Welcome to my blog - Gabriella Kuferzin

Welcome to my English Blog! - Gabriella Kuferzin
Il materiale presente in questo blog è pubblicato senza fine di lucro e per scopo educativo-didattico, ma se qualcuno dovesse ritenere di avere eventuali diritti di proprietà ( © ® ) sullo stesso, è pregato di comunicarlo e provvederò a rimuoverlo.
Materials included in this blog are published for nonprofit, non-commercial educational purposes only. Should you claim copyright property on any parts of it, please let me know and I will promptly remove them.

Friday, 25 February 2011

Julia Roberts

julia roberts

Her real name is Julia Fiona Roberts.
Julia Roberts is an American actress.

She was born on 28th October, 1967 in Georgia. She has got two brothers: their names are Eric and Anthony, and two sisters, their names are Lisa and Nancy. Walter Roberts was her dad and her mum is Betty Lou Bredemus.

Her dad died from cancer when she was 10 years old and she was raised by her mum. Eric, Anthony and Lisa are actors.

When she was a teenager she dreamed of becoming a veterinarian. She began to study journalism and to pay her studies she worked as a waitress.

When his brother Eric made his debut in Hollywood she decided to become an actress and went to live in New York.

Her first film was “Blood Red” with her brother Eric.

She also took part to the film “Mystic Pizza”, “Steel Magnolias”, with which she won her first Oscar.

In 1990 her first big hit was the movie “Pretty Woman” with Richard Gere. She began to become increasingly popular.

She also starred in the films: “Sleeping with the Enemy”, “Capitan Hook” with Robin Williams and and “Everyone Says I Love You".

In 1997 she decided to return to comedies, she was the star of “My Best Friend’s Wedding”.

In 2001 she won the Oscar for Best Actress.
She starred in “Mona Lisa Smile”, “Closer”, “Charlie Wilson’s War”.

Her last film is “ Eat Pray Love”.

By Alice Dal Grande, 2LSA

Rodrigo Diaz

RODRIGO DIAZ!!!

Rodrigo Diaz was born at Vincente Lòpez on 18^th January 1980. He grew up with his mother because his father died when he was 11 years old. He has got two brothers: Gonzalo and Ramiro, they were born in 1982. The first is an advertising model and the second studies multimedia design. He is an Argentinian actor and model and is engaged with the Argentinian actress Jenny Williams.

He began his career as an electrician in his local area. He has also worked as a waiter in a restaurant, and as a musician, he has played the guitar since he was young. Then he began to take acting courses in the Center Cultural San Martin, and he took part first to advertising and then to "Rebelde Way", "Immortal" and "Te extraneo". In 2005 he took part to "La niñera" and "Paraíso Rock" and in 2006 to "Amas de Casa Desesperadas".

In 2007 in Italy he reached international success with"The World of Patty" in the role of Nicolás, the false brother of Bianca; in the same year he also acted in "Son de Fierro".

In 2010 he worked in an Italian production, "Terra Ribelle", where he played the main character, Andrea. When he arrived in Italy to present "Terra Ribelle", he was a guest in many RAI television programmes.

By Elena Sofia Furlan, 2LSA

Sunday, 20 February 2011

Angus Young - AC/DC

ANGUS YOUNG

Angus Young
Nationality: Australian
Gender: Hard Rock, Heavy Metal
Tool: Guitar, Model: DEVIL Gibson SG of 1968
Current Band: AC/DC (=AC=Alternative Current,DC=Direct Current )

ANGUS McKINNON YOUNG (Glasgow, 3 March 1955) is a Scottish guitarist and composer, co-founder of the band AC/DC.

He is famous for his energy performance and for wearing school uniforms.
Angus Young was interested in the guitar when he was a child. He fabricated the first guitar by modifying a Banjo. His first guitar, a Hofner, was a a present from his brother Malcolm.

Angus hated school. His favorite subject was art; even in music he didn't have an easy life: his teacher said that he had no sense of rhythm. So he abandoned his studies and went to work in a butcher's shop. Thanks to that job he could buy the legendary Gibson SG guitar.

During his youth he played in a band called 'Kantuckee'. He was 18 years old when his brother Malcolm founded AC / DC in December 31, 1973, with Angus on lead guitar, Malcolm on rhythmic guitar, Colin Burgess on drums, Larry Van Kriedt on electric bass, and Dave Evans on vocals. Their first single, "Can I Sit Next To Your Girl" was later recorded a second time with Bon Scott as lead singer.

He chose the name AC / DC when he saw an inscription on a sewing machine which means Alternative Current-Direct Current.

