A bad trip, Milan central station, Italy.

From the site BBC News

Trip of a lifetime... for all the wrong reasons

The scene at Milan central station, Italy
The trip of a life-time? Yes... but for all the wrong reasons.

When Peter Martin arrives back home in Bangor, he plans to drop to the ground, kiss the ould sod and order Ulster fries all around.
Fries so big enough that you don't know whether to tuck in or leap over them. Being stuck in Europe is hungry work.
The lecturer and his wife, Melanie, had been in Tel Aviv for a holiday with their friends, David and Caroline McCracken from Belfast.
Finding their way back home as flights were cancelled across Europe, had the ring of an Indiana Jones adventure.
"We managed to fly from Tel Aviv to Rome... it was the only airport we could get a flight to," he said.
The scene that met their eyes at the train station in Rome was straight out of an old black and white film.
"It was an evacuation scene from World War II. It was just chaos. Taxi drivers were charging the earth... 3,000 euro to go from Paris to Rome. That's where we met Alex from Southampton. He had spent five hours in a queue at the station just to get information."
He joined them for their train journey to Milan and on over the mountains to Paris. They braved the Italian conductor from hell armed with a whistle and not afraid to use it.
"There were a few problems going over the Alps," said Peter. "On the train, you could smell something burning. The train had gone on fire... it happened twice. We all had to get off. Then, we boarded a French train and it hit a deer."
If it wasn't quite a Bambi moment, there were still thousands of travellers close to tears.
"Well, you have to laugh," he said. "Some people were really annoyed, but what's the point?"
The travellers are getting used to a surreal world: "Thousands of people are just wandering around Europe with massive suitcases," said David.
"But you get a sense of the Dunkirk spirit as everybody tries to get home."
The Martins and their friends are hoping to arrive in Calais shortly. They are hoping to get a bus to take them home to the joys of hot water, clean sheets and a decent fry.

Evidenziati in grassetto, nel testo, ci sono tutte le espressioni che descrivono questo viaggio... infernale!

Deer: cervo

Sod: suolo, zolla erbosa

To tuck in: ingozzarsi

To brave: affrontare

To wander: girovagare

Fry: frittura

Voting System in Uk

Voting System from web site Bbc news

Who can vote?

To be able to vote in a UK Parliamentary election, you must be:
- Aged 18 or over,
- A citizen of the UK, a Commonwealth country or the Republic of Ireland,
- Resident in a constituency and on the electoral register, and Not in a category barred from voting (see below).
- In addition, British citizens who have lived abroad for up to 20 years may vote, and voters in Northern Ireland must have lived in the constituency for the previous three months.

There are certain categories of people not allowed to vote:
- Members of the House of Lords. The ejection of most hereditary peers from the Lords in 1999 means that they will be able to vote - and stand - for the first time in a general election.
-Those in prison.
- People convicted of electoral malpractice are barred for five years.
- Echoing the rather arcane language of the legislation, "idiots" may not vote and "lunatics" only during their lucid periods. Those compulsorily detained in psychiatric hospitals, for example, cannot vote.

Who can be a candidate?

There is no single document or law which defines who can stand for election as Member of Parliament.
Essentially, however, candidates must be over the age of 21 and be citizens of the UK, the Republic of Ireland or the Commonwealth.
The lack of clarity extends even to the qualifying age - it is not set down whether candidates have to be 21 by the date the election is called, or close of nominations, or polling day itself.
Those banned from becoming MPs include:
- Members of the House of Lords,
- Undischarged bankrupts,
- Seriously mentally ill people,
- Prisoners serving sentences of more than one year,
- Those guilty of electoral malpractice in the last 5-10 years,
- Traitors - ie those guilty of treason and not pardoned,
- Certain people holding offices of profit under the Crown (including holders of judicial office, civil servants, members of the armed forces, or the police forces, members of the legislature of any country or territory outside the Commonwealth, Government-nominated directors of commercial companies).
- Clergy of the Church of England, the Church of Scotland, the Church of Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church.

