ISSUES FOR ALL SEASONS ISSUE 2 BODY BUILDING.pdf
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ISSUES FOR
ALL SEASONS
ISSUE 2:
BODY BUILDING
Llicències retribuïdes 2005/2006
HALLOWEEN
BODY SNATCHERS
IN THE 19TH CENTURY
INTRODUCTION
Do you know where Halloween comes from? What is the meaning of this word? Well, you
probably know that this celebration takes place at the end of October and you know as
well, that it is somehow related to the Day of the Dead.
In this unit, through the background file, students will start by learning something new
about Halloween, although some of the information gathered may already be familiar to
them. However, the aim of this unit is not to learn about Halloween but rather to find out
about why people have developed a taste for the gothic on this particular day. Therefore,
we will analyze the origins of this trend and will relate it to today’s’ habits and customs.
After having completed the background file, the teacher will do a brainstorm and will
encourage the students to use their previous knowledge on all of the issues that will be
developed in this unit. With the information obtained throughout the task the teacher
should lead the students to come to conclusions as well as to teach them how to relate
what they have learn to the issues that will be dealt with by means of the different tasks.
The students will learn that the development of technology and Science in the 19th
century inspired some authors to write fiction based on facts that took place in those days.
In addition, they will learn that the stories we will deal with will all be based on ancient
myths and on all those fears that have always aroused curiosity in men throughout history.
Thus, mankind has always been thrilled about the origin of life, the meaning of life and
death. Therefore, the quest of men for the creation of life is nothing new.
By reading on why a business of body snatchers existed to provide doctors with bodies to
carry out research, the students will be able to understand the true facts that inspired
Mary Shelley to write Frankenstein. In her novel, Dr. Frankenstein tried to “build” a real
man, today, surgeons also try to build, rebuild and shape bodies. Medicine has in fact
evolved a great deal and scientists strive to master nature. However, if Dr Frankenstein
built a man that turned out to be a monster, it is also true that today when plastic surgery
fails, it can end up creating monsters, too.
Finally, this unit will also be a good opportunity to learn about the meaning of gothic and
about gothic literature and films.
Students will read Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Black Cat” and some passages of Mary
Shelley’s Frankenstein. After having read the texts, they will watch scenes of some horror
films, such as “Frankenstein” and “Dracula” and will use their knowledge to be able to
compare both films and literature. Finally, students will practice how to write and tell a
horror story.
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HOW TO DEVELOP A UNIT: GUIDELINE FOR TEACHERS
All units have a similar structure. Each unit has an introduction to the subject, a guideline
with the explanation of all the activities and two grids to check how you can carry out the
activities, what concepts the pupils will learn and what skills they will be practicing.
The teacher is provided with information on all and every topic to be developed. It is not
necessary to carry out all the activities featured in the unit. Therefore, the teacher is free
to choose what activities he or she considers interesting.
Before the beginning of the unit, each pupil is furnished with a handout called
background file. This is an activity to be carried out surfing the internet with the use of
the URLs provided in the handout. This activity is design so that at the beginning of the
unit each student has minimum information on the topics to be presented by the teacher.
Complete a background file is an easy and attractive activity and, at the same time, with
the handing out of the pupil’s exercise, the teacher has the possibility of evaluating how
well the pupils have performed this activity.
Some units feature a warming up activity with the aim of encouraging pupils to take an
active part in the following activity.
The brainstorm activity always follows the warming up activity and has the purpose of
furnishing the pupils with the useful vocabulary they will need in order to carry out the
activities featured in the issue. However, it is up to the teacher to decide how to adapt this
activity to the pupils, according to their needs.
Next, there is always a wide rage of activities planned to develop all skills while learning
about the topics featured in the issue. There are texts to read with worksheets to check
the student’s comprehension; short essays to develop either the writing skills, as well as
songs, films or recorded conversations to practice oral skills. In addition, some of the
activities provide short essays on the topic for the teachers to read before hand.
Finally, there is an activity called food for thought, which is a short passage for the pupils
to read, think and express their own ideas in the final activity. This last activity is called let
the discussion begin. According to the level of English the pupils have, the teacher can
either let the students discuss about the subject dealt in the unit, or prepare a role-play.
The latter will be a directed oral activity, easier for pupils who have less fluency in English.
At the end of each unit, there is also the bibliography with useful books or URLs on the
topic.
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GUIDELINE TO DEVELOP UNIT 2
Background file: This is an activity to be carried out surfing the internet with the use
of the URLs provided in the handout. The teacher can ask the students to do it in class or
at home and can be completed in 45 minutes. The teacher will collect the pupils essays
and evaluate their work. p.8
The resurrection men: A passage from the internet to inform the teacher about the
business of body snatchers in the 19th century. p9
The story of Burke and Hare: A passage from the internet with information
about two notorious murderers wrongly related to body robbers. p12
Capital punishment for traitors A passage from the internet with information on
the reasons why people would not donate organs to the university for research. p15
Brainstorm: This activity has the purpose of furnishing the pupils with the useful
vocabulary they will need in order to carry out the activities featured in the issue. There is
a suggested guideline; however, it is up to the teacher to decide how to adapt it to the
pupils, according to their needs. This activity is performed in class using the board. It can
last at lest one hour or longer if the teacher wants the pupils to exercise their vocabulary.
The brainstorm activity gives the teacher the possibility of introducing the pupils to the
topic to be developed and to make the pupils aware of what values will be dealt with in the
issue. To start introducing the text you can use the flashcard with mort safes provided for
this purpose on page 23 and which are developed on page 24 with the text A Grave
Omission. p16
Warming up activity: This is an activity in which pupils are asked to close their
eyes and image a scene. The teacher should use music which conveys a horror
sequence. The teacher can choose the music. I could suggest a passage from Grieg’s
Peer Gynt or Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Any horror film sound track will also do. (15 to
20 minutes) p35
Reading Comprehension: Cadder cemetery. The pupils will be given a
hand out with pictures illustrating the text, which deals about real mort safe arrangements
found in a cemetery in the outskirts of Glasgow, which proves that people were very much
concerned about body robbers.( 50 minutes) p18
Fancy dress party: This is an activity to practice vocabulary and have fun talking
about Halloween. The teacher can give them the hand out as a sample or can read it
aloud. Pupils can choose a disguise and describe to the rest of the class, and the class
has to guess what he or she will be wearing for the party. This activity can be followed by
a role-play with an invitation to a fancy dress party. There is a sample for the teacher, who
can use it as a worksheet changing the order of the conversation, so the pupils can
rearrange the dialogue and then produce a new one. (15 to 45 minutes) pp21-22
The colours of Halloween: An activity to have fun and practice vocabulary. (10
minutes) p23
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Reading Comprehension: A grave omission: This activity is, in fact a
reading comprehension exercise lent by the English department of Our Lady’s High, in
Cumbernauld. It is based on an interview to a theatre director who staged A Grave
Omission, a play about body snatchers in Edinburgh. (3 sessions of 55 minutes) p24
Introduction to the meaning of gothic-gothic fashion: This a an article
about Gothic fashion. The teacher can give to the pupils or just ask them what they know
about it. (10 minutes) p30
Let the discussion begin: for and against. Let the pupils tell their opinions
for or against Gothic fashion. (15 minutes) p31
Gothic fiction: There is a short article for the teacher about Gothic fiction. There is
also a grid with all the features that make a story Gothic. The teacher can encourage the
pupils to give their opinion. They have probably not read much Gothic fiction, but they
have seen lots of horror films. In addition, they love this topic; they love horror and gore
stories. (40 minutes) p32
Activities in story telling
1. Music as special effect
Tell the students to close their eyes and play a music passage that may convey fear. Tell
them to imagine a situation. Then they should tell the class what the music suggests
them. It can also be a warming up activity. (15 to 20 minutes) p35
2. Story telling: description of a nightmare. This is a short paragraph of a nightmare.
The teacher has to warn the pupils not to get stuck with the great amount of unknown
vocabulary in the description, they have to try to understand the story and answer the
questions. (30 minutes) p36
3. Story telling
Let the pupils look up the words from the passage in the dictionary and divide them
according to their grammatical category using the table in the handout. (20 minutes) p37
4. Story telling The pupils will be divided into groups of three or four and will be given
small flashcards with images related to horror stories. With these cards they will write a
short horror story using Total Physical Response techniques. What sounds or
movements could enhance the meaning of a horror story? They can use the words in the
grids in activity (45 minutes) p38
Dracula: A passage from the internet with information for the teacher about the
character and the films. p39
Dracula, the film: I would use Ford Coppola’s version of Dracula. It is an excellent
film that pupils love. However, the teacher must have into account that nowadays,
teenagers know very little about this character, and they might not follow the fill properly.
The teacher should first point out that Dracula has the power to change into different
beings. (two full sessions of 55 minutes) p40
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The film handout: The teacher will give the pupils a handout about the film.
However, they can do it at home as homework. (30 minutes) p41
The black cat: There is a summary for the teacher and some notes. The pupils could
read the story at home. The teacher will decide which version they can read, according to
their level of English. (one hour) p42
The Black Cat handout: The teacher will give the pupils a handout on Poe’s story.
However, they can do it at home as homework. (45 minutes) p44
Frankenstein: A passage from the internet with information for the teacher. p45
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein: The pupils will read a version of Frankenstein,
according to their level of English. However, it is also possible to read some extracts.
First, there should be the part when the monster wakes up and Dr Frankenstein is
horrified by the vision (chapter5), and then there should be the part in which the monster
meets Dr Frankenstein on board of the ship (chapter 25). Frankenstein is already dead
and the monster finally disappears on a raft surrounded by ice while setting the funeral
pyre on fire. (one hour for the extracts)
Frankenstein: the films. The pupils will see dome scenes from two of
Frankenstein’s’ films, W. Whale’s 1931 version and K. Branagh’s 1994 version. They
should see exactly the same scenes they have read from the book and then compare
them in the handout. (55 minutes) p51
Changing your image: An activity to build up a glossary on this subject. There is a
discussion, too. (40 minutes) p52
Celebrities and “body building”: The teacher will show the pupils two
flashcards with pictures of celebrities who have undergone some kind of plastic surgery.
They should recognize them and tell their opinion. (15 minutes) p53
Traffic of organs Several articles from the internet with information about the traffic
of organs. The teacher can also use one of them to give the pupils some extra
information. P56
Idioms with parts of the body: This is a handout for the pupils to learn idioms
with parts of the body. Then there is a pair work activity, where they should write ten
sentences using the expressions in the worksheet. (40 minutes) p61
Urban legends: Information for the teacher about this issue. p63
Food for thought: A handout with a short story about a well known urban legend.
(10 minutes) p64
Let the discussion begin: Having read the short story, the pupils will tell their
opinion about urban legends, and they will tell the class an urban legend they know.
(15 minutes) p64
Urban legends and modern myths: They can do this activity in the computer
room or at home. The best is to assign them an urban legend that, later, they will have to
tell the class. They can also work in pairs in this activity. (55 minutes) p65
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How tabloids work: An article for the pupils to learn about tabloids in the UK. How
celebrities very often have to pay a toll for they fame. (55 minutes) p66
Tabloids: The pupils read a piece of news about Kate Moss and later choose a piece
of news from the list available in the list and search it in the internet. The pupils should
summarize it and give their opinion. It can be a pair work activity and you need to be in the
computer room. (55 minutes) p70
Spanish Tabloids: They have to make a summary of the most notorious tabloids in
Spain. Then they have to pretend to be paparazzi and write a piece of news about some
celebrity. Of course, they have to make up the story. You need the computer room fo the
first part of the activity. You can continue the oral part of the activity in class. They have
to tell the class their pieces of news. (two full sessions of 55 minutes) pp75-76
Dirty pretty things: A passage from the internet with information for the teacher.
p77
Dirty pretty things: the film. This is a thriller directed by Stephen Friars which
deals with the traffic of organs in the underworld of London. (two full class sessions)
Dirty pretty things: A handout for the pupils, to be completed after having watched
the film. It can be done at home. (40 minutes) p78
Evaluation test p79
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BACKGROUND FILE
Check the web sites provided and find out the information required. Write a short
summary and paste images to illustrate your essay. Save the document in your file
or print it.
1.-Halloween is not a modern celebration.
• What kind of celebration was it?
• What was its former name?
• What is the meaning of the name “Halloween”?
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/celtsmyth/a/lochalloween.htm
http://www.loc.gov/folklife/halloween.html
2.-What is traditional on Halloween night?
http://wilstar.com/holidays/hallown.htm
3.-What kind of funny dishes can you cook for Halloween?
http://www.fabulousfoods.com/holidays/halloween/halloweenrecipes.html
http://www.familymanagement.com/holidays/halloween/food.drink.html
4.-Why do you need a “Halloween safety guide”?
