sábado, dezembro 18
sábado, dezembro 11
Christmas Challenge
I 'm absolutely sure you Know most of the songs I've posted to celebrate Christmas.
Yet, I do not know if you remember who some of the singers are or were.
Here's the challenge.
Why don't you try to get some information about all those who have sung such beautiful Christmas songs?
Write a short biography and e-mail it to me.
Here's my e-mail address:stbrunoenglishstudents@gmail.com
The best works will be posted in this blog of yours...and the winner will get a prize.
Don't forget to IDENTIFY yourself !
Don't forget to IDENTIFY yourself !
Are you ready?
Here they are:
1. ABBA
2. Band aid
3. Beyoncé
4. Boney M.
5. Brian Adams
6. Bruce Springsteen
7. Celine Dion
8. Cindy Lauper
9. Chris de Burgh
10. Christina Aguillera
11. Da T.R.U.T.H.
12. Dean Martin
13. Elvis Preseley
14. Faith Hill
15. Frank sinatra
16. John Lennon
17. Leonel Richie
18. Louis Armstrong
19. Mariah Carey
20. Michael Jackson
21. New song
22. Queen
23. Slade
24. Steve wonder
25. Teresa brewer
26. Taylor Swift
27. Train
28. U2
31. Kelly Clarkson
2. Band aid
3. Beyoncé
4. Boney M.
5. Brian Adams
6. Bruce Springsteen
7. Celine Dion
8. Cindy Lauper
9. Chris de Burgh
10. Christina Aguillera
11. Da T.R.U.T.H.
12. Dean Martin
13. Elvis Preseley
14. Faith Hill
15. Frank sinatra
16. John Lennon
17. Leonel Richie
18. Louis Armstrong
19. Mariah Carey
20. Michael Jackson
21. New song
22. Queen
23. Slade
24. Steve wonder
25. Teresa brewer
26. Taylor Swift
27. Train
28. U2
29. Wham
30. Wizzard
31. Kelly ClarksonI hope you enjoy doing this work.
Good Luck !
quarta-feira, dezembro 8
terça-feira, novembro 30
Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935) - pseudonyms Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reis
Fernando António Nogueira Pessoa was born in Lisbon. His father, Joaquim de Seabra Pessoa, died of tuberculosis when Pessoa was young. Maria Madalena Nogueira Pessoa, his mother, married the Portuguese consul in Durban in South Africa, where the family lived from 1896. During these years Pessoa became fluent in English and developed an early love for such authors as William Shakespeare and John Milton. He also wrote his poems in English.
Pessoa was educated in Cape Town. At the age of seventeen he returned to Lisbon to continue his studies at the university. When a student strike interrupted classes, he gave up his studies, and got employment as a business correspondent. In 1919 Pessoa met Ophelia Queiroz, a nineteen years old secretary; they exchanged letters but in November 1920 Pessoa broke off with her. With his mother, and his half sister Henriquetta, he rented an apartment on the Rua Coelho de Rocha, 16, where he lived until his death. Pessoa never married. .
Pessoa earned a modest living as a commercial translator, and wrote avant-garde reviews, especially for Orpheu, which was a forum for new aesthetic views. His articles in praise of the saudosismo (nostalgia) movement provoked polemics because of their extravagant language. Pessoa's first book, ANTINOUS, appeared in 1918, and was followed by two other collection of poems, all written in English. It was not until 1933 that he published his first book, the slim, prize-winning MENSAGEM, in Portuguese. However, it did not attract much attention.
The bulk of Pessoa's work appeared in literary magazines, especially in his own Athena. Before creating his literary personalities from his inner discordant voices, Pessoa had long had doubts about his own sanity. Under his own name Pessoa wrote poems that are marked by their innovative language, although he used traditional stanza and metric patterns. The poetical technique for which Pessoa has become especially noted is the use of heteronyms, or alternative literary personae. Pessoa's own name means both person and persona. At the age of five or six the poet had began to address letters to an imaginary companion, named Le Chevalier de Pas.
