English Life 1 - riassunti testi e video prime tre unità del libro - Life student\'s book upper intermediate PDF

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riassunti testi e video prime tre unità del libro...

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Unit 1 ! A confused generation !

This text is about the changes in the modern Chinese society, where due to the economic boom new values such as the importance of money and success are in competition with old values such as the respect of older generations and family. In particular old people are referred to as a confused generation. This new situation is described through the example of Bella and her family, who live in shanghai. Bella teaches her parents how to deal with these new values from different point of view : her parents had to put Bella’s grandfather into a nursing home, they have suffered a lot but she shown them how money can make life easier9 ; in fact her ambition is to put them in the best nursing home, that money can buy. Moreover, she overcomes her parents, her skills and knowledge are improved : she can choose among different western brands, she knows the latest slang and her level of English is higher than theirs . In conclusion, her parents in particular her mother feel useless because she thinks that their advice is not wanted, so she sees her child rasosi b as a failure. ! They are representative of a confused generation in a confused time Opinion: importance to find a balance between new values and old values! ! Bloodlines ! This text is about a new phenomenon : the reconstruction of people’s ancestral roots. The USA, in particular the queens, in New York is well known for being a melting pot of different ethnic groups and cultures from different generations, all united by a strong sense of patriotism. Moreover, they are fascinated by their ancestor’s recent history, so they try to discover more about the reasons and the way of their arrival to America in order to honour their memory. For example this text mentions two characters : Richard and tanja. Richard explains the story of his great-grandfather, Tomas, who decided to leave Poland when he was fifteen years old after his mother’s death and the remarriage of his dad ; he was a free-spirit and with many efforts he arrived to America, where he got a job on the railroads in California. Fortunantetly, ! Tafter having read an article on a newspaper he found out that his brother was searching him and that he also lived there so the meeting between the two happened, and they decided to work togheter in construction . Richards says that he and his relatives have inherited from their grandmother not only this story but also a strong sense of belonging to a group. Tanja explains that her parents have moved to America with the hope to realise their dreams : they came from jamaica, where they were nurse but they wanted a better life for their future so they decided to move to America, where her father was able to realise his dream to become a doctor and her mother continued to work as a nurse and at the same time took care of their two children. Tanja and her sister have followed the steps of their parents and they have inherited a passion for medicine in fact now she is a doctor too and also a strong sense of ambition, that pushes them to get ahead .!

Opinion: our history Is really important ( I can speak about the history of my grandfather who was a soldier during the Second World War and has ran away from a prison in Russia, going on foot till Italy , so this history shows me that ambition, strength and will can bring us everywhere).! Lady liberty and Ellis island! This video is about Ellis island and it is divided into three different parts : the first part is characterised by the presence of the steward of the Statue of Liberty and the last resident of liberty island. while he is walking he starts to think about his grandparents, who came through ellis island and then he explains that this place welcomed immigrants with the hope of a brighter future, they arrived there with only one or two bags, they dropped them and went upstairs in order to be processed but they didn’t know the language or if they would see again their relatives; but they wanted to get ahead because they tried to fulfill their dream to improve their life conditions. In the second part of the video some Americans, who are visiting the place tell the history of their ancestors for example judith explains that her grandmother had italian origins , pablo shows a deep sense of emotion because he is simpathetic towards the feelings of the immigrants, peter says that his parents came from Hong Kong. In the third part the steward shows that during the summer nowadays they welcome between 18/22,000 visitors a day, whereas in the past the number of immigrants was even smaller ( during the peak of immigration they were 8/12,000). Moreover, he explains that in 2011 hurricane sandhi destroyed the infrastructures of Ellis island, so they exploited this situation in order to rebuild them and make the place more sustainable.! ! Unit 2! A key moment ! This text is about a terrible accident lived by Nikki lauda during the German gran prix.! The track was narrow (not wide) and bumpy (not regular) and for this reason Nikki had doubt over the safety of the race so he tried to get it stopped but his rival was stubborn and he wanted to do the race, the other drivers agreed with him so the event wasn’t cancelled. The day of the race it had been raining all the morning so the track was really wet; at the beginning nikki drove slowly because of the bad conditions but after having changed his tyres he decided to push harder so he came out of a corner too fast, he lost the control and then he hit the bank, bounced back and burst in flames; some drivers tried to help him but he was trapped into the car so the arrival of an helicopter, which transported Nikki to an hospital, was necessary. after some weeks he recovered thanks to plastic surgery. After six weeks he took part in the Italian Grand Prix.! ! Once upon a time ! The text is about the history of the collection of brothers Grimm. Brothers Grimm got in touch with the folk tradition thanks to a wise man who led them to a library