Name two or three tips given.
http://www.halloween-safety.com/halloween_safety_treats.html
5.-Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is based on an ancient myth. Which one is it?
http://gala.univ-perp.fr/~dgirard/licence2frank4.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
6.-Who were the directors and main characters in the 1931 and 1994 Frankenstein films?
http://www.channel4.com/film/
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THE RESURRECTION MEN
In seeking respectability, Cheselden had unwittingly set surgery on a darker path. There
were plenty of trainee surgeons, but they had nothing to train on. It was possible to get
hold of bodies in the 18th century, but public executions provided the only legitimate
source of corpses, and it was not easy for students of anatomy to claim the bodies. The
family of the condemned man would usually try to get the body back as soon as possible,
since in some cases it was possible to revive a hanged man. In any case, there remained
a strong belief that in order to stand a chance of redemption, a corpse should be left
intact. Dissection was equivalent to damnation.
There were simply not enough bodies supplied by the hangman's gallows to meet
demand. Elsewhere in Europe, anatomy schools were allowed to take bodies from poor
hospitals. In Britain, surgeons had to take more extreme measures. Medical historian Ruth
Richardson says: 'Bodysnatching started to happen all over the place. Anatomists ...
spawned a new profession: resurrection men.' These grave robbers became the scourge
of the bereaved. Watchtowers were built within cemeteries so that people could keep an
eye out for body snatchers. Some rich people were buried within mort-safes, fortress
graves complete with walls and gates to keep the grave robbers out. Gangs of
resurrection men competed for business as anatomists competed to find the best
suppliers of fresh corpses. As demand grew, the quest for bodies became ever more
desperate.
Burke and Hare
The professional credibility that the Hunters, among others, managed to establish for
surgeons in the 18th century was destroyed in the early 19th century. Grave robbing
continued apace. The trade in backstreet corpses thrived in Edinburgh, then the epicentre
of surgical training. Two particular suppliers – William Burke and William Hare – gained a
reputation for themselves as suppliers of the freshest corpses available. Their corpses
had never been buried – in fact, they had never left the guesthouse which the two men
ran, and where they were smothered.
The murderers supplied corpses to, among others, Robert Knox, a celebrated anatomist
and the most popular lecturer at the city's Medical School, who attracted as many as 500
students per class. Experts believe that Knox must have known that the corpses he was
receiving had met a sticky end, but that he turned a blind eye. Ruth Richardson says: 'If
Knox was as brilliant an anatomist as everybody said, he should have had some
knowledge that these bodies had been killed.'
For this reason, once the murderers were found out (Hare eventually informed on his
partner), the fact that Knox went unpunished, without so much as making an apology,
caused outrage. Demonstrations against him turned to rioting. His effigy was ripped apart
– an indication of what the public thought surgeons did to the dead.
Parliament was forced to act, and the Anatomy Act of 1832 put an end to grave robbing
and murder. Unclaimed bodies from the poor house were made available for anatomists
to practice on.
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Cultural and religious perspective
Some religions – including Orthodox Judaism – forbid desecration of a body after death.
Many cultures hold that in order for the soul to find peace, the body should be interred
intact; others believe that the body has to be cremated to release the soul.
The outcry that followed the so-called Alder Hey scandal shows the extent to which our
attitudes to death and the treatment of the body are muddled. Neither Christians, who
believe that the body is simply a vessel, nor atheists, who believe that after death there is
nothingness, should, in theory, be overly concerned about the treatment of the body after
death. Yet we are. And this has led to much criticism of Gunther von Hagens, who has
become embroiled in his own bodysnatching scandal.
Ethics of the early anatomistsThe ethics of the anatomist have been questioned for as
long as the workings of the human body have been studied. Indeed, the history of
anatomical studies is littered with stories of bodysnatching, torture and murder.
The very first anatomists, working in Alexandria in the third century BC, carried out
dissections of the dead, but also of the living: criminals were used for vivisection. In 18th
century Britain, anatomists paid gangs to steal bodies from graveyards, and in one
extreme case – that of Burke and Hare – anatomists accepted bodies that had been
murdered specifically with the intention of selling them to surgeons.
The Anatomy Act
The outcry over Burke and Hare led in 1832 to the passage by Parliament of the Anatomy
Act. This stipulated that the bodies of those maintained by the state – the very poor who
lived in workhouses – became the property of the anatomists after redeath, so long as
they were not claimed by a relative within 48 hours. An Inspector of Anatomy, working for
the Home Office, was appointed to administer
The 1832 Act revoked the provision by which executed murderers would be made
available for dissection. It did include a provision for people who left a request in writing
that their body not to be dissected. However, since few poor people were aware of the
detail of the law, most did not make this request. The Anatomy Act was deeply unpopular,
since it blatantly discriminated against the poor, yet it remained in force almost unchanged
until recently.
As workhouses became less and less numerous, the supply of bodies available to
anatomists declined. In the 1920s, the Inspector of Anatomy ruled that bodies from mental
asylums should be made available to anatomists, in return for a fee to the institutions'
officials.
The problems of where to get hold of bodies began to lessen between the wars. As
religious attitudes softened, so the number of bodies left to science rose. Before the First
World War, there were almost no bequests of bodies at all, but by the end of the Second
World War, almost all of the bodies used by anatomists had been donated.
Who does your body belong to?
The Anatomy Act did clearly establish to whom a dead body belongs. Until relatively
recently, the principle that the 'only lawful possessor of the dead body is the earth'
prevailed in the UK. In centuries past, this meant that grave robbers could not in fact be
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prosecuted for stealing a body – it was not deemed the property of anyone. However, if
the robbers stole something interred with the body – such as a shroud or piece of
jewellery – they were then liable to prosecution.
Today, lawful possession of a dead body usually goes to the next of kin, who may give
consent for the body to be harvested for organs. Even if, in life, you have bequeathed your
body to science, consent must be obtained from a relative before the body can be used
for research or dissection.
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THE STORY OF BURKE AND HARE
A brief account of the regular system of murder carried on in the West Port of Edinburgh
between the Christmas of 1827 and October 1828.
The principal actor in this wholesale butchery, almost without parallel in any age or
country, eclipsing anything in story or romance, was William Burke, a native of Tyrone, in
Ireland. Born about the year 1792, of honest, hard-working parents, Roman Catholics, he
lived and wrought with them until the age of eighteen, when he left and became a servant
to a gentleman in the neighbourhood. After being there about twelve months, the
gentleman died; and Burke at the age of nineteen entered the Donegal Militia. At this
period he married a respectable young woman in Ballina, and by her had seven children,
who all died except one boy, who was alive at the time of the trial. Owing to some dispute
he left them and came over to Scotland, where he was employed on making the Union
Canal; and met in with a woman named McDougal at the village of Maddiston, in
Stirlingshire, where they agreed to live as man and wife. He afterwards came to
Edinburgh along with McDougal, and engaged in a sort of petty traffic, travelling about the
country selling wares, buying old clothes, and collecting skins, human hair, &c. He also
used to purchase quantities of old shoes, and, after cobbling them in the best manner he
could, send McDougal to hawk them over the country. They left Edinburgh for a short
time, but came back after the harvest of 1827; and then they became acquainted with the
monster William Hare, who kept a sort of beggars hotel or lodging-house in Tanners
Close, West Port, under the name of Logs Lodging, the previous husband of his wife. In
this abode of profligacy, vice, and drunkenness, they carried on their murderous trade, in
which they continued for about twelve months.
The first dealing in "subjects" commenced in the following manner in December 1827 a
lodger died in his house- a tall, stout man, a pensioner, who led a dissipated, good-for.
nothing life, his debauched habits and dropsy combined accounting for his death. His
funeral was arranged in a decorous way-coffin procured and guests invited; but instead of
the body, there was substituted by Burke and Hare a sackful of tan bark, which was buried
with all due solemnity. After the funeral the rogues proceeded to find a purchaser for the
body; and at dusk the body was carried by Burke in a sack to Bristo Port: here he rested
and changed with Hare, who carried it to its destination- the dissecting rooms of Dr Knox,
Surgeons Square, Where they received for it 7 pounds 10 shillings. So much money to
such people excited their cupidity; and Burke states that Hare and he talked over the
subject of murder, and the best way of doing it. Their first victim was an old woman from
Gilmerton, whom Hare noticed a little intoxicated on the streets. Hare accosted her and
enticed her to his den, where she was stupefied with drink, and put to death in the manner
they afterwards pursued, by covering and pressing upon the nose and mouth. The body
was afterwards conveyed to Surgeons Square, where it was readily sold for 10 pounds in
December 1827. Their bargain was to receive 8 pounds for each "subject" in the summer
session, and 10 pounds in the winter. The next unfortunate victim was an English
packman, who came to lodge in the house.
After this a connected account of the other murders cannot be had, as the co-partners
kept no books to which reference can be made, and they were not curious regarding the
names of their victims, &c. They in all amounted to sixteen: 1st, the old woman from
Gilmerton; 2nd, the English peddler; 3rd, an old man, Joe the Miller; 4th and 5th, Mary
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Haldane and her daughter; 6th and 7th, an old Irishwoman and her grandson; 8th, a
cinder-gatherer; 9th, an old woman taken out of the hands of the police officers; 10th,
Mary Patterson; 11th, a woman from the country; 12th, the girl McDougal; 13th, Mrs. Osler
or Hosler, the washerwoman; 14th, "Daft Jamie"; 15th, a girl murdered by Hare alone;
16th, the woman Campbell or Docherty, which was the last murder committed, and which
proved the cause of their detection by an Irish lodger called Gray and his wife, who in
looking for a stocking noticed the body lying beneath the bed covered with straw. On
giving information they were arrested, Burke and his paramour McDougal, and Hare and
his wife. Before the trial, an offer was made to Hare, that if he would give evidence he
would be allowed his freedom, which he gladly agreed to. The day fixed for the trial was
24 December 1828, at the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, at which Burke was
condemned by the evidence of Hare; his wife and Helen McDougal being liberated. Their
trial created the utmost sensation; and the Court and Parliament Square were mobbed. At
the execution of Burke, which took place on Wednesday 28th January 1829, it was
estimated that there were between thirty-two and forty thousand people. Amidst the yells
of this vast mob, some shouting "he would see Daft Jamie soon," &c, he paid the last
penalty of the law at the top of Libertons Wynd, almost within sight of where they had
carried on their butchery.
It was a scene (writes one) never to be forgotten, the execution, and the great mass of
people who had assembled from all parts, and had stood, as was the case with many of
them, from two and three in the morning in the plashing rain-for it rained the whole night,
but cleared up a little before the execution, though still very cold. It was like a great
holiday; more like a thing of joy than an execution. Not only the class of people who
generally attend such things were there, but respectable ladies, in their gay dresses, were
seen in some of the windows, which added to the picturesque effect; and long, long before
the execution, the whole place in the vicinity of the scaffold was packed, and seemed too
small for the crush. The Lawnmarket, High Street, County Buildings, and the Bow were
one mass of what seemed to be solid with life. At all the windows, any jutting piece of a
building, roof tops, and the smallest niche where they could climb to, there human beings
had fixed themselves. One thing which must have struck any one was the absence of any
kind of sympathy with the condemned; instead of that, it was more akin to joy, breaking
out every now and then. When the workmen finished the scaffold, after working all night,
there was such a cheer, raised by the people that it was heard for miles round at the
furthest end of Princes Street, and all around long distances. It is usual after an execution,
for the people to hurry away as if half ashamed of being there, or as if they were glad to
get off-a feeling of relief, a sort of queer, strange feeling of terror. Not so here; but a
feeling of Sweet revenge or justice seemed to have taken possession of the onlookers,
and when the clock of St Giles rolled forth the death-knell of Eight, the time of execution,
all was hushed, but only for a little, until Burke made his appearance with Williams the
executioner, and his confessor (for he professed the Catholic religion). Then, as noticed
before, they greeted him with cries and shouts. After the execution, the body was cut
down and given by the Town Council to Professor Munro, in the College, for dissection for
the instruction of his students, to the knife, where he had sent many a poor victim before.
Such is the Nemesis that follows crime. All the day (Wednesday) dense mobs crowded
round the College Buildings, and knots of people went listlessly through the streets, as if
justice was only half done. A universal discontent reigned for allowing Hare to get off scot-
free.
It was thought by some that the mob might try to get hold of the body of Burke. So for
safety it was removed from the Dead House to the dissecting-room, and early on
Thursday morning many famous scientific men called to have a glimpse of the body
previous to the students crushing in, such as Sir W. Hamilton, George Combe, the famous
phrenologist; Mr. Linton, Dr. Christison, and others. Some made sketches of the body.