Much of his best work Pessoa attributed later to his heteronyms, de Campos, Reis, and Caeiro, who were partly born as a prank on Mário Sá-Carneiro (1890-1916), an avant-garde poet from Orpheu. Álvaro de Campos, an engineer, represents the ecstasy of experience; he writes in free verse. Ricardo Reis is an epicurean doctor with a classical education; he writes in meters and stanzas that recall Horace. (See also Jose Saramago's novel The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1984.) Alberto Caeiro, who called himself a shepherd, is against all sentimentality, and writes in colloquial free verse. Caeiro had two disciples, Ricardo Reis and Álvaro de Campos, who says melancholically in 'The Tobacconist's' (1928): "I am nothing. / I shall always be nothing." According to Reis, "The life of Caeiro cannot be told for there is nothing in it to tell." Pessoa once informed that Caeiro died from tuberculosis in 1915. After meeting him on March 8, 1914, Pessoa began to write poetry. In 'I never kept sheep' Caeiro said: "I've no ambitions or desires. / My being a poet isn't an ambition. / It's my way of being alone." Each persona has a distinct philosophy of life. Pessoa even created literary discussions among them.
Pessoa died on November 30, 1935, in Lisbon.
Pessoa left behind some 25,000 unpublished text and fragments. From the 1940s, his poetry started to gain a wider audience in Portugal and later Brazil. Several of his collections have been published posthumously and translated in Spanish, French, English, German, Swedish, Finnish, and other languages. Among the most important works are POESIAS DE FERNANDO PESSOA (1942), POESIAS DE ÁLVARO DE CAMPOS (1944), POEMAS DE ALBERTO CAEIRO (1946), and ODES DE RICARDO REIS (1946).
"Quando vim a ter espenranças, já não sabia ter esperanças.
Quando vim a olhar para a vida, perdera o sentido da vida."
(from 'Aniveresario')
Known above all as a poet, Pessoa also wrote short essays, several of which were briefly sketched or unfinished. His LIVRO DO DESSOSSOGEGO (The Book of Disquiet), the "factless autobiography", written under the name Bernardo Soares, appeared for the first time in 1982, almost 50 years after the author's death. The Book of Disquiet is a collection of prose manuscripts, written in the style of an intimate diary. Soares praises the literary magazine to which Pessoa contributes, he loves and hates his city, but cannot break out of his monotonous life.
domingo, outubro 31
Halloween Party Games - Halloween Games for Kids - Kaboose.com
" Here are some Halloween games . They are funny. Would you like to play? Well,if you do...please, join me!!!"
Description
This link will direct you to a site - Kaboose.com Go down the right column and you'll find the funny games I'm talking about. Here they are...
1.Top 5 Ghoulish games
2.Transylmania 2
3. The best Spooky
3. The best Spooky
Enjoy yorselves ! Happy Halloween...
sábado, junho 19
PORTUGAL MOURNS THE DEATH OF AN OUTSTANDING WRITER
Our English Blog pays homage to JOSÉ DE SOUSA SARAMAGO, an outstanding citizen, a sympathizer to the homeless and poor , a unique person, a world-wide known laureate...and the unquestionably best Portuguese writer ever.
"Candles may burn out long before...
Your legend never will. "
JOSÉ de SOUSA SARAMAGO -THE PORTUGUESE LAUREATE
JOSÉ SARAMAGO(16 November 1922 – 18 June 2010)
The NOBEL Prize in Literature - 1998
Early and middle life
Saramago was born in 1922 into a family of landless peasants in Azinhaga, Portugal, a small village in the province of Ribatejo some hundred kilometers northeast of Lisbon.His parents were José de Sousa and Maria de Piedade. "Saramago", a wild herbaceous plant known in English as the wild radish, was his father's family's nickname, and was accidentally incorporated into his name upon registration of his birth.In 1924, Saramago's family moved to Lisbon, where his father started working as a policeman. A few months after the family moved to the capital, his brother Francisco, older by two years, died. He spent vacations with his grandparents in Azinhaga. When his grandfather suffered a stroke and was to be taken to Lisbon for treatment, Saramago recalled, "He went into the yard of his house, where there were a few trees, fig trees, olive trees. And he went one by one, embracing the trees and crying, saying good-bye to them because he knew he would not return. To see this, to live this, if that doesn't mark you for the rest of your life," Saramago said, "you have no feeling." Although Saramago was a good pupil, his parents were unable to afford to keep him in grammar school, and instead moved him to a technical school at age 12. After graduating, he worked as a car mechanic for two years. Later he worked as a translator, then as a journalist. He was assistant editor of the newspaper Diário de Notícias, a position he had to leave after the political events in 1975. After a period of working as a translator he was able to support himself as a writer. Saramago married Ilda Reis in 1944. Their only child, Violante, was born in 1947. From 1988 until his death in June 2010 Saramago was married to the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río, who is the official translator of his books into Spanish.
