LIFE UPPER INTERMEDIATE riassunti testi e video, Sintesi del corso di Lingua Inglese

Scarica LIFE UPPER INTERMEDIATE riassunti testi e video e più Sintesi del corso in PDF di Lingua Inglese solo su Docsity! SUMMARIES-LIFE UPPER INTERMEDIATE A CONFUSED GENERATION PAG.12 Bella lives with her family in Shanghai, in a brand new apartment and her parents represent a confused generation in a confused time. Nowadays in modern chinese society old values (for instance the respect of family and the older generation) are being replaced by new one's (as the importance of money). There is a fight between different ideologies. But at the same time these new values are also being questioned and people are trying to balance the "new" and the "old". To this end recently Bella's family put their grandfather in a nursing home: it was a painful decision, but this proves that the times are changing, since in the past, caring for aged people was an unavoidable duty. The parents say that they don't want to be a burden (peso) on Bella when they get old. Her parents just want to be supportive although they know Bella has already learnt more about the world than them. The mother says that their advice is not listened by her, Bella doesn't no longer agree with their opinions, for this reason the mum thinks that their child-raising has been a failure. So definitely change brings problems and in China there is no concept of the rebellious teenager. BLOOD LINES PAG.15 * © Family bond Strong work ethic, hard work, sacrifices Ethnic groups Immigrants Ancestral roots: family deep origins, forefathers. Stepmother (matrigna): the woman who has married your father but is ot ° ° ° * © Descendants ° ° n your mother * © To pass something down to somebody (tramandare): to teach or give something to someone who will be alive after you have died. * © Desireto get ahead: desire to be successful in the work that you do. * © Melting pot (calderone): The definition of a melting pot is a place where different people or different cultures all come together and begin to merge and mix. America is an example of melting where immigrants and people from all over the world visit and live and share thoughts and ideas to create one big new culture. The USA are a melting pot of different ethnic groups and cultures, especially in Queens district in New York, where first-generation Koreans live together with second-generation Puerto Ricans and third-generation Greeks. These generations are characterized by a common feeling of pride for their American identity, but also for their ancestral roots. In fact, nowadays they're tracing back their family tree on the internet, because they are interested in the recent history of their families; for example how their great-grandparents arrived in America. In this way they can easily honor their memory. Here are 2 Queens residents' stories. RICHARD, 38 His great-grandfather Tomas came to America from Poland when he was 15. His mother died and he didn't like his stepmother so he ran away to Belgium and bordered a ship to America. As soon as he arrived in America he got a job in California on the railroads. One day he read an announcement in a newspaper where his brother, who was also seeking his fortune there, was looking for him. Then they got in touch and they met in NY. This is the story that his grandmother has passed down to them. Now they're a strong family, who has a strong sense of belonging to a group, that struggled together to succeed in America. TANJA,29 She's a first generation American, her parents came to America from Jamaica, where getting a good education is the most important thing. Her parents were both nurses, but once startled in America her father started to study to become a doctor, because this was his ambition (while keeping on working). Both their parents have a strong work ethic. Tanja and her sister followed their parents undertaking the medical profession, as a consequence she's now working as a doctor in a hospital in Queens. For Tanja the great thing about America is that it gives you the opportunity to make your dreams come true. ELLIS ISLAND and LADY LIBERTY The video is about Ellis Island, which is where immigrants used to arrive when they wanted to move to the USA. Immigration is the movement of people into another country or region to which they are not native in order to settle there, especially permanently. David Luchsinger is the steward of the Statue of Liberty; he had two sets of grandparents that came to Ellis Island. He says he's the last resident of Liberty Island. Luchsinger says that inside the bags carried by immigrants there was anything that meant the world to them and that they had to drop the bags after arriving there, because they had to be processed. AIl immigrants were positive, because they were in the country that they wanted to come to. Luchsinger is proud of the fact that they've never lost a bag on Ellis Island. Judith's ancestors came from Italy and she points out that now people wouldn't be as gutsy as they were. For her is important to keep them alive. In the scientific community other scientists believe that people will always find a technological solution to such a problem since we are about to enter a more productive era of safer and cheaper food. We can't be sure that this will be enough, instead we have to start reducing our