval period, about 1000 years ago monks: religious men novel : story prosperity: richness, affluence rioting: collective violence scale: degree so far: until now spread: extend squalid: dirty and unpleasant successor: person who follows suit: matching jacket and trousers swallow up: to eat, to include unskilled: very ordinary, easily learnt West Indian: afro-caribbean will: desire, determination worth: with a value of.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Britain Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 17] BRITAIN, THAT ISLAND Just off the north coast of continental Europe, there is an island called Great Britain. Today, this island is closely connected to the rest of Europe; there are direct trains to Paris and Brussels, and thousands of people, cars and lorries cross the Channel and the North Sea every day between British and continental ports. Britain is very much a part of Europe; we are Europeans, and British history and culture are part of European history and culture. In 1973, after years of discussion, Britain joined the European Union. However many of the people in Britain have never liked being in the E.U.; they imagine that Britain is very different from other countries. Some believe that Britain is better than other countries. In 2016, the people of Britain (or more exactly, just over half of Britain's voters) voted for "Brexit". So in January 2020, Britain left the European Union. Why ? "We're different, aren't we?" says Eddie, from London. "We do things differently. We don't want to become like other countries."

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Britain Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 18] Millions of people think the same as Eddie. For example, a large majority did not want Britain to join the Euro. They imagine that Britain's "identity" will be lost, if we say goodbye to our pounds and our pennies. They forget that things are also very different from one European country to another. It's quite a strange situation really; but it is a situation that can easily be explained. "Insularity" is a deep and historic part of British culture and society. Great Britain's borders have been fixed by nature for thousands of years. If you walk in a straight line for long enough in any direction, you will know when you have reached the edge of Great Britain; you will find yourself in salty water! If you want to go to another country from Great Britain, you have to take a ship, a plane, a train or a car; you can't just drive or walk across the border. Great Britain is physically separated from every other country; and this is the main reason why British people imagine that other countries are so "different".

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - The Britain Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 19] Of course, lots of things about Britain are different from the rest of Europe. We drive on the left, we like our pubs, we have sports like cricket, we have our own popular TV programmes, we use pounds and pennies and miles, we drink tea with milk in it, we don't carry identity cards, and our policemen don't normally carry guns. So yes, Britain is different, in these respects, from France or Germany or Spain, or Japan, or even the USA. Nevertheless Britain's "difference" is disappearing fast! Fifty years ago, British people drove British cars; today the cars in Britain are British, French, German, Italian, Japanese and more. Today we buy petrol in litres (not gallons) and fruit in kilos (not pounds). Fifty years ago, our favourite foods were fish 'n' chips and "bangers and mash". Among today's young people, the most popular foods and drinks are Italian pasta and pizza, Indian curry, American hamburgers and colas, Chinese take-aways, Continental beers and Mexican tacos.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Britain Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 20] As far as culture is concerned, young Britons love their Britpop bands; but they also like American and Australian TV series, American films, and Japanese and British video games.... In fact, they like more or less the same things as young people all over Europe and North America! The real problem is perhaps not that we are very different. It's just that lots of people (in and out of Britain) imagine that Britain is different..... because "Continentals" speak other languages, and old ideas take a very long time to die. WORD GUIDE bangers and mash: sausages and mashed potatoes border: frontier Channel : the English Channel, the sea between England and France edge: end, side insularity: being an island, imagining that one is different integration: coming together, unity large majority: much more than 50% lorry: truck, goods vehicle main: principal off: distant from take-aways: ready-cooked meals, to take home. vote : choose

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Games That England Gave The World Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 21] How Football First Came to Brazil At the end of the nineteenth century, an Englishman living in Brazil sent his son across the Atlantic to be educated in England. Charles Miller went to school, then to university, where he took part enthusiastically in all aspects of life. Sport was one of them; a hundred years ago, Britain already had an established sporting culture. During his English years, Charles grew passionately keen on football (i.e.soccer), and when in 1894 he packed his bags to return to his family in Brazil, among the things he took with him were half a dozen footballs. Back in Brazil, he tried to get other people interested in the game. At first he had little success; the only people who showed any interest were other expatriate Brits; thus the first game of football in Brazil was played between two teams of young Englishmen, on a field from which the goats had first been removed.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Games That England Gave The World Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 22] Charles asked some journalists to come and see this new English game, but none came along. On the other hand, as the weeks went past, the spectacle of twenty-two young Inglés running round after a ball began attracting spectators from houses nearby; before long, young local men began kicking balls round too. "Balls" is perhaps the wrong word - the only footballs in Brazil at the time were the ones that Charles Miller had brought back with him from England. The first Brazilian amateurs had to concoct their own balls, using whatever they could find to make them with. Nevertheless, even without real balls, there was plenty of enthusiasm for the new game, as "football" became the great attraction in the popular quarters of Sao Paolo, just like basketball is the great street-sport today in many world cities. By 1901, there was already a league of clubs in Sao Paolo, and the journalists who had originally laughed at the crazy English sport, were jumping on the bandwaggon, writing enthusiastically about the popular new game. The rest, as they say, is history.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Games That England Gave The World Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 23] The Origins of Football and Rugby But how did English football, or soccer, and its sister-game Rugby, originate? And why did it happen in England? The origins of football go back hundreds of years, and there are several towns and villages in England where ancient forms of football are still played. The original game had few rules, and differed from place to place. Basically the teams just had to try and get a ball (or some other object) past the opponent's line. Sometimes the lines were over a mile apart, and the field was the village street.... or even a field with no limits! People could kick the ball (and their opponents), run with it, throw it - anything was allowed. In the nineteenth century, public schools developed fast; and since many of them were boarding schools, they had to keep boys occupied all day. Sport was a popular way of doing this; at first each school had its own games, with its own rules; but slowly fixed rules became established. In many schools, carrying the ball was not allowed; the game was called "football". Some schools however preferred a version of the game where players were allowed to carry the ball; one of these schools was in the small town of Rugby.

Reading with Eva 🕊🍁 - Games That England Gave The World Files archived @Maven Linguara Mansion 🏰🌿✨️ [https://hilokal.page.link/UnFrh] [Page 24] In 1863, a group of enthusiasts, who had played ball games at different schools, met in London to fix rules for the game. They formed the Football Association. Eighteen years later, as the game was getting more and more popular, they organised the first F.A.Cup competition. Following the example of schools and colleges, the owners of factories (many of whom had been educated at public schools) began encouraging employees to form teams, and football soon became very popular in the industrial north of England. By 1888, the game had become popular enough to support professional clubs, with 12 original clubs forming the Football League. Since then, the popularity of both football and rugby has continued to spread across the world; and though rugby has not been adopted in all countries, there is probably no country in the world where football is now unknown.

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