19.12.2024

 

  

  

https://www.examenglish.com/CAE/cae_use_of_english1.htm  

17.12.2024

https://app.engxam.com/cpe/reading/1/

   

  

  

https://app.useofenglishpro.com/use-of-english/c1/cae/advanced-certificate-of-english/open-cloze/8/the-simon-bolivar-orchestra

11,12,2024

https://app.engxam.com/cae/use-of-english/4/ 

   

  

   Despite the often-disturbing content of the stories, the Grimms' primary contribution to fairy tales was making them tamer.

It's no coincidence that the adultification of the fairy tale happened over the same time period in which the children who'd originally enjoyed the Disney versions grew up, and surprisingly little needs to be changed to turn a children's story into an adult-oriented (and adult-rated) film. Despite the best efforts of the Grimm brothers, Walt Disney, and their contemporaries, fairy tales can never be completely separated from their darker origins. 

But there's a final wrinkle to the subversive fairy-tale trend: From movies like Snow White & the Huntsman to TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time, a twisted fairy tale only works if the audience has enough knowledge of the original stories to appreciate how they're being subverted—a knowledge that contemporary children are getting further and further away from. 

In many ways, the reverse-sanitization of the fairy tale is a return to the origins of stories that were, in their earliest forms, only "related at adult gatherings after children had been put to bed for the night." As adults turn on an episode of Grimm after reading their children to sleep, or see Snow White & the Hunstman while their kids stay at home with a sitter, they're embracing a concept of the fairy tale that predates even the Grimm Brothers—a trend appropriate enough for the oldest stories of all. 

1 Do you prefer the darker, adult-oriented versions of fairy tales or the sanitized, child-friendly ones? Why?

2 The text mentions that fairy tales were originally told to adults. What do you think this says about the role of storytelling in society?

3 If you were reading fairy tales to a child, would you prefer sharing the lighter Disney versions or the more traditional, darker versions? Why?

taken from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/fairy-tales-started-dark-got-cute-and-are-now-getting-dark-again/257934/

https://app.engxam.com/cae/listening/1/ 

   

10.12.2024

 

      

https://app.engxam.com/cae/use-of-english/4/

Universal Pictures

"I guess you think you know this story.

You don't. The real one's much more gory.

The phoney one, the one you know

Was cooked up years and years ago,

And made to sound all soft and sappy

Just to keep the children happy."

–"Cinderella," by Roald Dahl

In the first minute of the trailer for Snow White & the Huntsman, Charlize Theron's evil queen Ravenna strips naked, sucks the "youth" out of a teenage girl, and plots to rip Snow White's heart from her chest. Given that most people think of Snow White as an innocent girl twirling through a forest, singing about the someday when her prince will come, this is less a trailer and more a statement of purpose: This story isn't for children anymore.

Snow White & The Huntsman is, yes, another fairy-tale film adaptation aimed at adults, coming on the heels of this year's Mirror, Mirror, last year's Red Riding Hood, and dozens of other works in the past decade. They're the latest in the long but accelerating trend that's undoing Disney's 20th century work of transform horrifying folk stories into genial animated musicals. While such retellings may seem subversive, they're actually throwbacks, marking a return to what these tales originally were—before, even, the Brothers Grimm got their hands on them.

The contemporary idea of the fairy tale can be traced to 1812, when Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm published a collection of folk stories called Children's and Household Tales—now much more commonly known as Grimm's Fairy Tales. From "Rapunzel" to "Hansel and Gretel," from "Cinderella" to "Sleeping Beauty," and all the way up to "Little Snow White."

1 What contrast does the text establish between traditional and modern adaptations of fairy tales?

2 What is the significance of referencing Roald Dahl’s Cinderella in the context of this discussion?

3 How does the text argue that contemporary retellings are both subversive and traditional?

4 What is the tone conveyed by words like “gory,” “phoney,” and “soft and sappy”? How do these choices shape the reader’s understanding of the argument?

5 What is the central argument of the text, and how is it supported through examples and comparisons?

  

   Despite the often-disturbing content of the stories, the Grimms' primary contribution to fairy tales was making them tamer.

It's no coincidence that the adultification of the fairy tale happened over the same time period in which the children who'd originally enjoyed the Disney versions grew up, and surprisingly little needs to be changed to turn a children's story into an adult-oriented (and adult-rated) film. Despite the best efforts of the Grimm brothers, Walt Disney, and their contemporaries, fairy tales can never be completely separated from their darker origins. 

But there's a final wrinkle to the subversive fairy-tale trend: From movies like Snow White & the Huntsman to TV shows like Grimm and Once Upon a Time, a twisted fairy tale only works if the audience has enough knowledge of the original stories to appreciate how they're being subverted—a knowledge that contemporary children are getting further and further away from. 

In many ways, the reverse-sanitization of the fairy tale is a return to the origins of stories that were, in their earliest forms, only "related at adult gatherings after children had been put to bed for the night." As adults turn on an episode of Grimm after reading their children to sleep, or see Snow White & the Hunstman while their kids stay at home with a sitter, they're embracing a concept of the fairy tale that predates even the Grimm Brothers—a trend appropriate enough for the oldest stories of all. 

1 Do you prefer the darker, adult-oriented versions of fairy tales or the sanitized, child-friendly ones? Why?

2 The text mentions that fairy tales were originally told to adults. What do you think this says about the role of storytelling in society?

3 If you were reading fairy tales to a child, would you prefer sharing the lighter Disney versions or the more traditional, darker versions? Why?

taken from https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2012/05/fairy-tales-started-dark-got-cute-and-are-now-getting-dark-again/257934/

https://app.engxam.com/cae/listening/1/ 

 

https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/79954989490070371/3473464366394541798# 

https://app.engxam.com/cae/use-of-english/3/