Then the stream of students poured in, and the body became the subject of lecture, his
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head being sawed across to illustrate the lecture, which was on the brain. All was
decorum in the classroom; but outside the College Yard, there had gathered a lot of young
students not belonging to the Anatomy Class, and other young men, who began to clamor
for admittance. To quell the disturbance, the police were sent for, which only helped to
make things worse. Students have always shown impatience of being forcibly put down by
the police, and a regular melee took place in which some of the police were worsted, and
used their batons freely. The mob then began to smash the windows of the dissecting-
room. Some of the students were captured by the police, but were as quickly recaptured,
amidst the shouts of their companions. At last, after the intervention of some of the Town
Counci1 and Dr. Christison (who had arranged that permission would be granted to them
to see the body of Burke in companies of fifty at a time), the disturbance was quelled at
once, and turned into cheers. But it did not end here; for the people outside the College
Yard Gate were more inflamed to gaze on the corpse of Burke, and bearing of the
success of the students only stirred up to fresh efforts to gain admittance. They also
threatened that they would force in, and at last it was arranged that on the following day
(Friday) the body would become a public exhibition. The public came in at one door and,
passing the corpse of the hanged man, passed out at another. A strange spectacle, ever
to be remembered in the annals of crime! There Burke Lay on the black marble table of
the dissecting-room: naked, horrible, exposed to the gaze of a living stream of his fellow
men who passed at the rate, it was alleged, of sixty persons per minute After this
unheard-of exhibition, the body was cut up for dissection.*
But what of Hare, who, it was said, was the worst who first led Burke on, and then gained
his freedom by turning Kings evidence on his fellow ruffian, showing the old proverb,
"Honour among thieves," to be untrue? It was attempted to bring a second case against
him, by Mrs. Wilson, the mother of Daft Jamie and a second indictment was brought in,
with the intention of convicting Hare. But, after a great discussion, it was thrown out, and
Hare declared at liberty, if it could be so called, as it was said that he would be torn to
pieces by the people if seen, such was the feeling his conduct had called forth among a
peace-loving people. To get free, perhaps, to play the same part over again! How would
he live? What would he do? Were the questions asked. Hare himself could not answer
them; but he was anxious to get away, yet afraid to venture. At last, under the name of Mr.
Black (not an inappropriate name for him), he was escorted from his cell in the Calton Jail
late on Thursday night, after the decision of the judges, on a cold, sleety night in the
month of February, to the Old Post Office, Waterloo Bridge, where he was put into the
mail-coach for Dumfries, to get into England, where he would not be known, and wander,
like Cain, till forgotten. Little more was ever heard authentically of Hare. There has been a
great deal of surmise what became of him.
There remains now very little to be told regarding the others. Mrs. Hare, on being
liberated, barely escaped the rage of the mob, but eventually reached Glasgow, where
she embarked to her native country, Ireland, in the Clyde steam-ship Fingal, to become a
wanderer on the earth. Little trace was got of McDougal. After getting her release, she
repaired to her old haunts in the West Port. She was at once recognised and mobbed,
and it was only by escaping by a ladder placed against a back window of the house she
got off. She afterwards turned up in the village of Redding, Stirlingshire, but disappeared,
and is alleged was burnt to death in a house that took fire in New South Wales. Such is
the destiny which seems to follow crime, even in this world.
* Some of the students, it was alleged, slipped away pieces of the skin, and got them
tanned. In 1882 we had in our possession a pocket-book which was of it. It was dark, and
just like leather. It was sold to one of the professors, who, we understand, made a present
of it to the Anatomical Museum, New University. It had stamped in gold on it "Burkes Skin,
1829". W SMITH (1829
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CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR TRAITORS
To be hanged, drawn, and quartered was the penalty once ordained in England for
treason. It is considered by many to be the epitome of "cruel" punishment, and was
reserved for treason as this crime was deemed more heinous than murder and other
capital offences. It was only applied to male criminals. Women found guilty of treason in
England were burnt at the stake, a punishment which was abolished in 1790.
Until 1870, the full punishment for the crime was to be "hanged, drawn, and quartered" in
that the convict would be:
1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (drawn)
2. Hanged by the neck, but removed before death (hanged).
3. Disembowelled, and the genitalia and entrails burned before the victim's eyes
(often mistaken for drawing).[1]
4. Beheaded and the body divided into four parts (quartered).
Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e. the four quarters of the body and the head) were
gibbeted (put on public display) in different parts of the city, town, or, in famous cases,
country, to deter would-be traitors. Gibbeting was abolished in England in 1843.
There is confusion among modern historians about whether "drawing" referred to the
dragging to the place of execution or the disembowelling, but since two different words are
used in the official documents detailing the trial of William Wallace ("detrahatur" for
drawing as a method of transport, and "devaletur" for disembowelment), there is no doubt
that the victims of this extraordinarily cruel form of punishment were in fact
disembowelled.[2]
Judges delivering sentence at the Old Bailey also seemed to have had some confusion
over the term "drawn", and some sentences are summarised as "Drawn, Hanged and
Quartered". Nevertheless, the sentence was often recorded quite explicitly. For example,
the record of the trial of Thomas Wallcot, John Rouse, William Hone and William Blake for
offences against the king, on 12 July, 1683 concludes as follows:
"Then Sentence was passed, as followeth, viz. That they should return to the place from
whence they came, from thence be drawn to the Common place of Execution upon
Hurdles, and there to be Hanged by the Necks, then cut down alive, their Privy-Members
cut off, and Bowels taken out to be burnt before their Faces, their Heads to be severed
from their Bodies, and their Bodies divided into four parts, to be disposed of as the King
should think fit."[3]
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BRAINSTORM
IDEAS TO DEVELOP A BRAINSTORM AND BUILD UP VOCABULARY
• The origins of Halloween
• Do we have a similar celebration?
• Ancient celebration of harvest
• Typical food for Halloween
• Halloween and fancy dress parties
• What disguises are popular in Halloween parties?
• The Day of the Dead in different cultures
• The visiting of cemeteries
• The colours of mourning in different cultures
• 19th century and the evolution of technology, anatomy and surgery.
• Why people did not like to donate bodies or organs?
• Religious beliefs
• Drowned,hanged and quartered
• The Anatomy Act
• The Resurectionists.
• Body snatchers
• Gothic fashion
• Gothic literature
• Gothic films
• Frankenstein
• Who wrote it?
• When? 18th , 19th or 20th century?
• Who is Frankenstein? Is it a monster or a doctor?
• Have you read the book?
• Have you seen any of the films?
• Science and technology today
• Should cloning human beings be legal?
• Body donations
• Traffic of organs
• Plastic surgery. A fashion?
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VOCABULARY
TO BURY BURIAL FUNERAL
CEMETERY GRAVE TOMB TOMBSTONE
GRAVEYARD UNDERTAKER FUNERAL PARLOUR MORGUE
SHROUD TO MOURN MOURNING
DEATH TO BE DEAD A DEAD PERSON THE
DEAD CORPSE
FANCY DRESS WITCH MONSTER GHOST WARE WOLF DEATH
PARTY VAMPIRE SPIDER BAT COSTUME
DISGUISE
FOOD PUMPKIN APPLE PECAN NUTS YAM
TRADITIONS TRICK OR TREAT APPLE BOBBING
PUMPKIN CARVING WINDOW DECORATING
HORROR SCARY TO BE SCARED FRIGHT FRIGHTENING
STORIES AWE STRUCK GRUESOME DISGUSTING FILTHY
DUSTY VICIOUS MEAN EVIL WICKED
COBWEB HAUNTED HOUSE
BODY AND LUNGS LIVER KIDNEY HEART BONE
ORGANS SKELETON SKULL
TRANSPLANT TO DONATE ORGAN DONATION TO
CREMATE CREMATION TRAFFIC OF ORGANS
MORGUE
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CADDER CEMETERY
READING COMPREHENSION: Read the text and answer the questions
THE 19TH CENTURY GRAVE ROBBERS IN CADDER CEMETERY
Close to Glasgow and on the banks of the Forth-Clyde canal there is a very old Parish
church with an old cemetery surrounding it.
In the middle of the cemetery, there is a small stone house. It has only a small room with a
fireplace. What could this house be? It is certainly not a mausoleum, since it is empty.
Well, let me tell you. In the 19th century, this small house was used to shelter the person
who was watching the cemetery at night. Nevertheless, why would somebody want to
watch a cemetery? Can you guess?
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At that time science was quite advanced and the university hospitals needed bodies to
carry out research and find out the causes for many incurable diseases.
It was impossible for the doctors to obtain corpses because everybody wanted to burry
their dead untouched. They would not agree to have any inner organ from their dear dead
person removed.
Doctors could, of course, use the bodies of criminals and homeless, perhaps, but there
were not enough bodies available. Therefore, it was a good chance for some wicked
people to open the graves from those who had just been buried and sell them to the
doctors. This was an illegal transaction, but it happened. Moreover, beside, Cadder
cemetery was convenient for the robbers since it was close to the canal where the
snatchers could transport their booty easily.
Therefore, the parishioners decided to stop this horrendous trend and ordered an iron
coffin from the local ironmonger. This coffin should lack the bottom and should be
extremely heavy, so that it could only be lifted with the help and strength of several men at
the same time.
Every time somebody was buried, they would place the empty coffin on top of the new
grave to protect it from robbers. However, what if there was a plague or just a bad flu in
the area? How could they protect more than one grave at the same time? Then, they
decided to build a small cosy house so that the men could watch their dead at night.
Today, you can still see the coffin and the house as remains from a past time.
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ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:
1. Why was Cdder cemetery “interesting” for body snatchers?
2. How would they transport the bodies?
3. What bodies could doctors use for their experiments?
4. Why do you think they could use those bodies?
5. Who made the heavy metal coffin?
6. Why do you think was the little house in the cemetery “cosy”
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DESCRPTIONS
FANCY DRESS PARTY DISGUISES
MONSTER Any creature so ugly or monstrous as to frighten people. A
monster is usually large.
An ugly old woman, who professes or is supposed to
practice magic, esp. black magic or the black art;
WITCH sorceress. She can put a spell on somebody or something.
She normally dresses in black and can fly with the help of a
broom
GHOST The soul of a dead person, a disembodied spirit imagined,
usually as a vague, shadowy or evanescent form, as
wandering among or haunting living persons
Ghost wear white shrouds and drag chains
SPIDER Any of numerous predaceous arachnids of the order
Araneae, most of which spin webs that serve as nests and
as traps for prey.
Spiders are hairy and weave cobwebs.
Supernatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated
corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at
night.
VAMPIRE Dracula is a notorious vampire. He wears a black and red
cloak, which resembles bat wings.
He fears day light, fire, garlic and the sign of the holy cross.
A human being who has changed into a wolf, or is capable
WEREWOLF of assuming the form of a wolf, while retaining human
intelligence.
A man can become a werewolf in full moon nights.
DEATH The agent of death personified, usually represented as a
man or a skeleton carrying a scythe.
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ROLE-PLAY
-Listen, I’m having a Halloween fancy dress party.
-Really? How nice!
-When are you having it?
-On Saaturday evening. Would you like to come?
-Oh, I’d love to.
-What will you be wearing?
-Well, it’s a surprise.
-I don’t have any costume right now.
-Well, anything will do. I could lend you one if you want.
-Great! Shall I bring anything?
-Well, don’t worry, we have already bought drinks and some snacks. Oh, and the apples
for the apple bobbing game.
-That’ll be fun
-What time does the party start?
-At seven
-OK. I’ll be there. I’m sure we’ll have lots of fun!
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VOCABULARY
Red of
Green of blood
will-o’-the-wisp
Grey of
ashes
Orange of
pumpkin
The colours
of Halloween
White of
ghosts
Black of
death
red
grey
green
black
white
orange
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CADDER CEMETERY
IRON
MORT SAFE
WATCH TOWER
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THE BIG ISSUE IN SCOTLAND
December 12-18 1996
Number 98
A grave omission
Theatre director Andy Cannon says it’s time we acknowledged our huge
debt to the great names in grave robbing - by building them a monument. “I
first carne across the grave robbers in a throwaway line in a book. I wanted to find out
more, but everywhere
1 looked for information 1 found only Burke and Hare. But they never robbed graves in
their lives. They were
common-or-garden murderers who obscured the history of true grave robbers: Mowdie
Warp, Praying
Howard, Merry Andrew amongst others.
I decided to produce a play about these men. Then 1 had the idea of a plaque or a
monument. Edinburgh has a lot of statues, but the story of its grave robbers shows how
divided the City is. Early last century the great and good were putting Edinburgh on the
map as a medical school, but to do this they needed the services of grave robbers.
I don’t want to make them into heroes. just put up a plaque to the trade and commemorate
the part ordinary people in Edinburgh played in the making of the university.
The grave robbers or ressurectionists. weren’t feeding some morbid fascination. There
was money to be made. It was a case of market forces - there was a demand for bodies at
the medical school. And it wasn’t just a few bodies either, it was an industry that went on
for decades.
For Edinburgh’s poor. conditions were desperate. £10 was the going rate for a body,
probably as much as a month’s wages. The more I find out about it, the harder 1 find it to
pass judgment.
Robbing a grave needed teamwork. To pull up the whole box would have taken hours, so
the group would remove about three square feet of earth from the top of the coffin. Then
they would insert hooked clamps and prise open the lid. One of the smaller members
would go down and pull out the body. They could do the whole thing in less than ten
minutes.
A whole industry grew up around preventing a body from being stolen, like the invention of
the mort-safe, a wire fence clamped down on top of the grave.
