1) “The Cremation of Sam McGee” was a poem published in 1907 by Robert W.Service. It has a written and a few audio versions that are quite popular. For this activity, I personally chose to listen to Johnny Cash’s audio version of the poem made in 2006. The main difference between reading and listening to this poem is that when we listen to it all the important parts of the poem are stressed by the narrator, giving us a clear idea of what really matters in that story and what doesn’t. The audio narrator also leads us right to the feelings that were expected from each moment of the poem: suspense, doubt, sadness, fear... Besides, some words that we might not understand very well when we first read the poem (such as “o’erheard”, for instance) are spoken in a clear way at the audio version, which makes understanding the poem more easy and possible for everyone.
2) The text “Marie Curie and the Discovery of Radioactivity” basically tells us who Marie Curie was, where she came from, how her private life was like (childhood, marriage, death) as well as her professional life (education, main work research and discoveries) and her greatest achievements (prizes, recognition and her contribution to science). In order to describe what she has done as a scientist, it was necessary to first inform the reader about who she was as a person. That’s why the text tells the reader about Mrs.Curie’s childhood, her favourite subjects at school and her graduation from Sorbonne University in Paris. Those details made the reader familiar and engaged with the entire story and with Marie Curie herself. Also, all the pieces of information given were used in order to “prepare” the reader for the next part of the text, when Mrs.Curie’s achievements were highlighted. For instance, the reader already knows that her life was never easy and that she had many obstacles to overcome: <em>“In 1891, being only 24 years of age, Marie move to Paris (France) to study physics, chemistry and mathematics. Life was tough as she studied during the day and in the evenings she tutored to earn some money.”</em> But her struggle and efforts were compensated as the text indicates: <em>“Marie Curie won the nobel prize 2 times. The first time she was awarded the nobel prize for physics together with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel in December 1903. They earned the reward for their research on the radiation phenomena.The second time she won a nobel prize was in 1911. This time she won the prize in the category chemistry because she had been able to isolate the chemical element radium and study it in depth. This made Marie the first person to win 2 nobel prizes.”</em>
