LITERATURE

                                                        ^HAMLET.

The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Set in the Kingdom of Denmark, the play dramatizes the revenge Prince Hamlet exacts on his uncle Claudius for murdering King Hamlet, Claudius's brother and Prince Hamlet's father, and then succeeding to the throne and taking as his wife Gertrude, the old king's widow and Prince Hamlet's mother. The play vividly portrays both true and feigned madness – from overwhelming grief to seething rage – and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption and family.
Hamlet is Shakespeare's longest play and among the most powerful and influential tragedies in all of English literature, with a story capable of "seemingly endless retelling and adaptation by others."The play was one of Shakespeare's most popular works during his lifetimeand still ranks among his most-performed, topping the Royal Shakespeare Company's performance list since 1879.It has inspired writers from Goethe and Dickens to Joyce and Murdoch, and has been described as "the world's most filmed story after Cinderella".
It has been theorized that Hamlet is based on the legend of Amleth, preserved by 13th-century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus in his Gesta Danorum as subsequently retold by 16th-century scholar François de Belleforest. Shakespeare may also have drawn on or perhaps written an earlier (hypothetical) Elizabethan play known today as the Ur-Hamlet. He almost certainly created the title role for Richard Burbage, the leading tragedian of Shakespeare's time.^[5] In the 400 years since, the role has been performed by highly acclaimed actors and actresses from each successive age.
Three different early versions of the play are extant, the First Quarto (Q1, 1603), the Second Quarto (Q2, 1604), and the First Folio (F1, 1623). Each version includes lines, and even entire scenes, missing from the others. The structure and depth of characterisation have inspired much critical scrutiny. One such example is the centuries-old debate about Hamlet's hesitation to kill his uncle, which some see as a mere plot device to prolong the action, but which others argue is a dramatization of the complex philosophical and ethical issues that surround cold-blooded murder, calculated revenge, and thwarted desire. More recently, psychoanalytic critics have examined Hamlet's unconscious desires, and feminist critics have re-evaluated and rehabilitated the often maligned characters of Ophelia and Gertrude.

ARTE

                             Leonardo da Vinci

 

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci  ^:(April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519, Old Style) was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist, and writer. His genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal. Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance Man, a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination". He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived. According to art historian Helen Gardner, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent and "his mind and personality seem to us superhuman, the man himself mysterious and remote".Marco Rosci states that while there is much speculation about Leonardo, his vision of the world is essentially logical rather than mysterious, and that the empirical methods he employed were unusual for his time^.
Born out of wedlock to a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant woman, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, and he spent his last years in France at the home awarded him by Francis I.
Leonardo was and is renowned primarily as a painter. Among his works, the Mona Lisa is the most famous and most parodied portrait and The Last Supper the most reproduced religious painting of all time, with their fame approached only by Michelangelo's The Creation of Adam. Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also regarded as a cultural icon, being reproduced on items as varied as the euro, textbooks, and T-shirts. Perhaps fifteen of his paintings survive, the small number because of his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.Nevertheless, these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, compose a contribution to later generations of artists rivalled only by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.
Leonardo is revere  for his technological ingenuity. He conceptualised a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator and the double hull, and he outlined a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or were even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. He made important discoveries in anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics, but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science.

CUMBRE BORRASCOSAS

                             Wuthering Heights

Wuthering Heights is the only published novel by Emily Brontë, written between October 1845 and June 1846and published in July of the following year. It was not printed until December 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, after the success of her sister Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre. A posthumous second edition was edited by Charlotte in 1850.
The title of the novel comes from the Yorkshire manor on the moors of the story. The narrative centres on the all-encompassing, passionate, but ultimately doomed love between Catherine Earnshaw and Heathcliff, and how this unresolved passion eventually destroys them and the people around them.
Today considered a classic of English literature, Wuthering Heights met with mixed reviews and controversy when it first appeared, mainly because of the narrative's stark depiction of mental and physical cruelty. Although Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre was generally considered the best of the Brontë sisters' works during most of the nineteenth century, many subsequent critics of Wuthering Heights argued that it was a superior achievement.

Opening (chapters 1 to 3)

In 1801, Mr. Lockwood, a rich man from the south of England, rents Thrushcross Grange in the north of England for peace and recuperation. Soon after his arrival, he visits his landlord, Mr. Heathcliff, who lives in the remote moorland farmhouse called "Wuthering Heights." He finds the inhabitants of Wuthering Heights to be a rather strange group: Mr. Heathcliff appears a gentleman but his mannerisms suggest otherwise; the reserved mistress of the house is in her mid-teens; and a young man appears to be one of the family, although he dresses and talks like a servant.