Later life and international acclaim
José Saramago didn't achieve widespread recognition and acclaim until he was in his mid-fifties, when his publication of Baltasar and Blimunda brought him to the attention of an international readership. This novel won the Portuguese PEN Club Award.
He became a member of the Portuguese Communist Party in 1969 and remained so until the end of his life. Saramago was also an atheist and self-described pessimist. His views have aroused considerable controversy in Portugal, especially after the publication of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ. Members of the country's Catholic community were outraged by Saramago's representation of Jesus as a fallible human being. Portugal's conservative government would not allow Saramago's work to compete for the European Literary Prize, arguing that it offended the Catholic community. As a result, Saramago and his wife moved to Lanzarote, an island in the Spanish Canaries.
Saramago learned he was to be made a Nobel Laureate in October 1998 when he was about to fly to Germany ahead of the Frankfurt Book Fair. This came as a surprise to him and his Portuguese editor, Zeferino Coelho, recalled: "When he won the Nobel, Saramago said to me, 'I was not born for all this glory.' I told him, 'You may not have been made for this glory, but I was!". He used his Nobel lecture to call his grandfather Jerónimo "the wisest man [he] ever knew." Despite the award, though, he remained a divisive character in Portugal, both criticised and praised.
1998- José Saramago receiving the Nobel Prize for LiteratureHe was a critic of both the European Union and the International Monetary Fund; however, he stood (unsuccessfully) as a candidate for the European Parliament in the 2009 election.
Saramago, described as a "militant atheist", was outspoken in his political views, having delivered lectures as a Nobel laureate in his later life, once saying the treatment of Palestine by Israel was comparable to The Holocaust.
Saramago addresses the most serious of subject matters with empathy for the human condition and for the isolation of contemporary urban life. His characters struggle with their need to connect with one another, form relations and bond as a community; and also with their need for individuality, and to find meaning and dignity outside of political and economic structures.
Saramago died on 18 June 2010, aged 87, having spent the last few years of his life living in Lanzarote. He died as he lived : subtly and determinedly.
Bibliography
Bibliography
Terra do Pecado 1947
Os Poemas Possíveis 1966
Provavelmente Alegria 1970
Deste Mundo e do Outro 1971
A Bagagem do Viajante 1973
As Opiniões que o DL teve 1974
O Ano de 1993 1975 The Year of 1993
Os Apontamentos 1976
Manual de Pintura e Caligrafia 1977
Objecto Quase 1978
Levantado do Chão 1980
Viagem a Portugal 1981
Memorial do Convento 1982
O Ano da Morte de Ricardo Reis 1986
A Jangada de Pedra 1986
História do Cerco de Lisboa 1989
O Evangelho Segundo Jesus Cristo 1991
Ensaio sobre a Cegueira 1995
Todos os Nomes 1997
O Conto da Ilha Desconhecida 1997
A Caverna 2001
O Homem Duplicado 2003
Ensaio sobre a Lucidez 2004
Don Giovanni ou o Dissoluto Absolvido 2005
As Intermitências da Morte 2005
As Pequenas Memórias 2006
A Viagem do Elefante 2008
Caim 2009
Jose Saramago's AUTOBIOGRAPHY
"I was born in a family of landless peasants, in Azinhaga, a small village in the province of Ribatejo, on the right bank of the Almonda River, around a hundred kilometres north-east of Lisbon. My parents were José de Sousa and Maria da Piedade. José de Sousa would have been my own name had not the Registrar, on his own inititiave added the nickname by which my father's family was known in the village: Saramago. I should add that saramago is a wild herbaceous plant, whose leaves in those times served at need as nourishment for the poor. Not until the age of seven, when I had to present an identification document at primary school, was it realised that my full name was José de Sousa Saramago...
