Culture Australia

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Check 5 Answer the questions.

1 How do you know that Australia is a linguistically diverse country?

2 What is culturally unique about Australia?

3 Who were the first thousand British settlers in Australia, and why did they come?

4 Why is the land so important to Aborigines?

5 How are Aborigines still affected today by the history of colonisation?

6 What is the Australian government trying to do?

3

Reading 3 Look at the article on page 9. Which of

the people or places in the quiz in exercise 1 do you think it is about? Now read the article and check your ideas.

Vocabulary 4 Find these words (1–10) in the article and

match them to their Italian translations (a–j).

1 dates back a rivendicò

2 settlers b carcerati

3 claimed c fame

4 led to d antenati

5 fleet e incidono su

6 convicts f risale a

7 trade g flotta

8 ancestors h commercio

9 starvation i condusse a

10 affect j coloni

QUIZ1 Which city is the capital of Australia? A Sydney. B Perth. C Canberra.

2 What is Bondi Beach famous for? A Bungee jumping. B Surfing. C Diving.

3 What is the most famous building in Sydney? A The Golden Gate Bridge. B The Opera House.

C The Millennium Bridge.

4 What is the Great Barrier Reef? A A coral reef in the sea. B A volcano in the sea.

C An island.

5 What is Uluru? A The Aborigine word for Australia. B An Aboriginal dance.

C An Aboriginal sacred place.

6 How many of these are indigenous Australian animals? Koalas. Wallabies. Crocodiles. Kangaroos. Buffalo.

7 Which pop star was born in Australia? A Avril Lavigne. B Kylie Minogue. C Joss Stone.

8 Who is Australia’s Head of State? A The Prime Minister. B The President. C Queen Elizabeth II.

Warm-up

1 How much do you know about Australia? In pairs. Do the quiz.

Listening 2 T4 03 Listen to Mike, an Australian

teenager, answering the quiz questions, and check your answers to exercise 1.

Melbourne

DT Think English Int CB_01-11_3P8 8 17/3/08 16:27:35

Culture

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Culture 33

9

The spirit of

Australia Australia has a population of around 19 million,

speaking a total of 200 languages. It is one of the most

diverse multi-cultural countries in the world. But what

many people don’t realise is that it also has the oldest

5 living cultural history in the world. The Australian

Aboriginal history dates back at least 50,000 years.

In 1606 the first European settlers sailed to this

unknown land and met with the native Aborigines

there. But it wasn’t until 1770 that Englishman James

10 Cook claimed the east coast of Australia and called it

New South Wales. This led to the arrival of 11 ships

(The First Fleet), carrying around 1,350 people to this

new British colony.

The people on these first ships were convicts from

15 British prisons, sent to Australia as labour to help

build the new colony. It was the start of a mass

emigration movement from Britain to Australia.

At first, relations between the settlers and the

Aborigines were friendly and based on trade. But

20 when the Aborigines realised that the settlers wanted

their land, relations became difficult.

In Aboriginal culture, their land is sacred. Aborigines

refer to the time of creation as ‘The Dreaming’, when

their spiritual ancestors moved across the land and

25 created hills and rivers, etc. There are often stories

about these special places. Uluru, for example, is one

of the most sacred places in Aboriginal culture, where

they believe thousands of spirits still remain.

So the Aborigines fought to protect their land and

30 their culture. But the colonists took control and

forced the native people to live by their rules. Many

Aborigines died of disease and starvation. Today, the

population of Aborigines is less than 230,000, which

is not even 2% of the country’s total population.

35 In the 1920s the Australian government created

special areas, or reserves, for Aborigines. But

Aboriginal people didn’t get full citizenship rights

until 1967, and the disadvantages created by

colonisation still affect Aborigines today. This is

40 manifested in problems such as unemployment, which

also affect other poor, minority groups around the

world. At the same time, however, there is a renewed

interest in Aboriginal culture, art and music. This is

helping the Aborigine population today to play their

45 part in Australian society.

Through various projects, the Australian government

is also trying to promote greater understanding of

Aborigine culture. It wants Aborigines to integrate

fully into Australian life. However, some Aborigines

50 are worried that their own culture will be lost this

way, and although they want to integrate, they insist

on keeping their cultural identity alive.

Speaking T

6 In pairs. Ask and answer the questions.

1 What did you know about Australian history before you read the article? Did anything surprise you? Why?/Why not?

2 What do you think of what happened to the Aborigine people in Australia?

3 Do you know of any other countries where the native people were affected by settlers in a similar way?

4 What do you know about the history of Italian emigration to Australia? What reasons do you think Italians would have for moving to Australia?

5 Would you like to visit Australia? Why?/Why not?

Writing Portfolio

7 Choose one of the following topics and find out more about it. Then write a short text (100 –150 words) about your topic.

a famous place or city in Australia

sport in Australia

a famous Australian

Aborigine culture

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