consumption. The economist Thomas Malthus pointed out that people will not act unless they have to. He claimed that the population will continue to grow until war, disease or famine arrive to stop it. APPROPRIATE TECHNOLOGY Page 39 The term “ appropriate technology" is new, but the concept for sure isn't. In the 1930s Gandhi claimed that he wanted technology that could empower the poor villagers of India and help them to become self-reliant; but it wasn't the same used by western nations. The term " appropriate technology" was first used by Schumacher in his book "Small is Beautiful" to promote his own philosophy of technological progress. For him a technological item should be a long-term one and useful in the context it is used. "Appropriate technology" is a technology which suits the needs and abilities of the user and also takes into account environmental and cost considerations. Such as solar powered lamps, that brings light to areas with no electricity and water purifiers. For example in Sweden a company has found a way to exploit the heat produced each day by the bodies rushing through Stockholm's central train station. Their body heat is absorbed by the building's ventilation system than used to warm up water. Not always "appropriate technology" is accepted, because it needs to fit in with people's customs and social practices; there's a case in Guatemala where women refused to use a mechanical device for shelling corn because they enjoyed the time they spent hand shelling as it gave them an opportunity to chat and exchange news with each other. 3D-PRINTED PROSTHETIC LIMBS Page 42 This video is about Charlotte. Charlotte lost both hands and both legs to meningococcal septicaemia, but her drawing abilities are on a par with other kids her age. People are surprised by the fact how mobile she is, how she can write and draw and by the fine motor skills she's still got even without her hands. Charlotte is independent and says that she doesn't need help with things. She has gone through several false limbs: prosthetic legs even though are basic, they still manage to do their job but for hands it's not so simple. As Charlotte's grows, she needs to change her prosthetics each year. The prosthetic limbs she uses now are difficult to wear, but better ones for adult would cost £40,000. A robotic hand at a target price of 1,200 pounds could be the answer as it's within range of normal families. The robotic hand would work in response to flexing the muscle. The hands response and close all the fingers whenever you flex muscles. This technology uses a tablet computer to make a 3D scan anda 3D printer constructs it bit by bit. At the moment children are underserved by the prosthetics industry so this project could help them since the cost component is low. The project is still at the prototype stage but the delivery seems not to be too far away. UNIT 4 REVERSE GRAFFITI page 46 Some graffiti artists use the pictures, some use water and some both. The city authorities remove some graffiti where they find them, because The artist has no permission to paint on the walls. Reverse graffiti is a different practice of street art. Artists take a dirty wall and make images by removing the dirty. The practice has the common aim to draw attention to the pollution in the cities and every street artist has his own style. Alexander Orion, from Sao Paulo in Brazil, has shocked the city with a mural of skulls in a tunnel. He wanted to remind drivers of the effect of the pollution they create, when they sit in the comfort of their car. The reaction of authorities is confused, they treat these actions wrong, but actually the artists are cleaning walls, so they cause no environmental damage. They decided to clean the part of the tunnel that Orion had already cleaned. In Brazil the authorities cleaned the tunnel where Orion had worked, and he started working on the other walls, so that they had to clean every tunnel in Sao Paulo. WHY DO WE NEED MUSIC? Page 51 Humans spend a fifth of their waking lives listening to music, even if it isn't something we actually need to survive. Valorie Salimpoor, a neuroscientist, has researched the effects of music on the brain; she believes that the answer lies in music's ability to stimulate us both emotionally and intellectually. On an emotional level, music has the power to excite us and more effectively than any other way. Music produces emotions that we immediately feel and understand, but that we find difficult to explain. But actually said music seems to help us regulate negative feelings and even lift us out of them. Music's emotional power also comes from the fact that it can make a verbal message stronger; rap music, for example, is a powerful tool to express social problems. On an intellectual level, instead, music challenges our brains to understand and recognize certain systems and patterns. Salimpoor says that we enjoy new music most when it moves in an unpredictable, but still understandable, direction. Humans have various needs - physical, emotional and psychological - and while music may not fulfil the first, it clearly plays an important role in satisfying the others. ART OF THE PEOPLE Page 54 Banksy's spy booth appeared in April making fun of the issue of Government surveillance in the home of GCHQ, the intelligence and communications headquarters