This was not, however, the only identity problem to which I was fated at birth. Though I had come into the world on 16 November 1922, my official documents show that I was born two days later, on the 18th. It was thanks to this petty fraud that my family escaped from paying the fine for not having registered my birth at the proper legal time.
Maybe because he had served in World War I, in France as an artillery soldier, and had known other surroundings from those of the village, my father decided in 1924 to leave farm work and move with his family to Lisbon, where he started as a policeman, for which job were required no more "literary qualifications" (a common expression then...) than reading, writing and arithmetic.
Infancy photos Family photo - 1st row - José Saramago
2nd row - Parents and Grandparents
A few months after settling in the capital my brother Francisco two years older, died. Though our living conditions had improved a little after moving, we were never going to be well off.
I was already 13 or 14 when we moved, at last, to our own - but very tiny - house: till then we had lived in parts of houses, with other families. During all this time, and until I came of age I spent many, and very often quite long, periods in the village with my mother's parents Jerónimo Meirinho and Josefa Caixinha.
I was a good pupil at primary school: in the second class I was writing with no spelling mistakes and the third and fourth classes were done in a single year. Then I was moved up to the grammar school where I stayed two years, with excellent marks in the first year, not so good in the second, but was well liked by classmates and teachers, even being elected (I was then 12...) treasurer of the Students' Union... Meanwhile my parents reached the conclusion that, in the absence of resources, they could not go on keeping me in the grammar school. The only alternative was to go to a technical school. And so it was: for five years I learned to be a mechanic. But surprisingly the syllabus at that time, though obviously technically oriented, included, besides French, a literature subject. As I had no books at home (my own books, bought by myself, however with money borrowed from a friend, I would only have when I was 19) the Portuguese language textbooks, with their "anthological" character, were what opened to me the doors of literary fruition: even today I can recite poetry learnt in that distant era. After finishing the course, I worked for two years as a mechanic at a car repair shop. By that time I had already started to frequent, in its evening opening hours, a public library in Lisbon. And it was there, with no help or guidance except curiosity and the will to learn, that my taste for reading developed and was refined.
When I got married in 1944, I had already changed jobs. I was now working in the Social Welfare Service as an administrative civil servant. My wife, Ilda Reis, then a typist with the Railway Company, was to become, many years later, one of the most important Portuguese engravers. She died in 1998. In 1947, the year of the birth of my only child, Violante, I published my first book, a novel I myself entitled The Widow, but which for editorial reasons appeared as The Land of Sin. I wrote another novel, The Skylight, still unpublished, and started another one, but did not get past the first few pages: its title was to be Honey and Gall, or maybe Louis, son of Tadeus... The matter was settled when I abandoned the project: it was becoming quite clear to me that I had nothing worthwhile to say. For 19 years, till 1966, when I got to publish Possible Poems, I was absent from the Portuguese literary scene, where few people can have noticed my absence. "
For political reasons I became unemployed in 1949, but thanks to the goodwill of a former teacher at the technical school, I managed to find work at the metal company where he was a manager.
At the end of the 1950s I started working at a publishing company, Estúdios Cor, as production manager, so returning, but not as an author, to the world of letters I had left some years before. This new activity allowed me acquaintance and friendship with some of the most important Portuguese writers of the time. In 1955, to improve the family budget, but also because I enjoyed it, I started to spend part of my free time in translation, an activity that would continue till 1981: Colette, Pär Lagerkvist, Jean Cassou, Maupassant, André Bonnard, Tolstoi, Baudelaire, Étienne Balibar, Nikos Poulantzas, Henri Focillon, Jacques Roumain, Hegel, Raymond Bayer were some of the authors I translated. Between May 1967 and November 1968, I had another parallel occupation as a literary critic. Meanwhile, in 1966, I had published Possible Poems, a poetry book that marked my return to literature. After that, in 1970, another book of poems, Probably Joy and shortly after, in 1971 and 1973 respectively, under the titles From this World and the Other and The Traveller's Baggage, two collections of newspaper articles which the critics consider essential to the full understanding of my later work. After my divorce in 1970, I initiated a relationship, which would last till 1986, with the Portuguese writer Isabel da Nóbrega.
After leaving the publisher at the end of 1971, I worked for the following two years at the evening newspaper Diário de Lisboa, as manager of a cultural supplement and as an editor.
