L’esame di inglese 2025 per il Liceo Linguistico si articola in una parte di lettura e comprensione e in una di produzione scritta, con testi e riflessioni dal forte valore culturale.
Il primo brano è tratto da Every Day is Mother’s Day di Hilary Mantel e racconta la coppia borghese partendo dall’aneddoto dell’acquito di un cappotto. Il secondo testo analizza invece le conseguenze ambientali e sanitarie della fast fashion. La parte di produzione scritta si apre con una citazione di Kofi Annan sull’educazione come diritto umano e chiede allo studente di fare una riflessione sul tema.
Il testo del brano di Hilary Mantel
Click, click, click, said the moon crescent. They were Mrs Sidney's shoes. She passed without mishap along the Avenue with its wickedly raised edge where Mr Pinnotson had tripped last winter and sustained his fracture; they had petitioned the Council. Mrs Sidney's good legs: the legs of a woman aged 25, moved like scissors down the street. Her face was white …
L’esame di inglese 2025 per il Liceo Linguistico si articola in una parte di lettura e comprensione e in una di produzione scritta, con testi e riflessioni dal forte valore culturale.
Il primo brano è tratto da Every Day is Mother’s Day di Hilary Mantel e racconta la coppia borghese partendo dall’aneddoto dell’acquito di un cappotto. Il secondo testo analizza invece le conseguenze ambientali e sanitarie della fast fashion. La parte di produzione scritta si apre con una citazione di Kofi Annan sull’educazione come diritto umano e chiede allo studente di fare una riflessione sul tema.
Il testo del brano di Hilary Mantel
Click, click, click, said the moon crescent. They were Mrs Sidney's shoes. She passed without mishap along the Avenue with its wickedly raised edge where Mr Pinnotson had tripped last winter and sustained his fracture; they had petitioned the Council. Mrs Sidney's good legs: the legs of a woman aged 25, moved like scissors down the street. Her face was white and tired. Her scarlet lips spoke of an effort at gaiety. She had carried the colour into a curvaceous bow: she had once read in a magazine that it could be done. Of what was between the good legs and the sagging face better not to speak: Mrs Sidney never dwelled on her torso, she had given it up. She wore the black coat with the mink trim. Arthur had been with her when she had bought the coat. It was budgeted for; the necessity had been weighed. Arthur had been embarrassed, standing among the garment rails; he had clasped his hands behind his back like Prince Philip, and with his eyes elsewhere he tried to look like a man deep in thought. She had not trailed him around the shops, she knew what she wanted.
"A good coat", she said to him, "a good cloth coat is worth every penny you spend on it".
She had tried on two, and then the black. The salesgirl was sixteen. She was not interested in her job. She stood with one limp arm draped over the rail, her hip jutting out, watching Mrs Sidney push the laden hangers to and fro. She did not know anything about the cut of a good cloth coat. Mrs Sidney removed her gloves, and her fingers stroked the little mink collar appreciatively. She had tried to engage Arthur's attention, but he was not looking, and for a moment she was shot through with resentment. Carelessly she tossed her old camel hair coat over a rail; until this morning it had been her best coat but now it seemed shabby and inconsiderable. She unfastened the buttons carefully and slipped her arms into the silky lining. Turning to see the back in the long mirror, she smiled tentatively at the salesgirl,
"Do you think the length...?"
The girl raised her thin shoulders in a shrug.
By now Arthur stood looking at her indulgently, his hands still clasped behind his back.
"I will take it," Mrs Sidney said. She minced towards Arthur.
"Very nice, dear" Arthur said. "Are you sure you've got what you wanted?"
She nodded, smiling. He would have been willing, she knew, to pay twenty pounds more, once he had agreed on the economy of a good cloth coat. Arthur did not stint. The girl laid it out by the cash register, flapped some tissue paper between its crossed arms and slid it, folded, into a big bag. Arthur took out a virgin cheque book and his rolled gold fountain pen. Precisely, he unscrewed the cap, the ink flowed, smoothly, with care, he replaced the cap and returned the pen to the inside pocket of his lovat sports jacket. Then with a single neat pull, he removed the cheque and handed it courteously to the girl. Mrs Sidney was proud of that, proud of the way the transaction had been carried through; how they did not pay in greasy bundles of notes like plumbers and housepainters. The carrier bag was heavy with the good cloth coat inside it, and he reached out without speaking and took it from her. He asked about a hat, so anxious was Arthur to have everything correct; but she said to him that people did not go in for hats these days. To be truthful, millinery departments intimidated her. The assistants looked at you mournfully, so few of the people who tried on hats ever made a purchase that they had lost faith in human nature. She was happy. They had a cup of coffee and a cream cake each, and they went home.
Il testo “The Aftermath of Fast Fashion”
How Discarded Clothes Impact Public Health and the Environment
Every year, people in the United States throw out more than 15,500,000,000 kgs of used textiles. That’s more than 45 kgs of textile waste per person each year. However, people with higher incomes generate on average 76% more clothing waste than people with lower incomes.
Once textiles are discarded, 66% of them are sent to landfills in the U.S. where they decompose—over time. While these landfills are designed to capture and contain landfill gasses and the polluted waters that emerge during the decomposition process, numerous health concerns have been reported by people living near landfill sites. Landfills are also not located equitably: they are 2.8 times more likely to be located in areas with a higher percentage of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) residents.
Ultimately, only 15% of used textiles are theoretically ‘recycled,’ and of those, up to half are simply shipped abroad to other countries, largely in the Global South, where they may end up in landfills or in open-air dumps. These countries often have less advanced municipal waste systems, meaning that the environmental damage and health impacts of decomposing textiles will be even greater there than they would be in the U.S. Also, much of the clothing sent from abroad is of too low quality to use, meaning it goes directly into landfills or open-air dumps, where the gas and chemical leachates that emerge during the decomposition process pollute the air, soil, and groundwater and damage the environment and health of humans and other species. This unwanted clothing often clogs the gutters, preventing water from flowing properly and spreading water-borne disease. Also, people often burn unwanted clothing, and the resulting air pollution affects respiratory and cardiovascular health.
Many people in the Global North (primarily the US and Europe) assume when they donate clothes to organizations like the Salvation Army, Goodwill, or Planet Aid that they will be reused locally, but this is usually not the case. There is too much, thus their solution is to ship the excess clothing abroad. But this system of shipping unwanted used clothing to other countries relies on the assumption that these countries want it. However, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Burundi have all either banned or attempted to ban used clothing imports.
However, while the issue of shipping clothing abroad often leads to heated debate between those concerned about its environmental and health impacts and those convinced that it benefits the countries who receive it, the real issue, at the end of the day, is that the amount of clothing being shipped is far too great and the quality of the textiles sent is too low.
La soluzione a cura della professoressa Chiaretta Gelli