Sometimes these would just be hired since bodies had a definite use-by date. But some
undertakers were dishonest too - how many families went to the expense of a mort-safe
when the coffin was already filled with sand bags.
For its part, the city seemed to turn a blind eye to the trade. Bodies would be transported
in sacks - the snatchers were even known as the ‘sack-em-up-rnen’. lf you saw a man
after dark with a heavy sack, you didn’t ask what was in it.
Sometimes grave robbers struck deals with people or their families before death, Some
people who were iii decided that for £5 they could have a great last two weeks! Praying
Howard even set himself up as a lay preacher. conducting funerals while his friends
reaped the benefit at night.
Medical students stole bodies too. Once two gangs of students had a pitched battle
in a graveyard over a body - they both needed it for the next day’s class.
But great advances were made in medicine and surgery in that period and everyone
benefited.
Andy Cannon was talking to Susan Mansfield
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Reproduced by kind permission of “The Big Issue in Scotland Ltd”
Copyright Tyke Publications
ACTIVITIES Total = 20 marks
A. Tick TRUE or FALSE after each of these statements:
l.Burke and Hare robbed many graves TRUE TRUE
2. Merry Andrew was a famous grave robber, TRUE TRUE
3.Andy Cannon disapproves of grave robbers. TRUE TRUE
4.IO was not very much money at the time of the grave robbers. TRUE TRUE
5.More than one person was needed to roh a grave. TRUE TRUE
6.The record for the length of time it took to rob a grave was TRUE TRUE
under 10 minutes.
7.Medical students never stole bodies for themselves. TRUE TRUE
8.Medicine benefited from the research done on the bodies which TRUE TRUE
were stolen.
8 marks
B. Put a circle round the word which best explains these words or phrases:
COMMON-OR-
flowering ordinary cheap vicious
GARDEN”
OBSCURED darkened highlighted made unclear oid
MORBID unhealthy financial greedy gloomy
supply and shopping
MARKET FORCES guards taxes
demand needs
pretend not rejoice
TURN A BLLND EYE be pleased with see conceal
to in
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5 marks
C. Fui in the missing words from this advertisement for a Mort-safe:
Jones & Co Ironmongers
Don’t lose the body of your loved one after going to the expense of a
________________________. Buy our new patented ___________________
Avoid the thieving ways of the notorious _______________________ up men.
Gangs of men roam this city and will steal a body to gain as much as £_________
If it is worth so much to them surely you can afford as little as £5 to protect
your family. Would you like to be used for ________________________ research?
NO ! Our MORT-SAFE is guaranteed to work. The wire ________________
is ___________________________ firmly on top of the grave and your dear ones can
truly Rest in Peace.
Write the answers to these questions:
1. What does Andy Cannon suggests should he done for the famous grave robbers?
2. What is the difference between Burke and Hare and grave robbers?
3. Narne two real grave robbers.
4.i What did people want Edinburgh to be known for?
ii How did the grave robbers help this source of the city’s fame?
5 i Give another name for grave robbers.
ii Why do you think that this name was given to them?
6. Why do you think that the trade was so successful?
7. What do you think is meant by a “morbid fascination”?
8. What is meant by “rnarket forces”?
9. Why did the poor of Edinburgh find the money such a temptation?
10. Describe the process which meant that a grave could be robbed in less than ten
minutes.
11. Why did the people only hire mort-safes rather than buy then?
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12. What did some dishonest undertakers do?
13. What suggests that ordinary citizens did nothing to stop the trade?
14. What might a practical dying person decide to do?
15. How did Praying Howard help both the dying person and his friends?
16. What suggests that bodies were in short supply in spite of the efforts of the grave
robbers?
17. Why does the writer claim that everyone benefited from the work of the grave
robbers?
Total 40 marks
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Answer these questions:
A. Summarise the different attitudes towards grave robbers. 15 marks
B Describe the different activities of the grave robbers as they obtained bodies. 15 marks
C. Write and draw an advertisement for a mort-safe.
10 marks
Total = 40 marks
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GOTHIC FASHION
Gothic fashion is a dark, sometimes morbid, eroticized fashion and style of dress that
rejects mainstream values and emphasizes freedom of expression, challenges taboos,
and flouts conventions. Typical gothic fashion for women includes gowns, corsets, veils,
teased hair, eyeliner, black fingernails, fishnets, and styles borrowed from the
Elizabethans and Victorians. Gothic fashion is part of the goth subculture, which consists
of individuals who identify themselves as goths, Gothic rock and the gothic music scene.
Typical look and colours: Typical Goth dress usually consists of black clothing
accessorized with silver and/or pewter, but can vary in the colour-schemes. The
stereotypical gothic outfit, sometimes referred to as the "romantic" look, is limited only by
what the wearer thinks he or she can pull off, and can (and frequently does) include
elaborate gowns and corsets, veils, teased hair, eyeliner, black fingernails, fishnets, and
styles borrowed from the Elizabethans and Victorians. Also popular are tight-fitting
trousers, pointy boots, flouncy shirts in the manner of Lord Byron, and anything with
buckles on it. The nature of the event will to some degree dictate the dress code, but
expression of personal style is generally more important, and it's not unusual for several
club-goers on a given night to appear dressed very formally or elaborately in a way
unrelated to the specific event.
The term gothic music has been used to refer to:
• Music related to the Goth subculture
o Darkwave
o Death rock
o Electronic Body Music
o Ethereal Wave
o Gothic Metal
o Gothic rock
o Industrial music
o Post punk
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LET THE DISCUSSION BEGUIN
The class will be divided in groups of students FOR and AGAINST Gothic fashion and
music.
Students should criticize or defend this style.
FOR AGAINST
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GOTHIC FICTION
Gothic fiction began in the United Kingdom with The Castle of Otranto (1764) by Horace
Walpole. It depended for its effect on the pleasing terror it induced in the reader, a new
extension of literary pleasures that was essentially Romantic. It is the predecessor of
modern horror fiction and is the source of the connection between "gothic" and the dark
and horrific.
Prominent features of gothic fiction include terror (both psychological and physical),
mystery, the supernatural, ghosts, haunted houses and Gothic architecture, castles,
darkness, death, decay, doubles, madness (especially mad women), secrets, hereditary
curses, persecuted maidens and so on.
Important ideas concerning and influencing the Gothic include: Anti-Catholicism,
especially criticism of Catholic excesses such as the Inquisition (in southern European
countries such as Italy and Spain); romanticism of an ancient Medieval past; melodrama;
and parody (including self-parody).
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FEATURES IN GOTHIC LITERATURE
SETTING
Usually its night time and it’s almost always
DAY TIME dark
AND Darkness is a key feature
The weather is always unpleasant
WEATHER
Rain and thunderstorms
Lightning
Foggy or misty
Usually cold
Snow or frost
silence
Door hinges creaking
SOUNDS Wood cheeking
Something or somebody creeping
Strange unknown sounds
Suspicious footsteps
Animals howling
PLACE An old and decaying house or castle
Usually haunted
Dusty, with cobwebs
Insanity
MOOD Hallucinations due to drugs and alcohol
Sadness
Fear
Horror
Fear of being buried alive
THE UNCANNY Coincidence and fate
Silence
Telepathy
Uncertainty about sexual identity
Abuse and sexual abuse
Death
Repetition, déjà vu
Telepathy
Mice or rats
Insects and spiders
ANIMALS AND Vampires
Werewolves
SUPERNATURAL CREATURES
Monsters
Ghosts
Witches
Goblins
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CHARACTERS
Usually the main character is a young beautiful women
FEMALE GOOD Weak, naïve and innocent
CHARACTER She will go through a series of difficulties
She will be the victim of the evil characters
MALE GOOD
CHARACTER Usually young handsome men
Naïve and innocent
FEMALE EVIL Usually old and ugly
CHARACTER Disgusting
Deformed
Weird and very perverse
MALE EVIL The main evil character is usually an old and ugly male,
CHARACTER Disgusting
Deformed
Weird and very perverse
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ACTIVITIES IN STORY TELLING
1. MUSIC AS SPECIAL EFFECT
Tell the students to close their eyes and play a music passage that may convey fear. Tell
them to imagine a situation. Then they should tell the class what the music has
suggested.
2. STORY TELLING: DESCRIPTION OF A NIGHTMARE
Read the short story and make sure you have understood the meaning.
3. STORY TELLING
Look up the following words in the dictionary and divide them according to their
grammatical category using the table in the handout..
4. STORY TELLING The students will be divided into groups of three or four and will be
given small flashcards with images related to horror stories. With these cards the students
will write a short horror story using Total Physical Response techniques. What sounds or
movements could enhance the meaning of a horror story? They can use the words in
the grids in activity 3.
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STORY TELLING: DESCRIPTION OF A NIGHTMARE
Read the text and underline all the words you do not know. Then answer the questions.
He woke up with a terrible backache. He felt that some frozen substance had stuck to his
backbone. When he opened his eyes, he had a glimpse of the moon as it was fading
behind dark clouds. he tried to sit up immediately but restrained his urge as he sensed the
beats of his blood stream in his forehead. Therefore, he leaned on his elbow very carefully
and managed to sit down. to his horror, he discovered he had been lying on a gravestone.
He looked around and watched the dim moon light make the grotesque stone gargoyles
look alive. Not far from there, he could hear the metal door hinges groaning in pain.
It had just started to rain and the raindrops were dancing on the stone, as little goblins
would.
He leaned on his hands and managed to stand on all fours. Slowly he succeeded in
standing up and observed the gravestone where he had been lying on. He almost fainted
as he the name written on the stone: it was his.
1. Briefly summarize what the passage is about.
2. When does this scene happens? is it day or night?
3. How many parts of the body and organs are mentioned in this passage?
4. Now, lets find out the meaning of all the new words
5. The main character in the story is probably afraid of death. What are you scared
of?
6. What is the most frightening film you have ever seen? Why?
7. What is the most frightening book you have ever read? Why?
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STORY TELLING
Look up the following words in the dictionary and divide them according to their
grammatical category using the table below.
Then use the words you need and make up a horror story.
cobweb horrible sad sinister
coffin horrific scared (to be) skeleton
cold howl scrape skull
corpse hue scratch soul
creak, knock scream speechless
creep light senseless step
crypt lightning shade still
dark misty shadow thunder
darkness moan shine to give sb. the creeps
dim moon shiver tomb
disgusting mourn shout tremble
dumb numb shroud undertaker
escape phosphorescent shudder whirlwind
fear quiet sickening whistle
foggy run away silence will-o’-the-wisp
hocus-pocus silent wind
wrapped in
yell
NOUN VERB ADJECTIVE IDIOMS
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DRACULA
In 1992, Francis Ford Coppola produced and directed a new version of the film, called
Bram Stoker's Dracula starring Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, Keanu Reeves, and
Anthony Hopkins. Coppola's story includes a backstory telling how Dracula (who is the
historical Vlad epes in this version) became a vampire, as well as a subplot in which
Mina Harker was revealed to be the reincarnation of Dracula's greatest love. This story is
not part of Stoker's original. The soundtrack includes 'Love Song for a Vampire', sung by
Annie Lennox.
Despite the title, the cinematic production differs markedly from Stoker's version. Notable
among the variations is a subplot (introduced in an elaborate prologue) which suggests
that Mina Harker is the reincarnation of Dracula's great love, a suggestion absent from the
original story. The Count's relationship with Mina is different from its portrayal in the novel,
in which Dracula met her late in the story after he had killed Lucy Westenra and Mina had
joined the vampire's enemies. The movie version suggests that Dracula is none other than
the notorious Vlad epeş ("The Impaler"), a Romanian prince legendary for his cruelty, a
connection absent in the original novel. In the novel, there is no mention of how the Count
became a vampire (although it is implied that he was transformed at Scholomance), and
little mention is made of the historical Dracula aside from a brief reference to his persistent
campaigns against the Turks (which, according to Dracula expert Dr Elizabeth Miller, is
due to the fact that Stoker probably didn't know anything else about him [1]).
The movie opens with Vlad's wife committing suicide, as she believes that he had been
killed during one of these wars. Vlad is insane with grief due not only to the loss, but also
to the supposed eternal condemnation of his wife's soul; he renounces God and takes an
unholy vow to somehow avenge her, thus gaining eternal life as a force of darkness. By
contrast, the historical Vlad epeş married twice. The first wife did commit suicide, but it
was not because she grieved his death; in reality their castle was under siege and,
believing that there was no escape, she took her own life.
In the movie, Dracula is speaking Romanian while in Stoker's book he claims to be a
Székely, meaning he would have spoken Hungarian. Although a deviation from the novel,
it is the movie that is closer to reality as the historical Vlad III Dracula was Romanian, not
a Székely.
Even with these changes, the movie is considered by many to be the most faithful version
ever made. [1] [2] In the Signet Classic 100th annniversary edition of the book, Leonard
Wolf writes that "it is surely the most spectacular and most sexually graphic film based on
Stoker's novel...an extraordinary reinvention..."