in Cheltenham. Now the owner of the property wants to sell the artwork and the wall it's on. It's caused protest from the local community. People think it should remain where it is, because it is something for the town, which was meant to be public art. The local community says that it's public art so it's not meant to be in private hands. When the scaffold went up, it was hoped it was just for building maintenance. But it's since been reported that a collector has bought the work and plans to take it out of the town. People in Cheltenham are so keen to see it that they are willing to tear the scaffold themselves. Because the spy booth relates directly to Cheltenham, it belongs to the city and to the community. The sale of the mural has re-started the debate over what's public art and what can be bought by a private individual. The one person missing from this campaign is Banksy himself, who remains anonymous. Cheltenham's community hopes Banksy stands up for this cause. UNIT 5 FRAM REALITY TO FANTASY Page 58 There once was a sheikh with big dreams: he wanted to transform his little sleepy village into a gateway to the world. To make his dream happen, he asked his neighbour to lend him many millions of dollars, cause he couldn't afford to make his dream a reality. He made the river wider, built roads, schools and homes. His son accomplished his father's project and completely transformed the initial village. He transformed Dubai into an air-conditioned fantasy world of nearly three millions of people. He built the world's tallest high-rise building: the Burj Khalifa, the world's biggest shopping mall and the world's largest motorway intersection. All of this helped Dubai to become the shopping capital of the Middle East. The Palm Jumeirah, an artificial island, provides holiday villas for the rich and the famous. Apart from a crisis in 2008, Dubai is always in growth. People from all around the world have different points of view: is it a model to copy or has it become the Las Vegas of the Middle East? THE TEENAGE MIND Page 63 We tend to think of adolescence as the most difficult stage in human development since teenagers: do not want to communicate with adults, they like doing silly or dangerous things and they constantly chat to friends on social media. "Sensation seeking", which appears at the age of fifteen, is the hunt for experiences that are unusual or unexpected. Teens like to plan their thrills quite deliberately. Such behaviour might seem dangerous because it involves taking risks but sensation seeking can also be a positive thing since it helps expand the knowledge of the world. Researchers believe this willingness to take risk is linked to the human need to be able to adapt to new surroundings when they are young. Teens, in contrast to adults, recognise the risk they are taking. Adolescents prefer the company of people of their own age because they want to invest in the future rather than the past. The importance of peer influence can be seen clearly in how strongly teenagers react when they are excluded from a social peer group. Excitement, novelty, risk and the company of peers are all elements that define adolescence in almost all human cultures. Adults tend to CRUEL TO BE KIND Page 82 The text deals with parenting and more specifically with the 'tiger mother' approach to bringing up children. Wherever western mums do, a doubt always remains. But doubt is not in the vocabulary of Amy Chua. Amy Chua, a successful chinese lawyer, professor and author of a guide to approach bringing up children. According to Chua, western mothers are too soft on their children and price them for every effort. The Chinese approach of the tiger mother is very different: in fact, mothers shouldn't praise their children with any reward but with punishment and shaming, to push them to do better. They accept nothing less A grades in every subject. Children are encouraged to follow a strict routine of work before play, and after that no Television or computer games are allowed. Chua is convinced that as long she keeps pushing her children, they will have successful careers like hers. CULTURAL CONVENTIONS Page 87 The text deals with cultural difference in communication and more specifically it takes in consideration 2 main areas: personal space and turn talking. Personal space refers to how close we are when we stand or sit next to people; turn-taking refers to the rules of conversation. Edward Hall, an American anthropologist, put the range for ‘personal distance’. Different cultures perceive personal space differently, in fact the distance can be greater (non-contact) or smaller (contact) depending on the familiarity grade or the geographic area. In certain cases, not respecting the correct distance between people could lead to misunderstanding or offence. The amount of space we need depends on many more factors than just cultural background like the age, the gender, the place we live, social position or the personality. Anthropologists also took into consideration cultural differences in turn talking in conversations. Nordic cultures are reported to have long delays between one turn and the next, on the other hand Asiatic cultures are reported to have very little pause between one turn and another. But the scientific data shows that there is very little cultural difference, infact