At the beginning of the story, Alonso Quixano is a a. king b. knight c. nobleman
The book is a parody of a. ancient epics b. medieval legends c. tragic plays
In the book, the author claims that a. the story is true b. the story came to him in a dream c. the story is based on his own life
Discussion/essay questions
Do you think fiction and non-fiction are always two different categories? Is it possible for a book to be both? Why or why not?
Transcript
Don Quixote is a novel written by the Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes. It is considered one of the most important books written in Spanish. The story follows a nobleman named Alonso Quixano, who spends his time reading medieval stories about knights and princesses. Quixano wants to have his own adventures and fight evil in the world. He decides to become a knight, takes the name “Don Quixote,” and begins a series of quests. The narrative is a parody of the legends that were popular at the time. It was originally published in two books, in 1605 and 1615. Within them, Cervantes plays with the ideas of fiction and history. He claims that the story is true, and that he is only the translator. Some of the characters in the second book have even read the first book. Don Quixote is one of the earliest novels written in Europe. The first English novels came several years later.
Art is very subjective. Everyone has different opinions about it. What do you think makes art “good”? Why?
Transcript
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist. He was born in 1881, in Málaga, Spain. When he was just 14 years old, Picasso was accepted into an art school in Barcelona. He had his first exhibit in Paris in 1901, and he moved there three years later. Throughout his life, Picasso became very famous. He was best known for being a pioneer of the Cubist art movement. Along with French artist Georges Braque, he created paintings that deconstructed objects and showed multiple angles at once. However, he also experimented with many other art forms, including sculpture and Surrealist painting. Picasso died in 1973, at age 91. He is known today as one of the most important artists of the 20th century.
The article says that the 1918 flu virus was difficult to control because of the limited technology. How would this pandemic be different if they had the technology that we have today?
Compare the 1918 flu pandemic with the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. What is similar about the methods of disease control? What is different?
Transcript
The Spanish flu was a 1918 influenza pandemic that infected nearly one third of the world’s population. The virus that caused the pandemic was unusual, because it mainly caused serious illness in young and healthy people. Despite the name of the disease, this flu virus did not actually come from Spain. Spain was a neutral country during World War I, and Spanish newspapers were simply the first to start reporting on the pandemic. As the situation got worse, more countries began to realize how deadly the new virus was. To prevent the spread of the disease, people spent time in quarantine and wore face masks. However, there was very limited technology back then. Tracking the spread of the virus was very difficult, and there was no way to treat the disease. Between 1918 and 1920, about 50 million people died from the Spanish flu, and it is now known as one of the worst pandemics in history.