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/bram_vampires_drac.html
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In order to find out what the students know about Dracula, create a dialogue between the
teacher and the students .They will answer that Dracula is a vampire and that he needs
human blood to survive but they know little more.
They should know that
a vampire is an undead creature and therefore, he/she is not truly dead. To be able to
release the vampire’s trapped soul there are a series of ritual to be performed.
Dracula embodies transgression. He can become old or young and he can turn into the
shape of an animal too. He is evil and therefore the devils also lives in him.
Count Dracula possesses the following powers and supernatural traits:
• he is potentially immortal
• he survives on the blood of others
• he has the strength of twenty men
• he can shape-shift into the form of a wolf or a bat
• he can appear as mist or elemental dust
• he has no reflection in a mirror
• he casts no shadow
• he has hypnotic power over his victims
• he can turn victims into vampires
But on the other hand, he does have limitations:
• he may not enter a household unless he is invited in
• he loses his supernatural powers during daylight hours
• he must sleep on the soil of his native land
• he can cross running water only at the slack or the flood of the tide
• he is repelled by garlic and holy symbols (crucifix, holy wafer)
• he can be destroyed by driving a stake through his heart and decapitating him
Finally, before watching the film, the students should know about the differences between
the novel and the film
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BRAM STOKER’S
DRACULA; THE FILM
1. In the beginning of the film why is Count Dracula so furious when he finds out that
Elisabetha has died?
2. What is so terrible about her death?
3. Why does God punishes Count Dracula? What is his mortal sin?
4. What is so terrible about the punishment?
5. How does the film solve the problem of eternal damnation offering Dracula the
possibility of redemption?
6. Can you think of some very erotic scenes? How about disgusting scenes?
7. What shapes does Dracula turn into?
8. Do you think Dracula is a romantic film? Why?
9. What does “the thirst for blood” suggest to you?
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The Black Cat (1843)
Summary
On the eve of his death, an unnamed narrator opens the story by proclaiming that he is
sane, despite the wild narrative he is about to convey. This narrative begins years before,
when the narrator’s honorable character is well known and celebrated. He confesses a
great love for cats and dogs, both of which, he says, respect the fidelity of friendship,
unlike fellow men. The narrator marries at a young age and introduces his wife to the
domestic joys of owning pets. Among birds, goldfish, a dog, rabbits, and a monkey, the
narrator singles out a large and beautiful black cat, named Pluto, as his favorite.
Though he loves Pluto, the narrator begins to suffer from violent mood swings,
predominantly due to the influence of alcohol. He takes to mistreating not only the other
animals but also his wife. During this uncontrollable rage, he spares only Pluto. After
returning home quite drunk one night, the narrator lashes out at Pluto. Believing the cat
has avoided him, he vengefully grasps the cat, only to be bitten on the hand. In demonic
retaliation, the narrator pulls a penknife from his pocket and cuts out one of the cat’s eyes.
Though the narrator wakes the next morning with a partial feeling of remorse, he is unable
to reverse the newly ominous course of his black soul. Ignored for certain now by the
wounded cat, the narrator soon seeks further retaliation. He is overwhelmed by a spirit of
PERVERSENESS, and sets out to commit wrong for the sake of wrong. He hangs Pluto
from the limb of a tree one morning.
On the night of Pluto’s hanging, the narrator’s family’s house burns down, but he
dismisses the possibility of a connection between the two events. The day after the fire,
which destroys all the narrator’s possessions, he witnesses a group of neighbors collected
around a wall that remains standing. Investigating their shouts of amazement, the narrator
discovers the impression of a gigantic cat—with a rope around its neck—on the surface of
the wall. The narrator attempts to explain rationally the existence of the impression, but he
finds himself haunted by this phantasm over the course of many months. One night, while
out drunk, the narrator discovers a black object poised upon a large barrel of alcohol. A
new black cat has appeared, resembling Pluto but with a splash of white on his fur.
As with Pluto, the narrator experiences a great fondness for the mysterious cat, which no
one has seen before. The cat becomes part of the household, much adored by his wife as
well. However, following the earlier pattern, the narrator soon cannot resist feelings of
hatred for the cat. These murderous sentiments intensify when the narrator discovers that
the cat’s splash of white fur has mysteriously taken on the shape of the gallows, the
structure on which a hanging takes place. The white fur reveals the mode of execution
that claimed Pluto, and the narrator pledges revenge.
One day, descending into the cellar of the building with his wife, the narrator almost trips
over the cat. Enraged, the narrator grabs an axe to attack the cat, but his wife defends the
animal. Further angered by this interference, the narrator turns his rage at his wife and
buries the axe in her head. Faced with the evidence of his crime, the narrator considers
many options for the body’s disposal, including dismemberment and burial. The narrator
eventually decides to take advantage of the damp walls in the basement and entomb the
body behind their plaster. Without any difficulty, the narrator creates a tomb in the plaster
wall, thereby hiding the body and all traces of his murder. When he finally turns to the cat,
it is missing, and he concludes that it has been frightened away by his anger.
On the fourth day after the murder, the police arrive unexpectedly at the narrator’s
apartment. Cool and collected, the narrator leads them through the premises, even into
the basement. Though facing the scene of the crime, the police do not demonstrate any
curiosity and prepare to leave the residence. The narrator, however, keeps trying to allay
their suspicion. Commenting upon the solid craftsmanship of the house, he taps on the
wall—behind which is his wife’s body—with a cane. In response to the tapping, a long,
loud cry emanates from behind the wall. The police storm the wall and dismantle it,
discovering the hidden corpse. Upon its head sits the missing cat.
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Analysis
Much like “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Black Cat” follows the narrator’s descent into
madness after he proclaims his sanity in the tale’s opening paragraph. Even the narrator
acknowledges the “wild” nature of the tale, attempting thereby to separate his mental
condition from the events of the plot. The nature of the narrator’s madness differs from
that of the narrator of “The Tell-Tale Heart.” “The Black Cat” does not concern itself only
with the self-contained nature of the narrator’s mind. Rather, the narrator confesses an
alcoholism that interferes with his grasp on reality and produces mood swings. Alcohol is,
like the cat, an external agent that intrudes on the dynamics of the plot. The introduction of
alcohol as a plot device is also significant because Edgar Allan Poe was an reputedly
uncontrollable drunk throughout his lifetime. For many years, his biographers asserted
that he died of alcohol poisoning in a gutter in Baltimore. More recent biographies insist
that the exact cause of Poe’s death cannot be determined. Regardless, it is certain that
Poe suffered from the deleterious effects of alcohol consumption throughout his life.
The influential literary critic Tzvetan Todorov introduced a concept of the “fantastic” in the
early 1970s to discuss literature of horror, and the idea can be applied usefully to “The
Black Cat.” The fantastic, he asserts, explores the indefinite boundary between the real
and the supernatural. The fantastic is a literary category that contains elements of both
the rational and the irrational. One of the fantastic elements in “The Black Cat” is the
existence of the second cat—with the changing shape of its white fur and its appearance
on the corpse behind the wall. These plot twists challenge reality, but they do not
completely substitute a supernatural explanation for a logical one. It is possible that the
plot twists derive only from the insanity of the narrator. As a result, the plot twists, like the
fantastic, hover between the real and the supernatural. The resolution of the story is both
rationally possible and tremendously unlikely; the cat could inhabit the basement walls,
but it is difficult to believe that it would remain silently in the wall for a long time or go
unnoticed by the overly meticulous narrator.
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The Black Cat
Answer the following questions
1. Can you describe the changes the narrator’s character undergo throughout the
story?
2. Is the narrator conscious of his acts when he cuts one of Pluto’s eyes? –Explain it.
3. Summarize the text as if you were a policeman/woman writing a report of the
events that took place in 1843.
4. Who was Pluto in the Roman mythology?
5. Why do you think Poe chose the name for the black cat?
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FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK AND FILM REVIEWS
In 1931, Universal acquired the rights to a companion piece, Peggy Webling’s 1927 British
play, Frankenstein: An Experiment in the Macabre, adapted for the American stage in
1931 by Hamilton Deane. After the success of Dracula with director Tod Browning and
featuring new star Bela Lugosi, Carl Laemmle Jr., Universal Studios production chief,
offered Whale his choice of some 30 Universal properties. Whale picked Frankenstein.
Casting the Monster F a challenge. In the developing screenplay he would remain mute,
but he would be a complex person. They needed an actor of subtlety and range. Whale’s
romantic partner, David Lewis (a film producer), suggested that Whale test an obscure but
experienced character actor named William Henry Pratt, who went by the stage name
Boris Karloff.
On meeting the 43-year-old actor, Whale was fascinated by his face and “penetrating
personality.” The key to Whale and Karloff’s shared vision is that the Monster is a
oversized newborn child, his lurching, loose-armed walk that of a toddler struggling to
keep his balance.
Frankenstein was a run-away success, bigger than Dracula. Karloff became a superstar,
and horror films grew from an occasional oddity to a full-fledged film genre, particularly at
Universal. As the studio released such other horror/gothic classics as The Mummy (1932),
The Black Cat (1934), and Whale’s The Old Dark House (1932) and The Invisible Man,
demand naturally grew for a sequel to their biggest shocker.
Kenneth Branagh’s Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) is beautifully photographed, and
probably comes the closest of any adaptation to the details of the novel (though still not
that close). But while Branagh has many of the story’s lyrics, he doesn’t have the tune,
and the result feels phoney, with the exceptions of John Cleese’s low-key performance as
Dr. Waldman and Robert De Niro’s sincere rendering of the Monster.
In the novel, Victor Frankenstein is a doctor who seems discontent and achieves
satisfaction by exploring the supernatural realm. The creation of his monster comes about
because of his unchecked intellectual ambition: he had been striving for something
beyond his control. Consequently, his ambition is misled and his life becomes a hollow
existence.
The film tells the story of a scientist named Dr. Henry Frankenstein, whose work takes him
into the dark side of life after death. When Frankenstein creates a man out of stolen body
parts, he does not achieve his desired effect and creates a monster.
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Dr. Henry Frankenstein (Colin Clive), an ardent young scientist, and his assistant Fritz
(Dwight Frye), a devoted hunch-back, attach together a human body, the parts of which
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have been secretly collected from various sources. Frankenstein's consuming desire is to
create human life through various electrical devices which he has perfected.
Elizabeth (Mae Clarke), his fiancee, is worried to distraction over his peculiar actions. She
cannot understand why he secludes himself in an abandoned watch tower, which he has
equipped as a laboratory, and refuses to see anyone. She and his friend, Victor (John
Boles), go to Dr. Waldman (Edward Van Sloan), his old medical professor, and ask Dr.
Waldman's help in reclaiming the young scientist from his absorbing experiments.
Elizabeth, intent on rescuing Frankenstein, arrives just as the eager young medico is
making his final tests. They all watch Frankenstein and the dwarf as they raise the dead
creature on an operating table, high into the room, toward an opening at the top of the
laboratory. Then a terrific crash of thunder-- the crackling of Frankenstein's electric
machines-- and the black hand of Frankenstein's monster turns white and begins to move.
The manufactured monster (Boris Karloff) is held in a dungeon in the watch tower, a
strangely hideous, grotesque, inhuman form. Through an error on the part of the dwarf, a
criminal brain was secured for Frankenstein's experiments which result in the monster
knowing only hate, horror and murder. It has the strength of ten men. Suddenly, there is
an unearthly, terrifying shriek from the dungeon. Frankenstein and Dr. Waldman rush in to
find the monster has strangled Fritz. He makes a lunge at the two, but they escape. As the
monster breaks through the door, Dr. Waldman injects a powerful drug into the monster's
back and he sinks to the floor.
With preparations for the wedding completed, Frankenstein is once again himself and
serenely happy with Elizabeth. They are to marry as soon as Dr. Waldman arrives.
Suddenly, Victor rushes in, saying that the Doctor has been found strangled in his
operating room. Frankenstein suspects the monster. A chilling scream convinces him that
the fiend is in the house. The monster has gained access to Elizabeth's room. When the
searchers arrive, they find her unconscious on the floor. The monster has escaped. He is
only intent upon destroying Frankenstein.
Leading an enraged band of peasants, Frankenstein searches the surrounding country for
the monster. He becomes separated from the band and is discovered by the monster,
who springs at his prey and carries him off to the old mill. The peasants hear his cries and
follow. Finally reaching the mill, they find the monster has climbed to the very top,
dragging Frankenstein with him. Suddenly, in a burst of rage, he hurls the young scientist
to the ground. His fall, broken by the fans on the wheel, saves him from instant death.
Some of the villagers hurry him to his home while the others remain to burn the mill and
destroy the entrapped monster.
Spoilers end here.
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[edit] Differences between the film and its source
In the original novel, the monster's creator is named Victor Frankenstein and his best
friend's name is Henry Clerval. A woman named Justine Moritz works for the Frankenstein
family.She is a family freind. In the film, the monster's creator is named Henry
Frankenstein, and his friend is Victor Moritz.