Published in 1974 with the title The Opinions the DL Had, those texts represent a very precise "reading" of the last time of the dictatorship, which was to be toppled that April. In April 1975, I became deputy director of the morning paper Diário de Nóticias, a post I filled till that November and from which I was sacked in the aftermath of the changes provoked by the politico-military coup of the 25th November which blocked the revolutionary process. Two books mark this era: The Year of 1993, a long poem published in 1975, which some critics consider a herald of the works that two years later would start to appear with Manual of Painting and Calligraphy, a novel, and, under the title of Notes, the political articles I had published in the newspaper of which I had been a director.
Unemployed again and bearing in mind the political situation we were undergoing, without the faintest possibility of finding a job, I decided to devote myself to literature: it was about time to find out what I was worth as a writer. At the beginning of 1976, I settled for some weeks in Lavre, a country village in Alentejo Province. It was that period of study, observation and note-taking that led, in 1980, to the novel Risen from the Ground, where the way of narrating which characterises my novels was born. Meanwhile, in 1978 I had published a collection of short stories, Quasi Object; in 1979 the play The Night, and after that, a few months before Risen from the Ground, a new play, What shall I do with this Book? With the exception of another play, entitled The Second Life of Francis of Assisi, published in 1987, the 1980s were entirely dedicated to the Novel: Baltazar and Blimunda, 1982, The Year of the Death of Ricardo Reis, 1984, The Stone Raft, 1986, The History of the Siege of Lisbon, 1989.
Pilar del Rio and José Saramago in Azinhaga - his birthplace
In 1986, I met the Spanish journalist Pilar del Río. We got married in 1988.
In consequence of the Portuguese government censorship of The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991), vetoing its presentation for the European Literary Prize under the pretext that the book was offensive to Catholics, my wife and I transferred our residence to the island of Lanzarote in the Canaries. At the beginning of that year I published the play In Nomine Dei, which had been written in Lisbon, from which the libretto for the opera Divara would be taken, with music by the Italian composer Azio Corghi and staged for the first time in Münster, Germany in 1993. This was not the first cooperation with Corghi: his also is the music to the opera Blimunda, from my novel Baltazar and Blimunda, staged in Milan, Italy in 1990. In 1993, I started writing a diary, Cadernos de Lanzarote (Lanzarote Diaries), with five volumes so far. In 1995, I published the novel Blindness and in 1997 All the Names. In 1995, I was awarded the Camões Prize and in 1998 the Nobel Prize for Literature."
quinta-feira, junho 17
TROOPING the COLOUR or the QUEEN 'S BIRTHDAY PARADE
The custom of Trooping the Colour dates back to the time of Charles II in the 17th. Century when the Colours of a regiment were used as a rallying point in battle and were therefore trooped in front of the soldiers every day to make sure that every man could recognise those of his own regiment. In London, the Foot Guards used to do this as part of their daily Guard Mounting on Horse Guards and the ceremonial of the modern Trooping the Colour parade is along similar lines. The first traceable mention of The Sovereign's Birthday being 'kept' by the Grenadier Guards is in 1748 and again, after George III became King in 1760, it was ordered that parades should mark the King's Birthday. From the accesssion of George IV they became, with a few exceptions and notably the two World Wars, an annual event.
This impressive display of pageantry is now held on the occasion of the Queen's Official Birthday. It takes place in June each year to celebrate the official Birthday of the Sovereign and is carried out by her personal troops, the Household Division, on Horse Guards Parade, with the Queen herself attending and taking the salute.
Since 1987, The Queen has attended in a carriage rather than riding, which she did before that on 36 occasions, riding side-saddle and wearing the uniform of the regiment whose Colour was being trooped. The regiments take their turn for this honour in rotation as operational commitments permit.
Over 1400 officers and men are on parade, together with two hundred horses; over four hundred musicians from ten bands and corps of drums march and play as one. Some 113 words of command are given by the Officer in Command of the Parade. The parade route extends from Buckingham Palace along The Mall to Horse Guards Parade, Whitehall and back again.