Being snowed in, Mr. Lockwood stays the night and is shown to an unused chamber, where he finds books and graffiti from a former inhabitant of the farmhouse named Catherine. When he falls asleep, he has a nightmare in which he sees Catherine as a ghost trying to enter through the window. Heathcliff rushes to the room after hearing him yelling in fear. He believes Mr. Lockwood is telling the truth, and inspects the window, opening it in a futile attempt to let Catherine's spirit in from the cold. After nothing eventuates, Heathcliff shows Mr. Lockwood to his own bedroom, and returns to keep guard at the window.

As soon as the sun rises, Mr. Lockwood is escorted back to Thrushcross Grange by Heathcliff. There, he asks his housekeeper, Nelly Dean, to tell him the story of the family from the Heights

VACATION TIME

                               Camping

 

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants (known as campers) leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no shelter at all. In many parts of the world, camping refers exclusively to the use of tents or similar portable structures.
Camping as a recreational activity became popular in the early 20th century. Campers frequent national or state parks, other publicly owned natural areas, and privately owned campgrounds. Camping is a key part of many youth organizations around the world, such as scouting. It is used to teach self-reliance and teamwork.
Camping is also used as an inexpensive form of accommodation for people attending large open air events such as sporting meetings and music festivals. Organizers often provide a field and other basic amenities.

SPORTS

                                              NATACION

La natación es el movimiento y/o desplazamiento a través del agua mediante el uso de las extremidades corporales y por lo general sin utilizar ningún instrumento artificial. La natación es una actividad que puede ser útil y recreativa. Sus usos principales son el baño, refrescarse para combatir el calor, buceo, pesca submarina, salvamento acuático, actividad lúdica, ejercicio y deporte.


El deporte acuático en natación implica la competencia entre participantes para ser el más rápido sobre una distancia establecida, exclusivamente mediante propulsión propia. Las diferentes distancias a recorrer se establecen según los diferentes niveles de competencia. Por ejemplo, el actual programa olímpico de natación contiene eventos de estilo libre de 50 m., 100 m., 200 m., 400 m., 800 m. y 1500 m.; eventos de 100 y 200 metros en el estilo espalda, braza y mariposa; 200 m. de estilos individuales (es decir mariposa de 50 m., 50 m. espalda, 50 m. braza y 50 m. libres); 400 m. de combinado individual (100 m. mariposa, 100 m. espalda, 100 m. braza, estilo libre y 100 m.), y el maratón.
La mayoría de escuelas de natación cubren las siguientes distancias: 50, 100, 200 y 500 m. libre; 100 m. espalda, braza, y mariposa; y 200 m. combinado individual. También hay relevos combinados en equipo, que incluyen carreras de diferentes estilos intercalados.
Las piscinas de natación reglamentarias son de 25 o 50 metros. En competición y entrenamiento el recorrido en longitud y el regreso al punto de partida se denomina vuelta; así se puede decir que se ha recorrido dos vueltas en lugar de 100 metros, en piscinas de 25 metros. Un largo hace referencia a la longitud recorrida sin dar la vuelta. Las piscinas públicas y los clubs de entrenamiento tienden frecuentemente a tener piscinas de 25 metros, aunque algunas pueden ser de 50 m.; en cambio las olímpicas son siempre de 50 metros.

CHANGING FASHION

                                               ^{CLOTHES  &  FASHION.}

^{One word sums up music and fashion in the 1970s : ABBA . They were famous for their music and their very colorful outfits . Girls wore mini-skirts and boats . For the men , it was tight tops and bell-bottoms . Plataform shoes became very popular . Disco fans used to wear three-piece suits and shirts with long collars.}

 

^{In the 1980s , glamours musicans like david bowie and duran duran inpired fashion designers . Men used to wear frilly shirts , velvet jackets  with gold buttoms , and baggy pants . Women used leggings . long , thick socks called leg warmers , sweatshirts , and ripped jeans .}

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                                                      ^FREEMASONRY

Freemasonry is a fraternal organisation that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million, including approximately 150,000 under the jurisdictions of the Grand Lodge of Scotland and Grand Lodge of Ireland, over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England,and just under two million in the United States.
The fraternity is administratively organised into independent Grand Lodges or sometimes Orients, each of which governs its own jurisdiction, which consists of subordinate (or constituent) Lodges. The various Grand Lodges recognise each other, or not, based upon adherence to landmarks (a Grand Lodge will usually deem other Grand Lodges who share common landmarks to be regular, and those that do not to be "irregular" or "clandestine").
There are also appendant bodies, which are organisations related to the main branch of Freemasonry, but with their own independent administration.