Whereas in Mary Shelley's novel, the creature's savage behavior is seen as the result of
maltreatment and neglect, the 1931 film adaptation adds as further explanation the fact
that Frankenstein's assistant Fritz, played by Dwight Frye, has provided a defective brain
to be used in the experiment. This suggestion that the Monster's brutal behavior was
inevitable arguably dilutes the novel's social criticism and depiction of developing
consciousness.
During the course of more than thirty adaptations, sequels, spin-offs, rip-offs, and spoofs,
the name of "Frankenstein" has become associated with one of the world's most
recognizable movie monsters. The creature, as typified by Boris Karloff with outstretched
arms, flat-topped head, and ubiquitous neck bolts, has met the likes of Dracula, the
Wolfman, and even Abbott and Costello. It has been played by (among others) Charles
Ogle, Karloff, Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, Glenn Strange, Christopher Lee, Fred Gwynne
(as Herman Munster), and now, Robert De Niro. Rarely, however, has a cinematic
interpretation of "the daemon" approached the level of three-dimensionality with which it is
portrayed in the novel.
As conceived and written by Shelley, Frankenstein was more of a gothic melodrama than
a horror story. Considered in its most basic terms, the tale is one of actions and their
consequences, and of what happens when man, in his hubris, attempts to usurp the role
of God. For the most part, however, motion pictures have chosen to ignore the weightier
issues of the book to concentrate instead on the "monster movie" aspects. With this latest
cinematic depiction, director (and uncredited co-writer) Kenneth Branagh has taken a
less-traveled path. He has chosen to view Frankenstein as a tragedy of Greek (or, given
his background, Shakespearean) proportions.
What Branagh should recognize better than anyone, though, is that tragedy is at its most
effective when allowed to cook slowly, basting in its own juices. This version of
Frankenstein moves so frantically that far too many subtleties get lost along the way. The
result is a rousing, occasionally-chaotic (especially during the choppily-edited first half-
hour) piece of work that, while undeniably entertaining, lacks a depth that might otherwise
have been attained. Patrick Doyle's bombastic score helps only to underline the
melodramatic elements of this production, rarely allowing a quiet or reflective moment.
As far as its faithfulness to the source material is concerned, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein
frequently differs from the book on plot points, but the two are thematically in synch.
Several movie characters bear little resemblance to their book counterparts beyond
having the same name (Dr. Waldeman, Frankenstein's mentor, being a chief example),
and there is a significant alteration in the last act. Surprisingly enough, although it reflects
nothing written by Shelley, this scene is effective in underlining the weaknesses and
strengths of both Victor Frankenstein and his creature.
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Can a man create life, then abandon his creation because its appearance horrifies him?
To whom are its actions then attributable: the creature or the being who brought about its
existence? Shelley did not answer these questions, but she certainly posed them.
Following her example, Branagh does the same.
The greatest strength of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is that it illustrates both the good
and evil qualities in each of its main characters. Of the two - Robert De Niro's creature and
Kenneth Branagh's Frankenstein - the former is, perhaps surprisingly, the more
sympathetic. In part because of the script and in part because of the acting (De Niro gives
a far stronger performance than his director/co-star), the creature seems almost the more
"human" of the two. In its own words, it is capable of great love and great rage.
Frankenstein, on the other hand, often comes across as petty, self-serving, and ambitious.
Only towards the end, when he finally grasps the full consequences of his actions, does
the scientist capture a measure of our understanding.
Despite the presence of John Cleese - who is excellent in a straight, if somewhat limited,
role - there is no comic relief in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (or at least none that is
intentional - a few scenes here and there are too-obviously overacted, which can lead to a
chuckle or two). However, since the screenplay is not relentlessly downbeat, the bursts of
action and horror are effective enough in lessening tension that breaks of levity are not
needed. In fact, given the tone of this film, humor might easily have seemed an
unwelcome intrusion.
Shelley was never concerned about the scientific realism of Frankenstein's actions. She
describes neither his experiments nor the practical (as opposed to the philosophical)
reasoning that leads to them. In this film, while Branagh doesn't attempt to fully remedy
this lapse (something that obviously can't be done), he presents enough pseudo-scientific
evidence to suggest how the creation of a life might plausibly be accomplished.
Suspension of disbelief is, of course, requisite for the viewer at this point.
One area where thisFrankenstein meets expectations is in its cast. The weakest link is
Branagh, whose Victor is more than occasionally overwrought. De Niro, although buried
beneath hours' worth of makeup, is less monstrous here than in films like Cape Fear and
The Untouchables. The sequence where the creature befriends a family, anonymously
providing them food (instead of firewood, as in the book) while observing and learning
from them through a chink in a wall, is marvelously moving, and possibly the best moment
offered by the film.
Helena Bonham Carter gives a feisty and fiery interpretation of Elizabeth, who eventually
becomes much more than merely Frankenstein's love interest. Richard Briers (as the blind
patriarch of the creature's adopted "family"), Ian Holm (as Frankenstein's father), Tom
Hulce (as Frankenstein's best friend and fellow student, Henry Clerval), Aidan Quinn (as
the north-pole bound explorer Robert Walton), Robert Hardy (as the odious Professor
Krempe), Trevyn McDowell (as Justine, the Frankensteins' housekeeper) and John
Cleese (as Waldeman, Frankenstein's mentor) round out the supporting cast.
The film has a striking visual look, which owes as much to the set design and special
effects as to the soaring cinematography of Roger Pratt. Although Branagh does not opt
for straight horror, the gothic element of the tale is very much in evidence as a result of
the carefully-crafted atmosphere of several key scenes. From the Arctic Ocean to the
Swiss Alps and the plague-riddled streets of Ingolstadt, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is a
wonder to behold.
Comparison's with 1992's Bram Stoker's Dracula are inevitable, especially since both
came from Francis Ford Coppola's American Zoetrope production company. Considering
the merits of both movies, however, there is little doubt which is more effective. Kenneth
Branagh's film is stronger thematically and visually, possesses more solid
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characterization, and boasts Robert De Niro and Helena Bonham Carter rather than
Keanu Reeves and Winona Ryder. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein may not be the definitive
version of the 1817 novel, and the director likely attempted more than is practical for a
two-hour film, but overambition is preferable to the alternative, especially if it results - as in
this case - in something more substantial than Hollywood's typical, fitfully entertaining fluff.
© 1994 James Berardinelli
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/m/mary_shellys.html
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FRANKENSTEIN AND THE FILMS
The students will read two passages of an adapted version of Mary Shelly’s book.
The passage in which Dr. Frankenstein sees the monster alive and a passage in which Dr
Frankenstein has died and the monster dies too.
You will show four scenes from James Whale’s 1931 film.
• The scene when Dr Frankenstein sees the monster alive
• Another scene when the monster sees the light from outside
• The scene in which the monster kills the little girl in the lake
• The death of the monster in the wind mill
The old film has no background music and the monster makes the students laugh rather
than frighten them. However, they will probably agree that the monster’s make up is
fantastic and unique.
Then, you will show two scenes from Kenneth Branagh’s 1994 film.
• The scene when Dr Frankenstein sees the monster alive
• The end of the film, the death of the monster and Dr Frankenstein
Kenneth Branagh’s film has a very effective sound track and powerful images. Therefore,
the students will easily be interested in it.
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FRANKENSTEIN: THE FILMS
!931 James Whale’s Frankenstein 1994 Kenneth Branagh’s Frankenstein
1. How is the monster portrayed in both films compared to the novel?
2. Which film is inspired on expressionism and which one on realism? How can you
explain the difference?
3. Describe the monster’s make up and clothes in both films.
4. What are your feelings towards the monster? Does it express horror or sympathy,
or both?
5. Compare the last scene on both Frankenstein films. How does the story differ?
Which one is closer to the novel?
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CHANGING YOUR IMAGE
• Let’s recall the parts of our body and organs.
• Let’s talk about plastic surgery:
§ What kind of operations, replacements and improvements can you
undergo to be more attractive?
• Analyze the possible reasons for the modern trend of improving your image:
§ Why do we need to be more attractive?
§ Can this trend become an obsession?
§ Where can this obsession lead to?
• Give your opinion about plastic surgery.
• Would you change anything in your appearance?
• How about clothes? Let’s go over the vocabulary related to clothes
§ Do clothes tell us something about a person?
§ Can you name some of the fashion styles young people wear
today?
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CELEBRITIES AND “BODY BUILDING”
Divide the class in groups of two or three students and give out the flashcards. Each flash
card contains pictures of celebrities who have had some kind of plastic surgery. Each
celebrity has two pictures, one before the operations and the second one after having
undergone the physical changes.
Each group has to answer the following questions:
• Do you recognize the celebrities?
.
• Most of them have decided to change or improve their image throughout plastic
surgery. One of them has not. Who is she? (Brigitte Bardot)
• Describe the changes the celebrities may have undergone.
• Describe the “before” and “after” picture and tell your opinion.
• Discuss whether you are for or against having plastic surgery and give the class
your opinion.
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In New York, a Grisly Traffic in Body Parts
by Michael Powell and David Segal
January 28, 2006 Washington Post
NEW YORK -- Hundreds of very live Americans are walking around with
pieces of the wrong dead people inside of them.
A macabre scandal has spread from a body-harvesting lab in New Jersey to hospitals as
far away as Florida, Nebraska and Texas as hundreds of people discover that they have
received tissue and bone carved from looted corpses, not least the cadaver of Alistair
Cooke, the late and erudite host of PBS's "Masterpiece Theatre."
The Brooklyn district attorney and federal Food and Drug Administration inspectors are
investigating dozens of funeral homes in New York City and Biomedical Tissue Services
Ltd. of Fort Lee, N.J., which is run by a former dentist who, his lawyer acknowledges,
abused intravenous pain medications while with patients.
The former dentist came to funeral homes, investigators say, and extracted bone, tendons
and skin from corpses without the consent of relatives. Later, Biomedical Tissue Services
shipped coolers full of tissue to hospitals for surgeries. A dead body can be worth tens of
thousands of dollars when it is dissected for parts.
The scandal raises questions about the safety and proper supervision of a billion-dollar-a-
year industry that supplies skin and tissue for 1 million tissue transplants each year. But
patients are most confounded by the skin-crawling fact that no one knows from whom the
bone and tissue was harvested.
Heather Augustin, 42, lives in southern New Jersey and had two disks in her neck
removed last year, supposedly replaced with bone taken from a youngish corpse. Three
months later, her surgeon told her that her new neck bone had in fact come from rogue
funeral homes, likely from the cadaver of a very old person.
Augustin hasn't slept particularly well since.
"You think, 'I'm carrying a bone in my neck from someone who didn't want to get chopped
up,' " she said. "I'm, like, in total shock. What am I supposed to do with these thoughts?"
FDA spokesmen say risk of serious infection is fairly remote, though an agency advisory
adds the caveat that the "actual infectious risk is unknown." A 41-year-old woman who
underwent back surgery on Long Island and two patients in New Jersey say they
contracted syphilis from stolen bone tissue.
The FDA forbids body-harvesting firms from cutting up cancerous and diseased corpses.
In all cases, harvesters are supposed to screen cadavers based on age and cause of
death, and harvested tissue is tested for disease and treated with antiviral or antibacterial
agents.
"We know that they obtained these bodies in a fraudulent way and off the scale of
acceptable practice," FDA spokesman Stephen King said.
Bone can be transplanted whole or fashioned into chips for spinal fusion surgery. Much
harvested skin -- about 18,900 square feet of it in 2003 -- goes to burn victims.
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The Daily News broke the scandal in October, fingering several Brooklyn funeral home
operators who had harvested patients without the permission of family members. In one
case, reporters found that the English Brothers Funeral Home had forged consent and
cause-of-death documents and allowed Biomedical Tissue Services to harvest the cancer-
ridden body of Michael Bruno, a 75-year-old former cabbie.
That article ran under the headline "They Carved Up My Father!" The funeral home did
not return calls seeking comment.
The New York City medical examiner's office in the past few months has exhumed three
bodies from cemeteries in Brooklyn and Queens. Investigators discovered one female
cadaver missing about half its body.
The New Jersey biomedical firm shipped large coolers filled with tissue to five suppliers
across the nation. No one knows how many patients are affected. But the examples
uncovered so far are suggestive:
Between early 2004 and September 2005, 60 surgical patients at Shore Memorial
Hospital in Somers Point, N.J., received implants said to have originated with the corpse-
snatching ring. Another 74 patients in Nebraska received stolen bone tissue during
surgeries in the same period.
Biomedical Tissue Services operated out of a third-floor office suite not far from the
George Washington Bridge, on the fringe of a large industry with a low profile. Its
president is Michael Mastromarino, who once had a thriving dental practice off Fifth
Avenue and a specialty in implant surgery. Over the years, he struggled with drug abuse
and was sued for malpractice by several patients, one of whom accused Mastromarino of
deserting a patient under general anesthesia in mid-operation.
Mastromarino was found, according to the lawsuit, in his bathroom with a hypodermic
needle stuck in his arm, blood on the floor. Mastromarino surrendered his dental license
six years ago, went into rehab and two years ago went into the tissue recovery business.
