A life in the 20th century

Innocent Beginnings 1917-1950

My earliest memories are of a place where I have never lived. Xenia, Ohio, in the 1920s was a
town of ten thousand people in rolling green country along the Little Miami river some sixty miles
southwest of Columbus, the state capital. My father was born in Xenia, and each summer my
parents took my younger brother and me to visit our grandparents there.
The town was founded in 1803 a few months after Ohio became a state. Some wanted to name the
settlement for George Washington; others proposed naming it for Mad Anthony Wayne, the local
hero who had beaten the Indians at the battle of Fallen Timbers in northern Ohio. The debate grew
heated. Finally a scholarly looking man stepped forward and said "In view of the kind and
hospitable manner in which I have been treated while a stranger here to most of you, allow me to
suggest the name of Xenia, taken from the Greek, and signifying hospitality". Xenia won by a
single vote. Or so the story goes.
My grandfather arrived in Xenia in 1872. He was born in 1846 in Koenigswalde in East Prussia. In
1860, when he was fourteen, he made the great transatlantic journey west to join an older brother in
Newark, New Jersey. His brother was in the leather business, and my grandfather made knapsacks
for Union soldiers during the Civil War. After the war, travelling still farther west, he worked in a
store in Springfield, Ohio, before moving to Xenia, a few miles away.
There he fell in love with Katharine Ferle, an Austrian girl from the village of Kennelback in the
Tyrol. In the 1850's her parents had settled in Xenia. Her father ran a tavern for German-speaking
travelers, complete with a grapevine-covered beer garden. Kate Ferle's family was Roman
Catholic, Bernhard Schlesinger's Jewish; the young people resolved whatever religious dilemma
there may have been by turning Protestant and joining the German Reformed Church. There they
married in 1873. (332 words)

Dictation

My grandfather died in June 1920, when he was seventy-four years old and I was nearly three. I
have no memory of him except old photographs showing an elderly man with a kind face and a
moustache. Both my grandparents had come to America as children and soon settled into the
community. Little German was spoken in the house and my father certainly never became fluent in
the language. My grandfather made a modest living as an insurance agent. He was largely self-
educated, yet he had great faith in the public education system, and served for many years on the
School Board. His library was one of the largest in the town. He had two sisters who were both
schoolteachers, and a brother who became a lawyer.
(127 words)
Anglo Americano 1° anno UNIVERSITA' DEGLI STUDI DI VENEZIA
DIP. DI STUDI ANGLO-AMERICANI E IBERO-
AMERICANI
Giugno 2001 SEZIONE DI STUDI ANGLO-AMERICANI

Listening Comprehension and ESAME SCRITTO DI L. e L. ANGLO-AMERICANA

Dictation
NOME: …………………………………………………
Date: …………………………… NUM. MATRICOLA ………………………………….

You will hear the text twice. Listen and choose the correct answer to the questions, or write a short
answer in the space. For numbers, write figures only (e.g. 25)

1. The text is probably taken from a) it means hospitality

a) a book about nature b) there was a great battle there
b) an anthology of poetry c) they wanted to name it after
c) an autobiography George Washington
d) an advertisement d) a Greek man chose the name

2. When did the writer live in Xenia? 7. How old was the writer's grandfather in
a) in the 1920's 1860?
b) in the nineteenth century a) 13
c) a long time ago b) 14
d) never c) 30
d) 40
3. How many people lived in Xenia in the
1920's? 8. In 1860 the writer's grandfather
a) left Newark
………………………. b) crossed the ocean
c) traveled east
4. How far was Xenia from Columbus? d) went away with his brother
……………………….
9. The writer's grandfather
5. The writer went to Xenia a) fought in the Civil War
a) to see his father b) was a Union member
b) to see his grandmother and c) made equipment for the army
grandfather d) sold leather goods
c) to see his brother
d) to see his parents 10. Kate Ferle
a) married a Roman Catholic
b) came from a Jewish family
c) became Protestant before she
married
d) had a lot of religious problems
6. The name Xenia was chosen because:

Now write the text that will be dictated to you.