THIRD LESSON

THIRD LESSON


What if Star Wars had never existed?



http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2011/mar/18/what-if-star-wars-never-existed

Some examples of conditional forms:


What if the 1998 best picture Oscar had gone not to Shakespear in Love, but Gummo?
Where would we be now had there never been a Star Wars?

Fixed phrases:


to be on the verge of doing something
to be on the point of doing
to be about to do something

Grammatical rules:

Present perfect: past, now
Present continuous: repeated actions or if somebody is irritated
Example:
He's always buying her flowers (to criticise).

SECOND LESSON

SECOND LESSON




Translation

Yesterday night I had  a nightmare, I was in a station never seen before. I just went out from the train when I was stopped by two policemen who asked me to show my documents. Surprised, I started searching them everywhere, in my bag, in my pockets, in the suitcase. Everything was there: garments and each other object.
At first I was calm but then I understood it wasn't my suitcase. I was so scared and I began looking around the station in order to escape from the policemen.
The station slowly became a lager surrounded by barbed wire: I was a prisoner and the two policemen were now two soldiers. Terrified I awoke, my heart was beating so fastly that I needed some minutes to realize it was not real, but only a bad nightmare.

Checklist:


Yesterday night: vocabulary choice
I had a nightmare: collocation
Never seen before: fixed phrase
They asked me to show my documents: verb structure
I began looking around: vocabulary choice, phrasal verb
Barbed wire: collocation

False friend:

Tremendous: enormous

Phrasal verbs:

To descend: get off
To extract: take out

Vocabulary:


Garment: a piece of clothing

Fixed phrases of the day:

taken unawares..
I couldn't agree more..
I agree with you up to a point..
You may be right but..

Hypotheticals:

Assumption: will, should..
Deduction: must, can't, couldn't..
Possibility: may, might, could..

FIRST LESSON

Is this the start of the second dotcom bubble?

www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/feb/20/is-this-the-start-of-the-second-dotcom-bubble

Usefull vocabulary:

Bubble (noun), balloon (noun), to inflate (verb), to burst (verb).

Economic (adj), Economical (adj.: cheap).

Summary:

This article deals with a possible new dotcom bubble. Twitter is the perfect example of an overvalued company. Other experts, on the othe other hand, think ther's not a new bubble, but only a big deal of money ready to attract investments.

New words:

Goldrush: corsa all'oro

Flurry..

.. of snow: spruzzata di neve

.. of wind: raffica di vento

..of.. : moltitudine, ondata di..

To flurry: mettere in agitazione

To be in a flurry: essere agitato, confuso.

www.wordreference.com/enit/flurry

Flotation..

..of company: lancio

..of shares: emissione

..of currency: fluttuazione

Start up: avvio

To start up: iniziare

Seldom: raramente

Seldom if ever: quasi mai

Hangout: ritrovo abituale

Frenzy: frenesia, momento di follia.