His lawyer, Mario Gallucci, said his client never broke the law. It's the funeral parlor's job
to obtain consent from prospective donors, he said. Mastromarino and his employees
would simply show up and harvest tissue, taking a cursory look to make sure it was viable
and the body as described.
"If you're told by the funeral home that it's a 45-year-old woman and you show up and
she's 90 years old, there's a problem," Gallucci said.
Biomedical Tissue Services was not an accredited member of the American Association
of Tissue Banks, nor did the company ever apply. But Robert Rigney, who heads the
association, said he doubted anyone now living with tissue originating from the company
is in any kind of health danger, because the processors the company dealt with would
have subjected any tissue to screening.
Still, Rigney is appalled. "If these people did what is alleged here, what they have done is
unconscionable," he said.
Alistair Cooke died of cancer at age 95 in March 2004. He wanted to be cremated, and
harbored a horror of being cut open. His daughter, a pastor in Vermont, said district
attorney's investigators contacted her recently to say they had discovered forged papers,
allegedly signed by Cooke's family, allowing his bones and tissue to be removed.
Investigators said they had evidence his body parts had been implanted in patients but
declined to provide details.
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Cooke was far too old to be an acceptable candidate for tissue harvesting, and his
daughter, the Rev. Susan Cooke Kittredge, said she had never given permission.
"I am surprised by how upset I am," said Kittredge, who said she favors organ donation.
"You wanted to remember your loved one in the fullness of life. But I've lived with the
image of his cadaver pressed against my face now for a month.
"You have lives torn asunder, and I hope the people responsible for these desecrations
get their comeuppance."
http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healthcare/organs/nygrisly.html
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Hundreds of corpses said to be dissected
By Tom Hays
ASSOCIATED PRESS
February 24, 2006
NEW YORK – Investigators exhuming the body of an 82-year-old woman last year made
a shocking discovery: Many bones in the lower half of her corpse had been removed and
crudely replaced with plastic plumbing pipe.
Prosecutors say the woman and her family were victims of a biomedical supply house that
secretly carved up bodies and sold the parts for use in transplants across the country.
The owner of the company was charged along with three other men in the alleged
scheme, which prosecutors said made millions of dollars for the defendants.
The case was “like something out of a cheap horror movie,” Brooklyn District Attorney
Charles Hynes said.
Prosecutors said the defendants obtained the bodies from funeral parlors in three states
and forged death certificates and organ-donor consent forms to make it look as if the
bones, skin, tendons, heart valves and other tissue were legally removed.
The indictment was the first set of charges to come out of a widening scandal involving
scores of funeral homes and hundreds of bodies, including that of “Masterpiece Theatre”
host Alistair Cooke, who died in 2004. The investigation has raised fears that some of the
body parts could spread disease to transplant recipients.
Michael Mastromarino, owner of Biomedical Tissue Services in Fort Lee, N.J., was
charged along with Brooklyn funeral-home owner Joseph Nicelli.
Mastromarino was an oral surgeon who went into the tissue business after losing his
license as a dentist, prosecutors said. Nicelli was a partner in the business, they said. The
other defendants are Lee Crucetta and Christopher Aldorasi.
All four pleaded not guilty to charges of enterprise corruption, body stealing and opening
graves, unlawful dissection, forgery and other counts.
Prosecutors said the defendants took organs from people who had not given consent or
were too old or too sick to donate. The defendants forged consent forms and altered the
death certificates to indicate that the victims had been younger and healthier, authorities
said.
Prosecutors said the body parts were sold to tissue suppliers and ultimately used in disk
replacements, knee operations, dental implants and a variety of other surgical procedures
performed by unsuspecting doctors across the United States and in Canada.
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Nicelli was paid up to $1,000 per body to deliver corpses to a secret operating room at his
funeral parlor where Mastromarino would remove body parts, authorities said. Crucetta, a
nurse, and Aldorasi allegedly helped.
Mastromarino made up to $7,000 a body by selling the tissue. The corpses were then
returned to unsuspecting funeral directors for burial. Hynes said that in some cases,
bones had been removed from corpses and replaced with plastic plumbing pipe to
conceal the thefts.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060224/news_1n24parts.html
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IDIOMS WITH PARTS OF THE BODY
§ to cost someone an arm and a leg = cost somebody a lot of money.
That car cost him an arm and a leg.
§ to turn a blind eye to something = ignore something.
He knows I always get late, but he just turns a blind eye to it.
§ to have a finger in every pie = be involved in many activities.
He's on the board of five companies, he likes to have a finger in every
pie.
§ to have something on the tip of one's tongue = just about to be
spoken or remembered.
His name's on the tip of my tongue, but I just can't think of it!
§ with (one's) tongue in (one's) cheek = not intending to be taken
seriously.
Don't be fooled by all his complimentary remarks, they were all said with
tongue in cheek.
§ to pull someone's leg = tease somebody, make somebody believe
something that is untrue.
Of course he doesn't want his present back, he's just pulling your leg!
§ to be hand in glove with someone = be in close relationship with
someone.
§ to learn/know something by heart = from memory.
He knows the poem by heart. was found to be hand in glove with the
enemy.
§ from the bottom of one's heart = sincerely.
This advice comes from the bottom of my heart.
§ a heart of gold = a very kind nature.
He looks bad-tempered but really he's got a heart of gold.
§ a heart of stone = a pitiless and unfeeling nature.
He doesn't care about others, he's got a heart of stone.
§ to get cold feet = stop doing something because one becomes afraid of
the consequences.
He was about to break into the house, but he got cold feet at the last
minute.
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§ to have two left feet = be very clumsy.
§ to pull someone's leg = tease somebody, make somebody believe
something that is untrue.
Of course he doesn't want his present back, he's just pulling your leg!
§ To be a pain in the neck- Also, pain in the ass or butt. A source of
annoyance, a nuisance, as in Joan is a real pain in the neck, with her
constant complaining, or Jack told his brother to stop being a pain in the
ass.
http://www.saberingles.com.ar/idioms/index.html
Pair work. Write ten sentences using the idioms you have learnt:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
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URBAN LEGENDS
An urban legend is a kind of modern folklore consisting of stories often thought to be
factual by those circulating them. The term is often used with a meaning similar to the
expression "apocryphal story." Urban legends are not necessarily untrue, but they are
often false, distorted, exaggerated, or sensationalized. Despite the name, urban legends
do not necessarily take place in an urban setting. The name is designed to differentiate
them from traditional folklore in preindustrial times.
Urban legends are sometimes repeated in news stories and, in recent years, distributed
by e-mail. People frequently say such tales happened to a "friend of a friend"—so often, in
fact, that "friend of a friend", or "FOAF", has become a commonly used term for this sort of
story.
The phenomenon is known in other languages: In the Netherlands, for example, a story
about monkey meat gave rise to the term "broodje aapverhalen" (i.e. monkey sandwich
stories).
Some urban legends have survived a long time, evolving only slightly over the years, as in
the case of the story of a woman killed by spiders nesting in her elaborate hairdo. Others
are new and reflect modern circumstances, like the story of people being anaesthetized
and waking up minus a kidney surgically removed for transplant.
From Wikipedia,
Browse this site:
http://www.warphead.com/urbanlegends/
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Read the following passage.
…Suddenly, he woke up and found himself sitting alone in a seat at the airport. He felt
dizzy and could not recall what had happened. Where was he? Why was he there?
Feeling very weak, he headed towards the toilets. There he discovered that his lower back
was aching and was covered with a bandage. .
Yes, there was a wound. What had happened?
He went to hospital and later discovered that one of his kidneys had been removed.
However, he could not remember what had happened …
Every one of us has sometime heard such a story. When they tell you the story, they
swear it is true and assure you the source is certainly reliable.
We call it urban legends. Everybody has heard of this kind of stories but nobody has ever
met anyone who has really undergone such an experience.
LET THE DISCUSSION BEGIN
Divide the class in groups of four and think about other urban legends you have heard of.
Then one person in the group will tell the story
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An Urban Legend is a short tale that is told and retold as true, although it usually
has little or no basis in reality or can't be confirmed one way or another. Whether
we know it or not we've all heard them, usually as something that happened to a
"friend of a friend".
All of the following are legends which are assumed to be false except for the ones
in the Truth category
• Corpses & Cadavers
• Escaped
• Lunatics
• Juvenile Delinquents
• School Daze
• Urban Links
• Antisocial Behavior
• Costly Commercial Concoctions
• Funny Stuff
• Misunderstandings
• Urban Legends in Film
• Babies & Children
• Creepy Tales
• From Around the World
• Crime & Punishment
• Pets & Animals
• Show Business
• Message Board
• Cars
• Revenge is Sweet
• The Ugly Truth
• Urban
http://www.warphead.com/urbanlegends/
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HOW TABLOIDS WORK
66
Even if you've never read a tabloid, the headlines grab your attention at the supermarket
checkout. From celebrity scandals to the truly bizarre, tabloid newspapers seem to cover
stories that are outside the realm of serious journalism. Sometimes it seems like the stories
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are completely made up. And where do they get photographs of two-headed babies and
space aliens, anyway?
In this article, we'll find out where tabloids get their stories, how they evolved and what effect
the popularity of tabloids has had on newspapers and television shows.
Tabloid Stories
They Control Everything You
In a highly regarded newspaper like the New York Times or Read!
Washington Post, the facts in a news story are meticulously The most important recent
checked and confirmed with multiple sources (when development in tabloid
everything goes as it should). Editors and writers conform to history is the 1999 purchase
journalistic standards and work hard to maintain an overall of every major supermarket
sense of objectivity. Tabloids don't seem to follow any of these tabloid in the U.S. by
rules. So where do they get their stories from? American Media, Inc. The
National Enquirer, Star,
Sometimes tabloids do make up their stories out of thin air. Globe, National Examiner,
The notorious sex and gore tabloids of the 1950s and 60s Weekly World News and
were almost completely fictional, with just enough truth to others are all owned by this
make the stories seem believable. Even today, some tabloids media conglomerate.
include "top-of-the-head" stories invented by writers. If a story
is about an incredible event that happened in some remote part of the world, or the people
quoted in the story are vaguely identified, then it is probably false. This is a last resort for
tabloid writers and editors, however -- they usually try to base their stories on a grain of truth.
The key to tabloid story writing is that something doesn't have to be true to print -- someone
just has to have said that it was true. Writers can bring in sources and experts to confirm just
about anything. They will use leading questions to get a "money quote" from a source, or offer
up the quote themselves and use it as long as the source agrees with them. For example, a
writer might interview a witness for a story about Bigfoot and ask, "Did the raging beast howl
with fury, and did it sound like a demon from hell itself?" If the witness says yes, the story
might quote the witness as saying, "Then the raging beast howled with fury. It sounded like a
demon from hell itself!"
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http://people.howstuffworks.com/tabloid.htm
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TABLOIDS; CELEBRITIES PAY THEIR TOLL
5 September 2005
EXCLUSIVE: COCAINE KATE
By Stephen Moyes
The Daily Mirror today reveals shocking pictures of supermodel Kate Moss snorting a fat
line of cocaine during a debauched drugs and drink session with junkie lover Pete
Doherty.
She's pictured left in typical model pose - but the Mirror's exclusive new shots show Kate
in an entirely different light.
As the white powder induces a sudden rush to her brain, she rocks back in her seat and
laughs hysterically. The coke is kicking in.
Within seconds she leans forward and again sniffs into a tightly rolled-up £5 note,
hoovering up every last grain of the Class A drug.
It is clear from the extraordinary images, captured during a Mirror undercover
investigation, that the 31-year-old catwalk queen is a practised user.
Rumours of her drug habits have circulated for years but she has always denied taking
Class As such as cocaine.
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In a West London recording studio, though, Kate chats casually with Doherty and pals as
she absent-mindedly crushes and chops out the chunky lines on the back of a plastic CD
cover.
With her blonde hair hanging untidily around her shoulders, the model icon, worth
£30million, prepares up to 20 lines of coke in just 40 minutes.
Using a mammoth stash, which she kept safely wrapped in her handbag, Kate - mother of
a two-year-old daughter - has no qualms about being seen with the illegal drugs.
Doherty and some of his mates mill around, eager to join the binge and impatiently asking
to help prepare the drugs.
LOVERS: Kate with Babyshambles singer boyfirend Docherty
At one point the Croydon-born beauty - the face of Rimmel, Chanel, Calvin Klein and
Christian Dior - loses her patience with one of crackhead Doherty's friends and insists: "I'll
do it. I'll do it."
She joins in a discussion about cannabis while joints are passed around some members
of the group.
As she parties on well into the early hours, Kate chats merrily about daughter Lila Grace,
whose father is magazine publisher Jefferson Hack.
Kate, 10 times a Vogue cover girl,looks unsteady and exhausted as the session
continues.
Between lines of cocaine, she repeatedly twitches her nose and rubs her nostrils.
On five occasions she expertly prepares the lines of cocaine, carefully using a credit card
to cut the powder into neat rows for her, Doherty and the others.