the typical pause across cultures is about 0.2 seconds. Human beings are very sensitive to any variation from the norm when it comes to personal space and waiting for a response. EATING INSECTS Every resort town in the US has a candy store. The video shows a candy store in Pismo beach, California which offers their customers special desserts made from insects, just like bugs or worms. The candy man, Larry Peterman, promotes an unusual food source rejected by many American, because they find it revolting. The reason why American hardly accept eating insects is that children, from a young age, are taught to avoid them, even though entomophagy is part of a healthy diet in Asia, Africa, Australia and Latin America. Around the world a huge number of insects show up on menus. This trend is anything but new, in fact archaeologists have founded proof of ancient entomophagy on early humans. Insects are full of vitamins and minerals; Larry thinks that more people will eat them soon, but for now a niche, this will revolutionize the way we eat; despite that most American can't stomach that. The owner also serves special meals prepared with insects in his restaurant. UNIT 8 RISE OF THE 'ROCKET GIRLS' Page 94 Eleonor Francis Helin was an engineer behind numerous successful NASA space missions. In the 1960s she was part of a group of brilliant and determined female mathematicians, known as "rocket girls", at Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab in California. The rocket girls began working at NASA in the 1950s as "Computers needed" and their task was to do extremely accurate mathematical calculations. If someone had made the smallest mistake, a spacecraft bound for the moon would still be travelling somewhere. The rocket girls went from being "computers" to becoming the lab's first computer programmers and engineers having an influence on almost every NASA space mission. Macie Roberts, one of the group's early leaders, made the decision to hire only women to create a special work environment which had great advantages: women would work flexible hours to help each other and balance home and professionals lives, because they formed close working relationships. This helped them feel they were doing something really valuable. As a result, many women stayed on working at the lab for thirty or forty years. Author Nathalia Holt, hopes that the rocket girls will now get the recognition they deserve and be an inspiration to all female engineers. SAVING MADAGASCAR The text is about Madagascar which is the 4th largest island in the world. Island is incredibly gifted with a large variety of trees and animals that you can find nowhere else but there. Despite this Madagascar is a very poor country: on average a native lives with only ft $ a day. Because of the cut down of trees, for use as timber, ecologists identified Madagascar as a region in danger and demanded the cutting to stop but the new government, needing money, made it legal to sell wood from hardwood trees which had already been cut down or had fallen during storms. The main targets of this environmental crime are rosewood and ebony which are very valuable. The cutting down disturbs the natural habitat of the island's animals and puts their survival at risk. The only solution is believed to be giving local people economic alternatives like collecting medicinal plants instead or guiding tourists to photograph animals. Native would certainly prefer doing this rather than cutting down trees they used to consider sacred. Madagascar is the world's fourth largest island. Its flora and fauna is found nowhere else on Earth, but its beauty hides the island's desperate situation. The average Malagasy lives on only a dollar a day. Since 2,300 years ago humans have been destroying the island's original forest to use it as timber or to create room for crops and cattle. Alarmed ecologists identified Madagascar as a region in danger and demanded that the cutting and burning stop. In 2002 Marc Ravalomanana, an environmentally friendly president, was elected but in 2009 he was replaced by a new president with little interest in protecting the environment. The government in desperate need of money, made it legal to sell wood from hardwood trees which had already been cut down or had fallen during storms. The wood of the rosewood and the ebony is in high demand in America, Europe and China. The locals are caught in a trap. Poverty and high value of rosewood have driven Malagasies to cut down trees that they traditionally believed to be sacred. Rosewood trees are not the only victims. In order to transport them down the river, rafts must be built from other wood. All of this disturbs the natural habitat of the island's and puts them in danger. Oliver Behra, believes that the only solution is to give local people economic alternatives such as: * - collecting medicinal plants and selling them to foreign companies, like Chanel; * - training the village lemur hunter to act as a guide for tourists who wish to photograph them; *. - visiting the wild orchid conservatory that Behra has set up. WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF MONEY DIDN'T MATTER? Page 99 Students open up to their councillor saying that even though they are getting out of college, they haven't got the faintest idea of what they want to do next. They said “we'd