Precisely as the clock on the Horse Guards Building strikes eleven, the Royal Procession arrives and The Queen takes the Royal Salute. The parade begins with the Inspection, The Queen driving slowly down the ranks of all eight Guards and then past the Household Cavalry. After the event, the Royal Family gathers on the balcony of Buckingham Palace to watch an RAF flypast.
terça-feira, junho 15
SUMMER HOLIDAYS
In some countries, students participate in programs such as organized sports, summer camps, and attend summer schools.They may also hang out with friends. High school students sometimes visit college and university campuses. It is also typical for teenagers to get a job during the summer vacation in order to raise some money. Many parents take time off work, in order to go on a family vacation during the summer.
Chriticism and support
The concept of summer vacation has been criticized because students supposedly forget large amounts of information learned in the past year . Alternatives to summer vacation, such as year-round school or Winter vacation are used by some schools
In the United States, any discussions or news stories about schools going year-round have included the claim that what is now summer vacation was originally given as time for kids to work on family farms for spring planting. This seems to be at odds with the facts of spring planting which comes long before summer vacation, and fall harvest which comes long after.Other education reformers believed that children were overstimulated in a system which required 48 weeks of schooling. They believe that over-schooling could lead to nervous disorders, depression, and insanity. They believe that children need the 2–3 months off to relax and also to take a break from other childhood stresses associated with school such as peer pressure, cliques, bullying, and the pressure of heavy loads of schoolwork and homework.
Some critics of summer vacation point out that American students spend approximately 180 days per year in school, but Asian students are in school for 240 to 250 days. This is consistent with the conclusions of researchers who suggest that advanced abilities are in proportion to the time spent learning. However, supporters of summer would like to point out that Americans supposedly believe in child rights, and taking away any amount of vacation is a violation. They also note that many Asian countries tend to have very different cultural and social values and cultural and social priorities than American and European countries do.
sexta-feira, junho 11
June 10 - National Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities
The Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities is a worldwide event celebrated every June 10. It is a national holiday in Portugal that is recognized and celebrated in the immigrant communities scattered about the globe. At this time, the Portuguese commemorate the life of the greatest poet Luis Vaz de Camões and acknowledge the contributions of the overseas, Portuguese communities that have sustained their cultural heritage. The historical migration and settlement of Portuguese immigrants in Massachusetts has had a notable social and cultural impact on the Southcoast communities of New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton.
Nearly two out of every three people in New Bedford and Fall River claim Portuguese ancestry. In Taunton, nearly 20 percent of the population shares Portuguese roots. The Day of Portugal Festival, however, is for everyone. The sponsors of the celebrations throughout Massachusetts showcase and share their language and culture with their American neighbours. The festivals feature artisan craft displays directly from Portugal. You can shuffle to the beat of traditional folklore or rock out to some modern music from all parts of Portugal and the Atlantic islands. The spicy aroma of traditional Portuguese cuisine hangs in the air. Educational demonstrations, book displays and a variety of traditional games provide opportunities for Portuguese descendants and Americans to learn more about the Lusiad culture together. The Fall River festivities commence at the City Gates Plaza on June 5, 6 and 7. The New Bedford celebrations will take place the following weekend in the city's North End on June 12, 13 and 14. The Taunton commemoration will be held on June 13 at the Taunton Green. The events have attracted thousands of individuals from surrounding communities.
Portugal Day , officially "Day of Camões, Portugal, and the Portuguese Communities", marks the date of Luís de Camões' death on June 10, 1580, and is Portugal's National Day. Camões wrote the "Os Lusíadas", Portugal's national epic poem celebrating Portuguese history and achievements. Although it is only officially celebrated in Portugal, Portuguese citizens and also Portuguese immigrants throughout the world celebrate this holiday.
The poem "Os LUSÍADAS" mainly focuses on the 16th century Portuguese explorations, which brought fame and fortune to Portugal. Camões' poem, considered one of the finest and most important works in Portuguese literature, became a symbol for the great feats of the Portuguese nation.
Camões was an adventurer, lost one eye fighting in Ceuta, wrote the Portuguese epic poem Os Lusíadas while traveling, and survived a shipwreck in Cochinchina (present-day Vietnam). According to popular folklore, Camões saved his epic poem by swimming with one arm while keeping the other arm above water.