when they were very little. They developed a passion that brought them to give birth to a book entitled children’s and household tales and published in Germany in 1812. Nowadays this book is really famous ( translated in 160 languages) and it has inspired not only the Japanese to build two theme parks but also the media giant disney, whereas during their lifetime they sold only a few copies. In truth they explained that they just wanted to preserve these tales and the oral tradition (people used to entertain themselves with tales of adventure, romance and magic) from disappearing in fact they interviewed some storytellers in order to realise their collection. Despite this explanation, Wilhelm reshaped the tales trying to make them more acceptable for children and stressing the moral, as a result his work became a manual of manners . Also this final edition of 1857 did not bring them to success because of the presence of some unpleasant details such as the treatment of children ( Hansel and gretel were put in a cage ) and the punishments of the villains ( In snow White the evil stepmother was forced to dance in red hot iron shoes until she falls dead). Today they don’t have these problems in fact their collection is really appreciated and there is a reason : these tales represent the struggle for happiness of people as we can notice in Cinderella (rags to riches) or the beauty and the beast.! ! How not to climb a mountain ! This video is about a funny episode, happened to two improvised climbers.! The two had a goal : they wanted to climb the middle Palisade, a high mountain in California. They found out some information on the net because they were not experts, they climbed and reached the peak but when they found the summit register, they made a terrible discovery : they have climbed the wrong mountain. They walked along the bridge and the rock under their feet fall away in thin pieces. So it was a strange case : they had to climb the mountain in front of them, that is higher than the previous one. So they decided to make the mission impossible and to try to conquer the summit of the other mountain. At the end they succeeded with a great laugh.! ! ! Unit 3 ! Is technology the answer ? ! This text is about the problem of overpopulation, that is there are more people than there are resources such as food, energy, land and water. This brings to difficult consequences such as unemployment, hunger, pollution and congestion. This phenomenon raises opposite opinions among people : for example the biologists Paul ehrlich is against the growth of population in fact he is known for the book the population bomb of 1968, where he explains that medical science has advanced too far and that we are keeping too many people alive; in his opinion the result will be the death because of famine. On the other hand many experts underline that in the last years the population has doubled to seven billion and it is going to grow

again by 2050, so starvation won’t be a reality because of new technologies such as news pesticides and seeds, useful in order to improve food production. The question about the possibility of a future, where people will not rely only on technology is behind the corner for many. The economist Thomas Malthus pays attention to the laziness of people, who in his opinion won’t find a solution to the problem until there is no other option, such as in case of war, disease and famine.! ! Appropriate technology ! This text is about the theme of appropriate technology, a modern concept, which appeared already in the philosophy of Gandhi, who underlines the importance of technology in order to empower life of villagers in India and to make them more self-reliant. Moreover, he was really keen on some inventions, such as the sewing machine and the bycicle, his favourite means of transport. The expression appropriate technology has been introduced by schumacher with the book small is beautiful and it means that technology has to suit the needs and the capacities of the users, considering the costs and respecting the environment so it is necessary to understand what people are doing and help them to do it better. The key terms are : long term, practical and in the hands of the people. Good examples of this are: solar powered lamps and water purifiers. Still today poor and rich countries use these e ecological and simple methods but sometimes, it happens that villagers refuse technological system, for example some engineers design a mechanical device for Guatemalan women to shell corn easily and fast, but after some times the workers decide to continue to shell corns by hand as in the past because they have their habits for example they can talk with each other. ! ! 3D printed prosthetic limbs ! This text is about the progress of 3D printer and it brings the example of 3d printed prosthetic limbs, that can improve the life of people, who have lost limbs as the little Charlotte. She lost both hands and legs because of a terrible disease, but she preserves her independence : she plays, she writes, she moves in fact people are surprised by her numerous skills. Charlotte has got false limbs but the hands give her some problems because they are not so comfortable and in particular they have to be changed every year because she continues to grow but the costs are very high so a normal family can not afford them: the price of a bionic hand is 40,000 €. There is a possibile solution : some experts are studying a new way, that is the creation of bionic hands using a 3d printer. First they project the hand with a tablet computer and then the 3d printer constructs it bit by bit. If this new method will be applied the price will become very affordable (1,200).! ! ! Unità 4! Reverse graffiti ! This texts is about the theme of reserve graffiti. !

Graffiti are images painted on blank walls, they can have different styles : some artistis use pictures or words and other both of them in the aim of conveying a message but they don’t have the permission to paint, so many times their creations are removed by the authorities. Whereas, reverse graffiti is a growing mouvement of the last fifteen years and it means that artists take a dirty wall and make images in order to remove the dirt. Their objective is to focus the attention on the problem of pollution as in the case of a Brazilian artist Orion.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !...