Università degli Studi di Napoli “L’Orientale”

Dipartimento di Studi letterari, linguistici e comparati

Prova Scritta Lingua e linguistica inglese III Mock

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Part 1:
Reading Comprehension
Read the following passage carefully and then answer the questions.

How Bristol's gracious mansions mask the shameful past of Britain's links to slavery

Ani Di Franco, an American folksinger, feminist and social justice campaigner, last year found
herself forced to withdraw from a songwriting festival in Louisiana. Di Franco's "retreat", she
discovered only after signing up for the event, was to be held in a luxury resort whose owners have
been criticised for airbrushing out of history the fact that it was once the largest slave plantation in
the American south. Indeed, as the acclaimed film, 12 Years a Slave, is brutally reminding cinema
audiences, the US economy was built on the back of forced labour. The fact that it was a British-
born director, Steve McQueen, who made the film, which tells the story of Solomon Northup, a free
man kidnapped into slavery, is a cause for celebration but also surprise for some British historians.
"I would be fascinated to know why as a black British director he didn't pick a black British
experience," said Dr Kate Donington, research associate at UCL's Legacies of British Slave-
Ownership Project, an online archive that allows users to identify those who benefited from slavery.
Donington believes a film examining Britain's role would be a healthy corrective to the "tendency to
see slavery as something that happened in America". One reason for this myopia is Britain's leading
role in outlawing the slave trade. The 2007 bicentenary of its abolition largely became a celebration
of Britain's achievements, rather than a chance to face up to unpalatable home truths. "You can't tell
the story of Britain's role in abolishing slavery without first engaging with its long history of
participation in the slavery business," Donington said.
Indeed, as the UCL* project makes uncomfortably clear, the creation of modern Britain owes
much to slavery. A walk through a cold, grey Bristol on Friday made this argument in physical
terms. Guinea Street, a stern terrace of five-storey houses on the dockside, was home to the slave
traders and owners Edmund Saunders and Joseph Holbrook. Guinea was the name given to western
Africa by those who sought their fortunes in slavery. The Guinea coin was produced by Bristol's
Royal African Company (RAC), whose members became practitioners of the trade.
Nearby is Queen Square, a collection of attractive Georgian houses that were home to
many of the wealthiest slave traders. The Sugar House, now a hotel, in Lewin's Mead, was one
of many refineries that processed sugar harvested by slaves in the Caribbean. Then there is
Colston Hall, a major music venue named after Edward Colston, a philanthropist and
merchant who paid for several schools, churches and hospitals, many of which survive to this
day. Much of Colston's wealth came from the trade – and his investments in the RAC. The
Bristol band Massive Attack have pledged never to play at the venue until its name is
changed. Such buildings are testimony to a trade that was conducted with extraordinary
vigour. It is estimated that Britain transported more than three million African people across
the Atlantic (500,000 on Bristol ships alone), an epic trade that involved some 10,000 voyages
and swelled the coffers of the owners. By the Victorian era, as many as one in six of the wealthiest
Britons derived at least some of their fortunes from slavery. Few seemed to have any qualms.
And after abolition finally came, those who had participated – including, as the UCL project
reveals, the ancestors of Graham Greene, George Orwell and Elizabeth Barrett Browning – were
handsomely compensated for their lost income. In 1833 parliament approved the payment of £20m
to the former slave owners. Much of the wealth generated was concentrated in the West Country.
"When I looked at the merchants in Bristol behind the Georgian flowering of architecture, the so-
called urban renaissance, they virtually all had either slave-trading connections or connections with
slave-produced foods or government connections with plantation interests," said Dresser, co-editor
of a new book, Slavery and the British Country House.
Other cities, notably London, Liverpool and Glasgow, benefited significantly too, and even the
most rural parts were not untouched. Many of the country's finest stately homes were built partly
out of the proceeds of slavery. Dresser's book refers to more than 150 British properties, many run
by the National Trust and English Heritage, that have links to slavery. And yet, unlike in the US,
few in Britain appreciate how their country's history has been shaped by the slave trade. "The issue
of geographical distance is fundamental to understanding why the experience of slavery is not as
well known in Britain," Donington said. "Most of the people were on the plantations in the
Caribbean so there are not what Toni Morrison describes as 'sites of memory' that you can hang
[British] history on. It becomes a process of palimpsest – you have to uncover layer after layer of
history in country houses and, in places like Bristol, its big Georgian townhouses."
*UCL: University College London
(Article adapted by Jamie Doward, The Observer, 12 January 2014 )

A. Answer the following questions related to the text above:

1. Why did Any Di Franco pull out of a songwriting Festival in Louisiana?

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2. Why would Dr Konington have preferred a film about Britain rather than the United States of
America?

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3. What did the UCL's Legacies of British Slave-Ownership Project demonstrate?

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4. How are Bristol’s Georgian houses related to the slave-trade according to the article?

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5. Why has geographical distance been fundamental to the forgetting of the British involvement in the slave-
trade?

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...../10

B. Cloze Test: Fill in the blanks and insert the word which best fits each space. Use only ONE
word in each space.

The Man Booker Prize

The Man Booker Prize for Fiction is awarded ________________ year for a novel written by a
writer from the Commonwealth or the Republic of Ireland. Originally called the Booker-McConnell
Prize, it was better-known ________________ simply the ‘Booker Prize’ ______________ 1969 to
2001. From 2002 it became the ‘Man Booker Prize’ when the Man Group came ________________
board as the new sponsor. Books are generally submitted by publishers but the judges can also ask
for books to be submitted they think they should ________________ included. The judging panel,
________________ comprises critics, writers and academics, is balanced in ________________ of
gender and professions within the industry and changes every year. _______________ influence is
such that the winner ________________ certainly see the sales increase considerably in addition to
the £ 50,000 coming with the prize. Over the years some of the winning ________________ have
been adapted into films. ...../10

C. Sentence Transformation
Complete the second sentence so that it has a similar meaning to the first sentence, using the word given. Do
not change the word given. You must use between two and five words including the word given.

1. Having finished her studies, she went on to become a famous journalist. (HAD)
She went on to become a famous journalist _____________________________ her studies.
2. I don’t like it when you keep interrupting me! (WISH)
I _________________________________ keep interrupting me!

3. Although he’s quite young, he’s been offered the post of Foreign Minister. (DESPITE)
________________________, he’s been offered the post of Foreign Minister.

4. I don’t want him to stay out late. (RATHER)

I’d ________________________________ stay out late.

5. I’ve brought my swimming costume because we might go to the beach. (CASE)

I’ve brought my swimming costume ________________________ to the beach.
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D. Translate into Italian the parts in bold in the above Reading Comprehension.

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