In long, high-heeled black boots, shorts and a low cut vest top, Kate begins the night with
shots of vodka and whisky.
She then pours herself large glasses of wine and beer and chain-smokes cigarettes.
The remarkable images were captured last week as Doherty, 26, laid down tracks for the
new Babyshambles album.
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Punk rock legend Mick Jones, formerly of The Clash, is producing the record and is also
seen snorting cocaine from Kate's stash.
In 1998 Kate told a Channel 4 documentary: "I don't do any Class A -especially not heroin
- after seeing what it does to people.
"I don't think you have to be in this industry to see that, you just have to look around you."
In the same year, Kate spent six weeks in The Priory rehab clinic. She told the Mirror at
the time: "I've been doing a lot of work and too much partying. I wasn't happy with the way
my life was going. So I decided to take a step back and assess my life and future.
"I want to be totally responsible for myself. And this is the place where I can get the peace
and quiet I need to start the process."
She admitted later that she had spent much of the 90s drunk, and also revealed that she
had problems with drugs. She never admitted using cocaine or other Class As.
"In fashion, excess is not for creative purposes, whatever people may say," she said. "It's
about escapism. You just have to get out of it to deal with it. I think that's what a lot of
people in fashion that I know do it for. I know that's why I did it."
Two years ago Kate confessed for the first time that her drug habits had once left her in
the depths of despair but claimed to have cleaned up her act.
She said: "Dabbling is fine but when I was bang on it, that wasn't a nice time. I was
miserable anyway.
"Drugs enhanced all the misery and I got into this spiral. I still drink but I don't do drugs."
Yesterday she was with Doherty in New York for fashion week. They lunched at SoHo's
Balthazar restaurant.
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TOP STORIES
Choose one of the titles and find out about the piece of news in
the internet:
EX-SPY LITVINENKO KILLED BY RADIOACTIVE POISON
DRAMATIC new twist as Russian ex-spy makes deathbed statement accusing the
"person responsible" of being "barbaric and ruthless".
KILLER STONE IN STORMONT 'BOMBING'
PARAMILITARY killer Michael Stone storms Northern Ireland Assembly throwing home-
made bomb - police defuse up to 8 devices.
22 RAPISTS LET OFF WITH A CAUTION
A SHOCK rise in the use of cautions has let 22 RAPISTS walk free with slapped wrists.
PREMIERSHIP STARS - SEND 'EM ORF...
THE Queen proved she really is in touch with the nation - as she called football's ego-mad
superstars a bunch of 'prima donnas'.
ONE DEAD, ONE CRITICAL IN STREET FIGHT
ONE man has been killed, another critically injured and several paramedics, police and
bystanders hurt during a violent brawl in a west London street.
MORE HEADLINES: GUESS WHAT THE STORY IS ABOUT
- VEIL ROW TEACHER SACKED
- EXCLUSIVE: STRICTLY GOOD FRIENDS?
- MRS MCCARTNEY - NO OIL PAINTING
- PREMIERSHIP STAR BELLAMY CALLED ME A FAT SLAG
- THE PRICE OF DRUGS CRIME
- 160 DEAD ON BLOODY DAY IN BAGHDAD
- E-BOOZE BAN
- NATIVITY PAY
- CAR KILLER BANNED 11 TIMES
- ONE-SEX WARD NOT POSSIBLE
- PUTT PUTT PITT PITT..
- BUNGALOW FOR RENT. TO SUIT TRAVELLING FAMILIES, DHSS...
- OJ: I DID IT FOR MONEY
- KILLED BRIT IS NAMED
- POLLYOMETER
- THEY'RE LAZIEST LOT EVER
- SIENNA'S 60S LOOK
- RAT TRAP OWL RAP
- PECKED POSTIE
- SCHOOL VEG HERO
- JUNK FOOD MAIL
- TO BOLDLY GO WHERE NO MAN HAS GONE BE FORE
- PREGNANT TEENS FALL
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- BOY ROMP CLAIMS 'LIE'
- NOEL'S CELEBRITY 'NO'
- LEONA HIT BY BUG
- SPIT MAN CAGED
- JUMP MUM JAIL
- WAGS' NO1 SHOP RAIDED
- TWINS BORN TO TWINS (WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM THEIR TWINS
- WHERE'S YOUR NUTCRACKERS, SIMON?
- FLYING HOME.. ..TO GO TO JAIL
- THUNDERWALL
- PRINCESS TRIAL AXED
- CAR COP CLEARED
- JAIL FOR FAKE RAPE LESBIAN
- SICK BRAG OF KNIFE KILLER
- ENGLAND STAR OWES ME £100K
- TRIBUTES FOR BBC MAN NICK
- FORGERY FAMILY
- RINGTONES REVOLT
- ACID HELPS YOUR HEART
- LIQUID GOLD
- BOY WHO BUILT A NUCLEAR REACTOR IN HIS BASEMENT
- THE METER MOB
- M6 CRASH NUT'S ROW WITH LOVER
- OBESITY DEFORMS KIDS'FEET
- LEN'S BRIT TEST AFTER 57 YEARS
- BLAIR TOLD TO DELAY VOTE ON TRIDENT
- MATING CALLERS
- BASIC STRAINING
- WHAT A SPORTING BALLS-UP
- SOLDIER IS KILLED ON EXERCISE
- GRAN, 64 IS SUICIDE BOMBER
- TORY DEBT WARNING 'AN INSULT'
- TRIBUTE TO BOAT HERO
- VINYL GOODBYE
- LONG-LOST VC SELLS FOR £120K
- HARMISON COUSINS' DRUG RAP
- TOBY ANSTIS VOTED OUT OF THE I'M A CELEBRITY JUNGLE
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16133522&method=full&siteid=9476
2-name_page.html
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SPANISH TABLOIDS
PASTE IMAGES OF THE MOST POPULAR SPANISH TABLOIDS
Give your opinion about them;
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MAKE UP YOUR PIECE OF NEWS
TITLE
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Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Directed by
Stephen Frears
The film was well received by audiences and critics for its portrayal of the bleak, hand-to-
mouth lives of asylum seeking immigrants in London and of the more seedy, criminal
aspect that underlies all the glitz and glamour. Reviewers have also pointed out that the
plot successfully portrays the personalities of the main characters by forcing them into
situations that test their morality and religious convictions.
Some reviewers have suggested that the love affair between Okwe and Senay is an
unnecessary aspect of the plot, and that this aspect of their relationship should not have
been developed. It has also been pointed out that while the illegal trade of human organs
does exist, it is a rare activity and thus the plot is not plausible. There has also been
criticism that the film was advertised as an erotic thriller, a label that many viewers do not
agree with.
http://www.sacticket.com/cgi-bin/Movies/review?story_id=03dirtyprettythings
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dirty_pretty_things/
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Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
Directed by
Stephen Frears
1. The film shows us the world of immigration in London. We face the misery and
explotation of illegal workers that have no position in society. How does the film
show this?
2. They say it is a weird city. What do they mean?
3. The city we see in the film is not the London tourists see, It’s like an underworld.
How is the atmosphere portrayed in the film? What does the director want to tell
us?
4. The film shows us that many people in our planet struggle to barely survive in a
cruel society eager to manipulate and exploit them in every vile way possible.
Therefore, immigrants risk their lives in order to achieve their share of a better life.
How does the traffic of organs exemplify this situation?
5. Describe the major and minor characters in the film.
6. What serious problems do Okwe and Senay come up against?
7. How are some of the characters deprived of their human dignity?
8. Señor Juan is called “sneaky”. Why do they call him this name?
9. Why is the film called “Pretty Dirty Things”?
10. What does Okwe tell the organs dealer in the hotel basement towards the end of
the film?
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ISSUE 2 TEST
BODY BUILDING
NAME______________________________________
1.The colours of Halloween are………………………..
because they ………………………………………………….
2. In Halloween people go to parties and wear……………………………..
Costumes are macabre, You can wear costumes as ……………………………………..
3.In the 19th century it was quite common to rob bodies because
4. Body snatchers was another name for …………………………………
5- A “mort safe” was
6.Dead bodies could be sold for at least ……………………………………
They usually transported the bodies in …………………………………….
7. A dead person was wrapped in a white _____________ and then she/he was placed
into a ________________ and they closed the _____________ and
took it to the _____________________ where it was buried in a
_______________________ Later on a __________________________ was placed
with the name on it.
8. Frankenstein is the name of ………………………………………….. . The novel with the
same name was written by ……………………………........... in the ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
century.
9. In the novel, the monster dies in……………………………………………………
as in the ……………………………………… film. However, in the ………………………..
film, the monster dies in ……………………………………………
10.The monster is evil because his brain belonged to ……………………………………
People hate him because …………………………………………………………..
Frankenstein’s author wants to tell us that ……………………. punishes the doctor
because …………………………………………………………………
11.Horror stories and films have created a style called ………………….. that has later
given its name to a fashion style.
12.Horror stories usually take place in
13. To create a suitable atmosphere and horror effects in a horror story you need
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14. In which parts of your body you could have improved by plastic or cosmetic surgery?
15. What internal organs can you donate to be transplanted?
16. What do you know about urban legends?
17. What is the name given to newspapers and magazines that publish ‘rubbish’
information?
18. What supernatural power does Dracula have? What does he hate?
19. Why is Count Dracula punished by God?
20. What is the purpose of the second black cat in The Black Cat?
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BIBLIOGRAPHY, RESAURCES AND LINKS
Poe, Edgar Allan, 2002,Complete Tales and Poems New York Doubleday
Punter, David and Byron, Glennis, 2004, The Gothic,Blackwell Publishing
Shelley, Mary ,1998-(1818 text)Frankenstein,Oxford, OUP,
FILMS
1931 W. Whale’s Frankensten
1994 K. Branagh’s Frankenstein
1992 F. Ford Coppola’s Bram Stocker’s Dracula
2002 S. Frears ‘ Dirty Pretty Things
READING COMPREHENSION “A great Omission”
Andy Cannon was talking to Susan Mansfield
Reproduced by kind permission of “The Big Issue in Scotland Ltd”
Copyright Tyke Publications
IMAGES from Google images
INTERNET LINKS
Body snatchers,
The resurrectionists
Burke and Hare
http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/burke.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body-snatching
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resurrectionist
http://www.scotshistoryonline.co.uk/burke.html
http://www.nls.uk/broadsides/broadside.cfm/id/15228
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Port_murders
Capital punishment
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drawn_and_quartered
http://www.answers.com/topic/hanging-drawing-and-quartering
http://www.richard.clark32.btinternet.co.uk/contents.html
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Gothic fashion
http://www.gothicbeauty.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_fashion
Gothic fiction
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_novel
http://cai.ucdavis.edu/waters-sites/gothicnovel/155breport.html
http://gothic.english.dal.ca/
Dracula
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/bram_vampires_drac.html
http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/bram_vampires_drac.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103874/
Poe and The Black Cat
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/poestories/section8.rhtml
http://www.realpoe.com/
http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/
http://www.poedecoder.com/essays/blackcat/
http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/LitNote/id-145,pageNum-14.html
Frankenstein
http://www.reelviews.net/movies/m/mary_shellys.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/hmd/frankenstein/frankhome.html
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021884/
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0109836/
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Traffic of organs
http://www.liberty-page.com/issues/healthcare/organs/nygrisly.html
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060224/news_1n24parts.html
Idioms
http://www.saberingles.com.ar/idioms/index.html
Urban legends
http://www.warphead.com/urbanlegends/
Tabloids
http://people.howstuffworks.com/tabloid.htm
http://www.mirror.co.uk/
Top stories on Tabloids
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16133522&method=full&siteid=9476
2-name_page.html
Dirty Pretty Things
http://www.sacticket.com/cgi-bin/Movies/review?story_id=03dirtyprettythings
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/dirty_pretty_things/
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CONTENTS
Introduction 2
Guideline for teachers 3
How to develop unit 2 4
Background file. 8
The resurrection men: 9
The story of Burke and Hare 12
Capital punishment for. 15
Brainstorm 16
Warming up activity: 35
Reading Comprehension 18
Fancy dress party. 21
The colours of Halloween 23
Reading Comprehension: A grave omission 24
Introduction to the meaning of gothic-gothic fashion 30
Let the discussion begin: for and against 31
Gothic fiction 32
Activities in story telling 35
1. Music as special effect 35
2. Story telling: description of a nightmare
36
3. Story telling
37
4. Story telling movements
38
Dracula.
39
Dracula, the film
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Llicència retribuïda 2005-2006
The film handout 40
The Black Cat 41
The Black Cat handout
Frankenstein 44
Frankenstein: the films 45
Changing your image 51
Celebrities and “body building 52
Traffic of organs 53
Idioms with parts of the body 56
Urban legends 61
Food for thought 63
Let the discussion begin 64
Urban legends and modern myths 64
How tabloids work 65
Tabloids 66
Spanish Tabloids 70
Dirty pretty things 75
Dirty pretty things 77
Evaluation test 78
Bibliography 79
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