like to be painters, to be poets, to be writers, but as everybody knows you can't earn any money that way”. The councillor always asks them what they would like to do if money were no object. Crowd of students say they would like to become artists but they are aware that they wouldn't be able to earn any money that way. Another student would like to live an out-of-doors life and ride horses and he told her that she could teach in a riding school. To fully help his students, the councillor suggests to forget about the money, because if getting the money is the most important thing, people will spend their life completely wasting their time. He says that it is better to have a short life that is full of what we like doing than a long life spent in a miserable way. He told us that if we do something we enjoy doing we can eventually become a master of it. He also points out that nowadays we are bringing up our children and educating them to live the same sort of life we are living in order that they may justify themselves and find satisfaction in life by bringing up their children to do the same thing. For the councillor the most important question to consider is:"What do | desire?" UNIT 9 A LIFE REVEALED The text deals with the famous 'Afghan girl' photography by Steve McCurry during a reportage in 1984. In 1984 photographer Steve McCurry was reporting on the lives of Afghan she was depicted as a male king (with headdress and beard, standing with legs apart). She had broken with traditions and Thutmose III, frustrated, took his revenge after her death, wiping his stepmother's reign as pharaoh out of history: he destroyed everything related to her as a male king. That is the reason why then, in 1903, her sarcophagus was found empty in the Valley of Kings and only a century later Egyptian scientists identified a mummy discovered in a minor tomb as that of Hatshepsut. QUEEN OF EGYPT page 126 Cleopatra has a reputation of beauty, power, controversy and tragedy. She was born in 69 BC and she's part of the Egypt's Ptolemaic dynasty. She became queen at 18 and ruled Egypt with her younger brother, Ptolemy the 13th. However, their relationship wasn't good, infact Cleopatra was soon forced from power. Unfortunately (for Ptolemy), she didn't accept losing and so she waited for a chance to prove her capabilities. She saw this opportunity when Julius Caesar, the winner of the recent Rome's civil wars, arrived in Alexandria (Egypt) in pursuit of a rival Roman general. The legend tells that Cleopatra managed to get to see him by hiding in a rug. Julius Caesar was charmed by Cleopatra, so he defeated her rivals and helped her take back the throne. Soon after that, Cleopatra gave birth to a baby, Caesarion, and she claimed he was Caesar's son. After Caesar's murder, Cleopatra looked for someone else in Rome who could help here and found Mark Antony, who was, like her, angry power. Together, Cleopatra and Antony ruled Alexandria and eventually got married. Mark Antony, though, infuriated his Roman rival, Octavian by saying that Caesarion was the true successor to Caesar. Octavian eventually defeated Cleopatra and Antony at the battle of Actium in 31 BC. Legend tells us that Cleopatra spread rumours of her death and when Antony heard about this, he killed himself. Cleopatra then tried to make peace with Octavian, but she couldn't, so she decided to kill herself with a poisonous snake bite. After her death, Egypt fell into Roman hands. UNIT 11 INNOVATION IN LEARNING page 130 The Lumiar International School in Sào Paulo, is a school unlike any other. The person behind the project is Ricardo Semler, a businessman who developed a management style where employees were trusted to do their jobs and make their own decisions. They were even able to set their own working hours and salaries. Pupils at the Lumiar school occupy "spaces" rather than rooms and learning takes place "everywhere" (such as in the hall, play areas, the dining room,...). If a pupil doesn't feel engaged in a lesson, they can go to another one or to the library to read. Most learning is done through projects which pupils design with their fellow students and teachers, who are more like subject "experts" than traditional teachers. Inside the school, students have the opportunity to attend a weekly meeting, where they can discuss issues affecting school life. The journalist, who wrote this article, had the chance to participate to one of them. During the meeting the pupils succeed in solving that day concerne: two students had broken some plates while running in the kitchen. A six years old student came up with the right solution: the school will be entitled to pay the damages but the two fellow students have to provide for the same exact china at the shops. The journalist was positively surprised by the boy's confidence despite his young age. WHO'S A CLEVER BIRD, THEN? page 135 In 1997, Irene Peppenberg, graduated at Harward, decided she would teach a one-year-old African grey parrot named Alex to speak English. She bought Alex in a pet store and let the store assistant choose him because she didn't want other scientists to say that she had chosen a clever bird. Most researchers thought Pepperberg was certainly to fail because of Alex's brain size. But Alex learned how to imitate almost one hundred English words, he could count to six