Although Camões became a symbol for Portugal nationalism, in the year of his death the Spanish king Philip II, known also as Philip I of Portugal, sat on the Portuguese throne. Because Philip was the only heir at the time, Portugal was then ruled by three generations of Spanish kings. Sixty years later, in December 1, 1640, the country regained its independence once again by expelling the Spanish and making John of Bragança, King John IV of Portugal. Spanish kings tried many times to re-establish power over the Portuguese but failed. Since then, because Camões' date of birth is unknown, the date of his death is celebrated as Portugal's national day.
During the authoritarian "Estado Novo regime" in the 20th century, Camões was used as a symbol for the Portuguese nation. In 1944, at the dedication ceremony of the National Stadium, António de Oliveira Salazar referred to 10 June as the Day of the Portuguese Race. The notion of a Portuguese "race" served his nationalist purposes.Because of that, the June 10th celebrations were officially suspended during the Carnation Revolution in 1974. After 1974, the 10th of June celebrations resumed to include celebrating the Portuguese emigrants living all around the world - Portuguese communities.
A monument built in memory of Luís de Camões stands proudly in one of the busy streets of beautiful Lisbon, the country’s capital city. It immortalizes the character of Portugal’s national poet and is able to aptly represent the person that he was.Monument in memory of Luís de Camões
segunda-feira, junho 7
End of 3rd Term Test - Composition of the Year
CHARLES DICKENS' S BIOGRAPHYCharles Dickens was one of England's greatest writers.
He was born on February 7,1812 in Portsmouth,England.
His parents were Elizabeth Barrow and John Dickens.
He had three brothers and two sisters.
Born to a poor family,he lived his childhood in desperate poverty.
At school he was a good pupil. His hobbies were reading,reciting poetry and creating theatrical productions.
At the age of twelve, he started to work at Warren's Shoe Blacking Factory. He helped to support his family.
From 1824 to 1827 he attended the Wellington House Academy in London.
On April 12, 1836 he got married to Catherine Hoghart.
They had ten children : three girls and seven boys.
His most famous books were " Hard Times", "Oliver Twist" and " David Copperfield"
He died on June 9, 1870,when he was 58 years old, from a cerebral hemorrhage.
As the inscription on his tomb says: " He was a sympathiser to the poor, the suffering and the oppressed."
This text was written by Tiago Almeida, no 24 from Class 6B, on May 31st, 2010.
Congratulations, Tiago !
sábado, junho 5
OEIRAS - June 7 - Municipal holiday
History and landmarks
Coat of arms
FlagThe parish dates back to the year 1209 when the area was settled by Christians from the north of Portugal. The municipality was founded in 1759 by the Marquis of Pombal, as a reward granted by king José I to his minister for having reconstructed downtown Lisbon after the 1755 Lisbon earthquake, it was at the county that he built a magnificent manor-house, the Palace of the Counts of Oeiras, which still exhibits grand stone staircases, statues, splendid tiles and beautiful gardens with cascades and an aqueduct with arches. Oeiras was once part of a defensive line of maritime fortresses built along the Lisbon coast between the 16th and 17th centuries, including the Saint Lawrence Fort (known as Bugio, rising on a tiny islet in the middle of the River Tagus) and the São Julião da Barra Fort, both examples of the Renaissance military architecture.
Oeiras offers a range of new attractions and sites of interest, from the Fábrica da Pólvora (a former gunpowder factory from the 16th century which has been recovered for leisure and cultural purposes) to the Poets Park (a vast green space with statues of Portuguese poets and writers) and the Palace of the Royal Estate at Caxias, dating from the 18th century and surrounded by wonderful gardens.
Visitors may also benefit from different leisure and sports facilities, such as the sports complex of Jamor, the Maritime Walk (a seaside promenade to link Algés to the Torre beach, still unfinished) or the modern marina at Oeiras, prepared to welcome sixty ships, besides other parks and gardens.
Parishes:
Oeiras has 10 civil parishes:
Algés
Barcarena
Algés
Barcarena
Carnaxide
Caxias
Cruz Quebrada - Dafundo
Linda-a-Velha
Oeiras e
São Julião da Barra
Paço de ArcosPorto Salvo
Queijas
Poets'Park
Ancient Gunpowder Factory
Main Entrance
Palace of The Counts of Oeiras
Canoeing in Jamor
Subscrever:
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