ISTITUTO COMPRENSIVO Scuola Media Esame di Licenza A.S. Prova di Lingua Inglese n.

A) QUESTION ON A TEXT

THE BLEAK SIDE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION The Industrial Revolution, as it was called later, transformed England from agricultural into an industrial country. Agriculture had already been tragically changed by the Enclosure Acts, i.e. those Acts of Parliament that allowed landowners to enclosure the common land, which had been left for centuries to the landless poor. In the 1600s and early 1700s, cloth was made by a domestic system. Most of the work was done in the workers cottages, where families worked together. Travelling merchants brought the workers raw wool and cotton and picked up the finished cloth to sell. The technological development of the first half of the XIX century brought about many changes in society. One of the consequences of the expansion of industry was the great flow of people who left the countryside to look for a job in the newly industrialized towns. But the towns were not prepared to receive so many people: there were not enough houses for everybody so quite often up to ten or fifteen people lived in just one room, with no toilet and no water. Men, women and even children worked in the factories or in the mines. Their working hours varied from 16 to 18 every day, seven days a week. Their salaries were very low and their working conditions were not regulated by any law. Also their diet was very poor: they ate mainly potatoes and bread, and they didn't have any meat or vegetables. Because of the dramatic sanitary conditions in which the working classes lived, many diseases spread in the poor slums of the towns, for example scurvy, caused by the lack of vitamin C and cholera, which killed thousands of people, even the rich. Answer these questions: 1. What are the Enclosure Acts? 2. How was cloth made till early 1700s? 3. When did the Industrial Revolution take place? 4. Why did many people leave the countryside? 5. Could they all find a house in town? 6. Where did they live? 7. Did children work? 8. How many hours did people work? 9. Did people work on Sunday? 10. Were workers protected by any law? 11. What did they eat every day? 12. Why did many diseases spread? 13. Can you mention any of them? 14. What job would you like to do? Why? 15. Are you going to study for this job? What?

B) LETTER WRITING Write your penfriend thanking for his/her letter. Give him/her some information about your school and describe one of your best friend.

Use these questions as guidelines: What class are you in? How many boys and girls are there? How many teachers have you got? What subjects do you learn? Which are your favourite ones? What time do you start school? How do you usually get there? What time do lessons finish? Ask your penfriend about his/her school. Who is your best friend? How old is he she? What does he/she look like? What do you like doing together? Ask your pen friend about his /her best friends.