Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: O.T. CAE writing paper (my attempts)

For those willing to help...
*"[...] Write a report for the Principal explaining how useful the 
conference was and making reccomendation for next year /(then some of 
the topics I should cover in my writing follow)/"*
To the College Principal
Topic: Careers Conference at Vancouver Hall
The conference at Vancouver Hall, open on last Friday at 9.00, is 
probably one of the most important gatherings in its field. The 
exhibition covers more than 100 different jobs and meetings with many of 
the enterprises involved are arranged in order to provide a face-to-face 
approach between students and their prospective interviewers. This is a 
highly-appreciated point that makes the conference so successful.
The exhibition was great, you could tell that organizers went the extra 
mile to make things work. Every company had its own stand and 
appropriate space, no matter how small they could be. A weak point, 
though, was represented by the fact that at some stands there was a lack 
of personnel, and given the amount of students looking for advice on 
jobs, rather few people was there to answer questions.
I can confirm that the conference is a place to talk of a wide range of 
careers. Yet, only few talks concerned humanities and that set aside a 
number of students who have no interest in jobs related to science. For 
future reference I suggest we divide students from our college into 
smaller groups and send them to a larger variety of conferences that 
could be more suitable for their future.
*"The international Development Agency has given our town a grant to be 
spent on improving transport and housing facilities. The Planning 
Director invites you to send a proposal outlining any problems with 
existing transport and housing facilities and explaining how they can be 
improved. A decision can then be made about how the money should be spent"*
To the Planning Director of the Town
As a head representative of “Better life in X.”, a small citizens’ 
association set up over ten years ago in our beloved town, I feel 
entitled to give advice and draft a proposal on how to spend the grant 
provided by the International Development Agency.
1) Improving bus transport. Recent polls proved that over 30% of X.’s 
population uses buses daily as favourite  means to get to work. Rumor 
has it that an underground railway is being planned. We member of this 
association think that too much money would be wasted on the 
infrastructure needed. Improving the bus service is less expensive and 
pollution could be strictly controlled by buying hybrid buses.
2) Building new facilities for the handicapped. Population in X is 
getting older and older and some 3% of our fellow citizens cannot move 
without the aid of a wheelchair. Our infrastructures for these people is 
highly inadequate and below required standards. Nearly a third of the 
grant should be spent in boosting our infrastructures for the handicapped.
3) Improving electricity cables in South-Western area. As absurd as it 
may sound, about 60% of households in South-West X. are currently 
experiencing frequent blackouts, resulting in huge problems for the 
population living in that area. In addition, we feel to point out that 
in the very same area concentrate many of the major factories of the 
town, to which lack of electricity is bringing conspicuous losses in 
productivity. We believe that 30% of the grant should be spent on new 
cables.

 cables.
I don't think this is within the remit of the project.

> productivity.
"and the lack of electricity is bringing about conspicuous productivity 
losses"? Ma no mi piace molto...
Comunque, grazie ancora per l'aiuto. Il writing e lo speaking sono le 
prove che temo di piï¿½, non a torto.

 the main factories of the town are based?
ok

 il tono e' assurdo. "amici! romani! concittadini!"
Capisco. Forse in italiano ancora ci sta... "i nostri concittadini" 
sicuramente, "noi membri dell'associazione" un po' meno in effetti. 
Questa ï¿½ piï¿½ una differenza culturale che stilistica forse.
Ok, grazie mille ancora per i suggerimenti. Temo che tra un po' metterï¿½ 
qualche altro testo, nella speranza di non rompere troppo le scatole...

 stata grandiosa", ma tant'ï¿½...
In inglese, quando si descrive qualcosa o si esprime la propria 
opinione, si esagera sempre in positivo. Verrebbe da pensare che sia una 
cosa tutta americana, e invece no. Un'australiana che conosco ï¿½ maestra 
in questo e mi viene quindi da pensare che lo facciano anche in UK.
Vocabolario pratico:
era cosï¿½ cosï¿½ -> I think it was all right /  I liked it.
era carino -> it was good / it was cool
era bello -> it was great! It was awesome!
mi ï¿½ piaciuto -> I loved it
mi ï¿½ piaciuto molto -> it was the best ____ ever!
bene -> cool!
che figata! -> that is so cool!
Una volta che sai la grammatica, la pronuncia, millemila vocaboli, 
bisogna imparare anche a /pensare/ come i madrelingua, e questo lo trovo 
abbastanza difficile. Non sempre, se in italiano diresti una cosa, puoi 
dire l'equivalente in inglese, senza alcun "filtro". Non mi vengono in 
mente altri esempi, spero quindi di essermi fatto capire.
:-)
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.

 mente altri esempi[...]
There you go:
in an English-speaking country, you should say "I'm sorry" no less than 
100 times a day.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.

Enrico il Pentolaio ha scritto:

...and you might never really mean it...