The clergy ban will be in force unless the Removal of Clergy Disqualification Bill receives the royal assent before parliament is prorogued. The bill removes the ban on all past and current clergy standing, unless they are also members of the House of Lords.

Easter, improve your English

Un modo facile e divertente per imparare nuovi vocaboli è seguire delle istruzioni in Inglese, cioè fare qualcosa che ci diverte leggendo come fare (how to) da alcuni siti inglesi.

Ecco allora delle idee per la Pasqua, ormai alle porte.

Iniziamo con delle barzellette (Jokes):

Is it true that bunnies have good eyesight? Well you never see a bunny wearing glasses, do you?

What did the grey rabbit say to the blue rabbit? Cheer up! (C'è un gioco di parole tra BLUE colore e BLUE malinconico)

Continuiamo con dei lavoretti pasquali (da fare anche con i bambini):

- a easter basket made with small potato chip can (like Pringles)

- origami bunny (What's an origami?Origami is the art of paper folding. (The most strict definition precludes cutting the paper. Read HERE )

- handmade easter cards

Infine, ecco una buonissima ricetta per realizzare uova di cioccolata!

Ingredients:
1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup butter or margarine

1/2 cup milkmixed colored candies

1 cup walnuts chopped

chocolate pudding

1 lb powdered sugar

20 marshmellows

5 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted and cooled

How to make chocolate easter eggs:
-you will need melted butter. so take a 3 qt. saucepan and melt butter into it.
- when the butter is melted stir in pudding mix and blend until it gets smooth.
- you should gradually stir in milk.
- you need to cook this mixture over medium heat and keep stirring constantly.
- a little later the mixture will get very thick and start boiling.
- when it is sufficiently thick it will leave the sides of the pan and then remove the saucepan from heat.
- then you should add to it powdered sugar and vanilla. mix well until smooth and stir in walnuts.
- you should allow the mixture cool so that it is stiff enough to hold its desired shape.
so the moment the mixture is stiff enough shape it into 12 eggs, using about 2 t. for each.
- now place them on the waxed paper-lined baking sheet and refrigerate for 30 min.
- after 30 min. you need to dip each egg in cooled chocolate and place them on a cooling rack over waxed paper.
- finally it is time to arrange marshmallow flowers over the eggs. but make sure that you do it before the chocolate sets.

marshmallow flowers
- firstly cut mini marshmallows in thirds crosswise.
- then dip cut side of each piece into colored sugar.
- in order to resemble flowers you need to arrange 5 pieces, sugared side up, on each egg.
- store in the fridge.

Verbs:

to melt: sciogliere, fondere

to stir: mescolare

to blend: mischiare

to cook: cucinare, cuocere

to start: iniziare

to boil: bollire

to remove: rimuovere

to add: aggiungere

to mix:mischiare, mescolare

to allow:permettere

to shape: dare forrma

to refrigerate: refrigerare

to dip: immergere

to arrange:sistemare, predisporre

to set: sistemare

to cut: tagliare

to store: sistemare/mettere via

Approfondimenti:

- Easter Wikipedia

- Religious easter: what is the Significance

- Faberge Eggs, History Channel

Amanda Knox murder cas "has no holes"

Con questo post inauguriamo una nuova sezione di questo blog: cosa scrivono all'estero di noi? Ogni settimana, le notizie italiane con gli occhi degli inglesi e degli americani. Per avere una visione a 360°

Amanda Knox murder case 'has no holes'

Knox, an American from Seattle, was jailed for 26 years.
Judges in Italy have published their reasons for convicting Amanda Knox and her ex-boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito for the murder of Meredith Kercher.

The judges said the murder happened without planning or grudge.
They said there were no holes or inconsistency in the evidence and that the evidence suggested there was a sexual motive in the case.

The pair were found guilty in December of killing Ms Kercher, from Coulsdon, Surrey, in Perugia in 2007.
Both Knox and Sollecito are appealing against their convictions; Knox on the grounds that the forensic evidence against her was flawed.

