Week 17 Homework (1/19, 1/22)
Worth Checking Out: Gustav Mahler wrote some beautiful music, but the 4th movement of his 5th Symphony is his most romantic composition. He wrote it for his wife, leaving her with it a small poem:
In which way I love you, my sunbeam,
I cannot tell you with words.
Only my longing, my love and my bliss
can I with anguish declare.
Sometimes words fail to capture what we would like to express, for which music is a remedy. Enjoy!
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Government: Read the rest of Lesson 4. Please complete questions 1-5 for each selection in the "Critical Thinking Exercise" boxes on page 33 (so 10 questions total), with special emphasis paid to questions 3-5 of each.
European History I: I'd like you to read "The Pardoner's Tale" from The Cantebury Tales (I've attached it below). Then I'd like you to answer these questions:
Where are two examples of how the pardoner is a corrupt man, from the "Pardoner's Prologue"?
Summarize the tale (not the prologue) in 2-3 sentences.
Why do you think the pardoner tells this tale?
Why did the Host of the party get upset with the pardoner at the end of the tale?
Classical Studies 9: Read the rest of Book 22 of The Iliad. Try to soak in the drama of the action, the tragedy of seeing to broken men meet their fates with a tragic inevitability that leads to death. Weep for Hector and Achilles. Annotate!
Classical & Christian Studies 10: Before diving into the Comedy, I want to give you a sense of Dante's love for Beatrice. To do so, I want you to read some selections from an earlier book by him, La Vita Nuova. I've attached it below. Read it, annotate it, and in particular look for these things (which I'd like you to write down):
How does Dante describe Beatrice? Write down some things he calls her or descriptions of her.
What effect does Beatrice have upon Dante's character?
How does Dante characterize Amor ("Love," personified)? Why do you think he does this?
What do you think of Dante's affections for Beatrice? This is an opinion question, so I'd like you opinion, but I would like you to state why you say what you do.
Classical & Christian Studies 11: I've attached below the reading questions we'll cover for Screwtape Letters (the pilcrow marks in each question tell you which paragraph of each letter the answer is in). For this weekend, read letters 1-3 and answer the reading questions over them. Nota Bene: Some of the questions are fairly personal, and I like that they are included. But you need not open your soul to me in them (unless you want to). So for the personal questions, if makes you more comfortable to keep it general or vague, that is okay. But I do want you to think about them. Enjoy the book!