and he had learned the sounds of seven and eight. But Pepperberg didn't just want to see if Alex could learn words by heart. So, Pepperberg placed Alex on a wooden perch in the middle of the room. She held up a green key and a small green cup and asked Alex what was the same and what was different. Alex answered, “the color” and “the shape”. The reason why Alex could understand the concepts of ‘same’ and ‘different’ is because parrots, like humans, live a long time in complex societies; and like humans they have to adapt to changing relationships and environments. They need to distinguish colors to know when a fruit is ripe or not, they need to categorize things -what's edible and what isn't- and know the shapes of predators. It helps to have a concept of numbers if you need to keep track of your flock. For a long-lived bird, you can't do all of this with instinct; thinking must be involved! Alex also expressed feelings and awareness of others' feelings. Pepperberg grew frustrated Alex could notice this and say “I'm sorry”; “Wanna go back” he would say when he had enough of the tests; “Talk clearly” he commanded when one of the other birds that Pepperberg was teaching mispronounced the word green. Through her experiments, Pepperberg learned more about the mind of a parrot, but she also learned the hard way. PARAGUAY SHAMAN page 138 There may be some plants in Paraguay with curative properties but deforestation is endangering the already small probability of finding anything at all. These forests have been a source of medicinal cures for a long time; usually locals share the places where it is possible to find these kinds of plants. The most expert in this field are the healers or shamans. Their knowledge has to be written down since the extensive deforestation could bring to an end this secular tradition of shamans and medicinal plants. The researchers go on a long trip to meet one shaman in a far-away village. After some preparatory rituals, the shaman leads the group into the woods, looking for a particular plant which is used for various illnesses, even cancer. Once they have gotten back to the village, the shaman's wife prepares tea for everyone. Researchers are preparing a book to help recognize those plants which are slowly disappearing. UNIT 12 SAVING FOR A RAINY DAY page 142 Norway offers a quality of life that other countries can only dream of. It is listed among the top five happiest countries in the world, it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world; only Luxemburg and a couple of others are richer. Norwegian earn a good salary, get a good education, usually find the job they want, enjoy good health and live a long life. It is said that prisons are also quite comfortable. But Norway has not always been a rich country: just last century, Norwegians were emigrating to the USA in search of a better life. The rise in oil prices in the 1970s changed all that. Norway has a lot of oil, but it's not only Norway's huge reserves that account for its success. It is also down to the Norwegian's natural thrift and strong work ethic. Norwegians are always near to the top in global surveys of workers productivity rates. Norway may be rich, but it's modest. The government has passed laws which emphasize the importance of family and time off, offering subsidized child care, long holidays and generous maternity and paternity leave. They have even said that fathers must by law take time off to be with their children. And it is one of the only countries to do so. The country is also saving for the future. Every dollar earned from oil is put straight into the world's biggest pension fund - worth over $200 billion and none of this money is not spenton infrastructure projects. START-UP page 147 In 2008 two friends in Los Angeles started to mix Korean barbecue recipes with Mexican tacos and sell the takeaway food from a van. The resulting tacos became an instant success. The founder Roy Choi called them “Los Angeles on a plate”. Their Kogi BBQ food truck started a whole new trend in mobile cuisine. Food trucks and vans have been around for a long time selling cheap eats along roadsides and next to construction sites all over California. Kogi BBQ food brought higher food quality at a reasonable price to a new generation of consumers. The economic recession of 2008 was an excellent opportunity for this kind of business. Due to the high number of unemployed chefs, they could easily find staff. At the same time, consumers were happy to find that they could still go out and find good food at an affordable price. Today these upmarket food trucks parked on city streets from San Francisco to Washington D.C., are growing. Choi is modest about his part in this revolution. What really put Kogi on the map was its early use of social media. Kogi used twitter to constantly update its customers on changing locations. Little by little, a loyal group of young followers appeared. Few months later Kogi was attracting hundreds of customers at several steps every day. Kogi BBG has now 135,000 followers, four trucks and a permanent truck stall at Los Angeles main airport. Brandy and a catchy name are very important and the trucks themselves are brightly painted and covered with colorful stickers. Customers are usually young people who take pictures of their tacos and message them to their