 ....and you might never really mean it...
Yeah.  Ci sono casi in cui basterebbe non dire niente, o dire "ops", o 
accennare un sorriso, ma qua si divertono a dire "I'm sorry" in ogni 
momento.  A parte questo, che alla fine non dï¿½ fastidio, rimango sempre 
colpito da come siano sbrigativi i miei coetanei (o anchi gli altri? non 
so) nel congedarsi.  In Italia, da me, si aggiunge sempre qualcosa ad un 
semplice "ciao!". Ad esempio:"fammi sapere per..." o " ci vediamo la 
prossima settimana" o "grazie per..." o anche solo una frase simpatica 
per salutarsi.  Qua un "bye" o un "see you" secco, e chi s'ï¿½ visto s'ï¿½ 
visto. Una volta ho provato a dire "let me know about...", ma non ho 
avuto troppo successo.
Ho giï¿½ detto piï¿½ volte che ho un gruppo di americani a cui insegno 
italiano senza chiedere niente. Oh, manco uno che alla fine di un 
incontro mi ringrazi. All'inizio ci restavo un po' male, poi c'ho fatto 
l'abitudine.  Ora c'ï¿½ rimasta solo una ragazza, l'altra ï¿½ in scambio a 
Bologna, e quando l'accompagno alla porta d'uscita del mio residence 
hall, ha sempre una gran fretta d'andarsene. We'll talk on facebook, see 
ya!  Ok...
I think Joseph asked me this a couple of weeks ago, but I forgot to 
answer: I never got to finish watching La Meglio Gioventï¿½.  As much as I 
like it, it is too long and depressing for... teaching purposes. Now 
that I have only one student it's better than before, but I think I 
should watch something more... fun. Last week, for instance, we watched 
"notte prima degli esami", which she really liked.  I still don't know 
why she doesn't understand everything, being a spanish (almost native) 
speaker and all, but still, she studies a lot for her Italian class, and 
that's good. This week we'll be just talking for a couple of hours, 
which always helps.
Ciao,
Enrico il Pentolaio.


Non sono mai stato in America, ma parlando sporadicamente con americani 
ï¿½ una cosa che ho notato anch'io. In compenso vengo sempre ringraziato a 
profusione se do un aiuto di qualche tipo.
E' un fatto culturale: se accompagno qualcuno alla porta, mi puï¿½ 
capitare di passare anche 5 minuti buoni per concludere tutta la fase di 
'commiato'. Forse noi italiani vogliamo creare una fase intermedia prima 
di salutare qualcuno, per rendere il tutto piï¿½ graduale... o forse ci 
piace di piï¿½ perderci in queste cose.

You are the secretary of the student committee at an international 
college. The Principal is planning an Open Day and has asked you for 
your comments on a programme of events. Read the email from the 
Principal and write a report making recommendation and justifying your 
choices
“The open day must provide publicity for the college – and be 
interesting! What do you think of these ideas
-opening speech -  me (history of college) OR former student (memories 
of the college life)=
- canteen open to the public OR international dishes cooked by students
- do you think it would be a good idea to give demonstration lessons?
- could you suggest a suitable student to show visitors around”
o-o-o-o-o-o-o
Dear Mr X,
With reference to your email regarding the Open Day, I have some ideas I 
would like to share with you.
The opening speech should be addressed by a former student. Talks about 
the memories of past college life sounds much more appealing to our 
audience – which is supposedly made up by our prospective students. 
Although history of college is a more appropriate topic from an academy 
point of view, what these students are really interested in are the 
issues they will face soon if they apply.
Even though letting our students cook their traditional food from their 
country looked like a good idea, on second thought I am afraid that it 
could turn out to be a disaster, since we have never checked our 
students’ cooking skills! I think our canteen will suffice and the staff 
is qualified for that.
As far as our academic tradition is concerned, I suppose that 
demonstrative lessons could be given by our best teachers in each 
discipline, so we should check out soon who among them is willing to 
volunteer and to prepare specific lessons suitable for the open day.
As for a student who shows visitors around, my suggestion is to involve 
X: she knows the college sufficiently well to be a good guide.
_______________________________________________
“Tourism – Is it bad or good for your  region?
Do you think there should be more or less tourism in your region?
What benefits does the tourist industry bring to your region?
What would be the disadvantages of increased tourism?”
o-o-o-o-o-o
The lights and shadows of tourism in X
Beautiful landscapes, light blue sea, an astonishing historical heritage 
– what else could you ask for? Yet, the region of X, whose land and sea 
is home to this beauty is still an obscure name to the ears of a great 
many tourists who annually visit our country.
As we all know tourism can make the fortune of a place: a deal of rural 
underdeveloped countries have received a huge boost once their name 
became popular among tourists. X could take an enormous advantage by 
increasing the number of its visitors: the economy of the region would 
skyrocket and new infrastructure might be built to improve the quality 
of life.
Besides, in a surging economy, the higher incomes from taxes would be 
spent on improving our regional health system, whose present conditions 
are really bad. On the other hand, tourism may not only bring in more 
money, but it would also make cultural exchanges between the inhabitants 
of X and visitors easier.
Of course, there are two sides to every story. We have been taught that 
when a place is turned into a popular destination for holidays, chances 
are it may become a hell – pollution gets worse, traffic is heavier, 
coastlines might undertake changes so radical as to be totally different 
to the visitors who once went there. At any rate, this is not the only 
way tourism is meant to be and a wealthier region is a risk worth taking