Angus has worn many costumes on stage, like Zorro, Spider-Man, a gorilla and even Superman, calling himself Super-Ang. Then he decided that the school uniform had to be his symbol. The original uniform was from his high school, Ashfield Boys High School in Sydney. His sister Margaret suggested him to wear his uniform, which is ironic because Angus did not like school at all. To promote the image of a a rebellious schoolboy, his date of birth was falsified for several years because Angus was born in 1959, not 1955. Only in the late 70's the band testified that Angus was actually four years older.

His other famous "abilities" are playing the electric guitar with the left hand, pressing the keys without hitting the strings, and the famous Duck Walk, which was actually invented by Chuck Berry many years ago. Angus has never used drugs sud said that his favorite drink is tea. But he is a great smoker...

Angus Young prefers to keep his private life private, but we know that he lives in Sydney, Australia, and has another home in Aalten, the Netherlands.

On August 24, 2006, Angus received an award from "Kerrang!", an Australian rock magazine. The director Paul Branningan called AC / DC "one of the most important and influential bands in history".

Thunderstruck

(Thunder) (x10)
I was caught
In the middle of a railroad track (Thunder)
I looked 'round,
And I knew there was no turning back (Thunder)
My mind raced
And I thought what could I do? (Thunder)
And I knew
There was no help, no help from you (Thunder)
Sound of the drums
Beatin' in my heart
The thunder of guns!
Tore me apart
You've been - thunderstruck!
Rode down the highway
Broke the limit, we hit the ton
Went through to Texas, yeah Texas
And we had some fun
We met some girls,
Some dancers who gave a good time
Broke all the rules, played all the fools
Yeah, yeah, they, they, they blew our minds
And I was shakin' at the knees
Could I come again please.
Yeah the ladies were too kind
You've been - thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck
Oh, thunderstruck, yeah
Yeah
Now we're shaking at the knees
Could I come again please.
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck
Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah
Said yeah, it's alright
We're! Doing fine
Yeah, it's alright
We're! Doing fine
So fine
Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Whoa baby, baby, thunderstruck
You've been thunderstruck, thunderstruck
Thunderstruck, thunderstruck, thunderstruck
You've been thunderstruck

Francesco Basso, 2LSA

Wednesday, 19 January 2011

Australia

AUSTRALIA

The island
Australia is the sixth largest country in the world.
It is the largest island and the world’s smallest, flattest continent.
It's about the same size as the USA and 50 per cent larger than Europe, but it has the lowest population density in the world - only two people per square kilometre.
Australia is the only nation to govern an entire continent.
More than 85 per cent of Australians live within 50 kilometres of the coast.

Australia’s coastline is 50,000 kilometres long and has over 10,000 beaches, more than any other country in the world.

The Great Barrier Reef, the world's largest coral reef, lies a short distance off the north-east coast and extends for over 2,000 kilometres.

Ayer’s Rock, the world's largest monolith, is located in Western Australia, in the middle of the desert. It is a sacred place for the Aborigines, who call it Uluru.

The largest part of Australia is desert or semi-arid and it is called the outback.

Only the south-east and south-west corners of the continent have a temperate climate. The landscapes of the northern part of the country, with a tropical climate, consist of rainforest, woodland, grassland, mangrove swamps swamps, and desert.

Flora and Fauna
Australia developed a unique fauna when it broke away from the super-continent Gondwana more than 50 million years ago.

the kangaroo

the emu

the dingo

the echidna

the koala

the platypus

The kangaroo is unique to Australia and one of its most famous mammals. There are 40 million kangaroos in Australia.
Today Australia has a wildlife not found anywhere else in the world. You can see the koala, the emu, the dingo, the echidna, the platypus... there are around 800 species of birds, 4,000 fish varieties and tens of thousands of species of invertebrates and micro-organisms. Australia has also got 25,000 species of plants, compared to 17,500 in Europe.

People and politics
The population is just over 21.3 million, with approximately 60% concentrated in and around the cities of Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Sydney

Melbourne

Brisbane

Perth

The nation's capital city is Canberra.

Today, more than 20 per cent of Australians are foreign born and more than 40 per cent are of mixed cultural origin.

The Commonwealth of Australia is a constitutional democracy based on a federal division of powers. Queen Elizabeth II is the Queen of Australia. The Queen is represented by the Governor-General. The executive powers are normally exercised on the advice of the Prime Minister. There is a Parliament composed by the House of the Representatives and the Senate.

Australia has six states and two major mainland territories. The states are New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia. There are also smaller territories that are under the administration of the federal government.

Productions
Australia produces 95 per cent of the world's precious opals. The world’s opal capital is the underground town of Coober Pedy in South Australia. Kalgoorlie in Western Australia is Australia's largest producer of gold. Australia's 85.7 million sheep (mostly merinos) produce most of the world's wool. With 25.4 million head of cattle, Australia is also the world's largest exporter of beef.

HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA
Aboriginal people

The first human inhabitants of Australia are called aborigines which means original. They arrived from Asia around 60,000 years ago. There were around 300,000 aborigines in about 250 tribal groups before the first white settlers came. Each group had its own territory, traditions, beliefs and language. The aborigine people had never seen white people until Captain James Cook arrived. At first the Aborigines were friendly towards the visitors but were very confused at the way white foreigners behaved: the foreigners walked on aborigine sacred sites and dug up aborigine graves, they beat and hang people, they chop down trees and took food without asking, they did not share their belongings. When the aborigines first saw the white settlers they thought they were the spirits of their dead ancestors. When the aborigines realised that the white men were not spirits and that the settlers were taking more and more of their land and destroying the trees and wildlife, they began to fight back. The aborigines killed a number of the settlers in an attack. The settlers reacted by killing and poisoning the aborigines and systematically destroying the land and wild animals they lived on. The settlers also brought diseases the aborigines had never had before. Aborigines caught smallpox and even the common cold and died in great numbers. The killing and exploitation of aborigines by whites continued well into the twentieth century. The aboriginal population declined from the original 300,000 when the first white settlers arrived to only about 60,000 people. Aborigines were second class citizens in their own land and only got the right to vote in 1967. Much progress has been made over recent years to try to right the wrongs of the past. Where possible the government has been returning land to their traditional owners and encouraging Aborigines to rebuild their culture and lives. They however still are the single most disadvantaged group of people in Australia.

Colonisation
A number of European explorers sailed the coast of Australia, then known as New Holland, in the 17th century. In 1770 Captain James Cook arrived on the east coast and declared it British. The new site was used as a penal colony and in 1788 1,500 people – half of them convicts – arrived in Sydney. Until 1868, 160,000 men and women came to Australia as prisoners.
Free settlers began to arrive in the 1790s, but life was harsh. There was one woman every five men, men could be hung for as small crimes as stealing. The Aboriginal people displaced by the new settlements suffered even more. The dispossession of land and illness and death from introduced diseases destroyed their traditional lifestyles and practices.

Settling over the continent
By the 1820s, many soldiers, officers and emancipated convicts had turned land they received from the government into farms. News migrants arrived from Britain. Settlers or ‘squatters’ began to move deeper into Aboriginal territories – often with a gun - in search of pasture and water for their stock. Gold was discovered in 1851, so thousands of young people arrived from all over the world.

Australia becomes a nation
Australia’s six states became a nation under a single constitution in 1901. Today Australia is home to people from more than 200 countries.

New Australians arrive to a post-war boom
After the war ended in 1945, hundreds of thousands of migrants from across Europe and the Middle East arrived in Australia, many finding jobs in the manufacturing sector. Australia’s economy grew. The international market asked for Australia’s exports of metals, wools and meat.

Modern Australia
Australia’s new ethnic diversity and increasing independence from Britain contributed to an atmosphere of political, economic and social change. In 1967, Australians voted ‘yes’ in a referendum to let the government make laws on behalf of Aboriginal Australians. The result was a strong reform campaign by both Aboriginal and white Australians.

AUSTRALIAN CULTURE
It is founded on stories of battlers, bushrangers and brave soldiers, of working heroes and migrants. Today Australia also defines itself by its Aboriginal heritage and a vibrant mix of cultures.

Aboriginal culture
The Dreamtime is the sacred ‘time before time’ of the world’s creation. According to Aboriginal belief, totemic spirit ancestors emerged from the earth and descended from the sky to awaken a dark and silent world. They created the sun, moon and stars, forged mountains, rivers, trees and waterholes and changed into human and animal forms. Spirit ancestors connect this ancient past with the present and future through every aspect of Aboriginal culture.

Rock art, craft and bark painting reveal Dreamtime stories, mark territory and record history, while songs tell of Dreamtime journeys, verbally mapping water sources and other essential landmarks. Their special songs have been passed down virtually unchanged for at least 50,000 years, and are often accompanied by the didgeridoo. Similarly, traditional dances reveal creation myths, enact the deeds of Dreamtime heroes and even recent historical events.

Colonial myths
Australians believe in friendship and have a strong affection for people who struggle for life. These values stem from convicts and early colonialists who struggled against a difficult and unfamiliar land and often unjust authority. On the goldfields of the mid-1850s, diggers were portrayed in stories and songs as romantic heroes, strong people who loved democracy.

Australian English
Australians have a unique colloquial language. This combines many long lost cockney and Irish sayings of the early convicts with words from Aboriginal languages. They often abbreviate words and then add an ‘o’ or ‘ie’ on the end. They also like reverse nicknames, calling people with red hair ‘bluey’, saying ‘snowy’ to someone with dark hair, and ‘lofty’ to someone who is small in stature.

Multiculturalism
Today, more than 20 per cent of Australians are foreign born and more than 40 per cent are of mixed cultural origin. In their homes they speak 226 languages - after English, the most popular are Italian, Greek, Cantonese and Arabic.
Their rich cultural diversity is reflected in their food, which embraces most of the world’s cuisines. You can also see their melting pot of cultures in the many colourful festivals: samba and capoeira at Brazilian festival, the dragon parade during Chinese New Year or the annual Italian celebrations. As a nation, they have a lot of of religious belief and you’ll find Catholic and Anglican churches, Hindu, Sikh and Buddhist temples, mosques and synagogues in the streets.

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

The Family

Learn vocabulary about the family with these nice pictures of the Simpsons family tree:

by Greta Piovesan, I LSB

by Jessica Liviero, I LSB

by Luca Zurlo, I LSB

Possessive 's - Genitivo sassone

Il Genitivo sassone

La costruzione inglese del genitivo sassone esprime una relazione di appartenenza che può riguardare:

SITUAZIONE	ESEMPIO
Persone, espresse da nome proprio o comune	La casa di Martha La casa di mia sorella La festa del papà
Animali	L'osso del cane
Espressioni di tempo	Il giornale di oggi
Nazioni o città	I parchi di New York

In tutti gli altri casi, invece, non si usa il genitivo sassone ma la forma normale, es:

THE DOOR OF THE ROOM (La porta della stanza)
THE TABLE LEG (La gamba del tavolo)

Il genitivo sassone si costruisce secondo il seguente schema:

POSSESSORE + ’S + COSA POSSEDUTA

Esempio:

SITUAZIONE	ITALIANO	INGLESE
Persone, espresse da nome proprio o comune	• La casa di Martha • La casa di mia sorella • La festa del papà	Martha’s house My sister’s house Father’s day
Animali	L'osso del cane	The dog’s bone
Espressioni di tempo	Il giornale di oggi	Today’s newspaper
Nazioni o città	I parchi di New York	New York’s parks

I sostantivi plurali che terminano per s prendono solo l’apostrofo:

ITALIANO	INGLESE
Il gatto degli studenti	*The students’* cat**

I nomi propri che terminano per s di solito sono seguiti da ‘s (o solo dall'apostrofo).

ITALIANO	INGLESE
Il gatto di Denis	Denis’s cat oppure Denis’ cat

Da ricordare ancora che in caso di più possessori in cascata si procede a ritroso, es:

MY SISTER'S HUSBAND'S CAR (La macchina del marito di mia sorella)
MY WIFE'S FRIEND'S NAME IS LINDA (L'amica di mia moglie si chiama Linda)

Il Genitivo sassone si usa anche per esprimere le relazioni di parentela.
Quando vi sono due o più possessori, se il possesso è condiviso si aggiunge 'S all'ultimo nome, mentre se il possesso è individuale si aggiunge 'S a tutti i nomi.

Esempi:
CAROL'S AUNT (La zia di Carol)
JOHN AND MARY'S PARENTS (I genitori di John e Mary)
JOHN'S AND MARY'S PARENTS (I genitori di John e quelli di Mary)

Uso dell’articolo con il genitivo sassone

Per l’uso dell’articolo con il genitivo sassone, tenere presente le seguenti regole:

REGOLA	ITALIANO	INGLESE
Non si mette mai l’articolo prima della cosa posseduta (cioè dopo ‘s).	Il libro dell’insegnante L’auto del dottore	The teacher’s book The doctor’s car
I nomi propri, gli aggettivi possessivi, gli avverbi di tempo e i titoli di cortesia non possono mai essere preceduti da articolo.	Il libro del mio insegnante L’auto del Dott. Smith	My teacher’s book (l’aggettivo possessivo non vuole l’articolo) Dr. Smith’s car (non si mette l’articolo davanti ai titoli di cortesia)
Quando non si può esprimere l’articolo, si sottintende sempre l’articolo "the"	L’amico di mia sorella	My sister’s friend
Se si vuole utilizzare l’articolo indeterminativo a/an occorre modificare la costruzione	Un amico di mia sorella	A friend of my sister’s (letteralmente: un amico di quelli di mia sorella)

Attenzione : 's potrebbe essere un genitivo sassone, potrebbe essere la forma contratta di is o la forma contratta di has!!! Lo si deve dedurre dal contesto!!!