In the 427-page opinion document, Italian judges Giancarlo Massei and Beatrice Cristini say all their decisions were based on the forensic evidence presented.
Miss Kercher had been studying Italian on an exchange programme.
They say, for example, that one footprint found in Miss Kercher's bathroom belonged to Sollecito, whilst another in a bedroom came from Knox.

And they explain, at length, why the footprint in the bedroom is a woman's.

BBC Rome correspondent Duncan Kennedy said this suggested they had dismissed some of the more lurid claims of the prosecution, especially concerning Knox, over things like her cart-wheeling and giggling in the police station in the days after the murder.

In their explanation, the judges also say that Knox and Sollecito had staged a fake break-in to make it look as though Miss Kercher was killed by an intruder.


In part of the report, the judges suggest a sexual motive lay behind the killing.
They say that Knox and Sollecito went to Meredith Kercher's house with a third man, Rudy Guede, a small-time drug dealer, who was convicted of murder at a separate trial.

The report says that, under the influence of drugs, Knox and Sollecito "actively participated" in helping Guede subdue Miss Kercher so that Guede could "give vent to his lustful impulses" in what they called his "evil act".

The motive, the judges say, was "erotic sexual violence", where Knox and Sollecito had probably found holding Miss Kercher down was "exciting".

But, in their interpretation of events, the judges say this was a murder "without planning, without any animosity or grudge against the victim".

They say the death was the result of what they call, "purely random circumstances" that Knox and Sollecito had not gone specifically to kill Miss Kercher.

This view is reinforced by another extract from the judges' report.

It says the fact that Miss Kercher's body had been covered by her attackers showed, "a sort of regret for what they had done".
Knox was jailed for 26 years and Sollecito for 25 years in December last year.

Guede, 22, was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the murder in 2008.

The judges also noted that early on in the investigation, Knox had "freely accused" another man, Patrick Lumumba, knowing he was innocent.

Miss Kercher, 21, a Leeds University student, had been sharing a house with Knox, who was also a student, on a year abroad in the Umbrian hilltop town.

Bbc.co.uk

Vocabulary

to be jailed: essere imprigionato

judge: giudice/magistrato

evidence: prova

guilty: colpevole

forensic: forense, legale

regret: rimorso

investigation: indagine, ricerca

Antony and Cleopatra

Appunti sulla tragedia Antony and Cleopatra di Willliam Shakespeare, edizione di John Wilders, The Arden Shakespeare.

Shakespeare probably completed Antony and Cleopatra towards the end of 1606 or early in 1607.
The story had been told in detail by the first-century biographer Plutarch and his account translated into both French and English. Virgil had referred to it in the eight book of the Aeneid, Horace had written an ode on the courage and dignity of Cleopatra’s suicide and Chaucer had described her death in “The legend of good Women”.
Antony and Cleopatra shift rapidly from tenderness to fury and grief and the emotions of the one are largely determined by those of the other. We are willing to believe in their love because the violence of their frequent quarrels testifies to their total absorption on each other.

Antony and Cleopatra is a public as well as a private drama in which Antony and Octavius compete for mastery over the Roman Empire which, at the time, extended from Britain in the west to what is now Turkey in the east, and the battles in which this contest was fought out occupy much of the third and fourth acts. Caesar ultimately wins and Antony loses because of the kind of people they are and because of the irresistible power which Cleopatra exercises over Antony. This gives to the relationship between the lovers a sense of unusual weight and risk.

Is typical of their self- dramatization that when Antony distributes the countries of the eastern empire to Cleopatra and her children he does so in a public ceremony at which the two of them sit in “chairs of gold” on a silver platform and she is decked out in the habiliments of the goddess Isis.



The question of structure
In Antony and Cleopatra there are constant shifts of location.
Throughout the ply, Roman attitudes and principles, expressed mainly by Octavius Caesar, are placed in opposition to the Egyptian, represented chieftly by Cleopatra.
Rome and Egypt “represent crucial moral choices and they function as symbolic locales in a manner not unlike Henry James’s Europe and America” (Charney)
For the Romans the ideal is measured in masculine, political, pragmatic, military terms, the subservience of the individual to the common good of the state, of personal pleasure to public duty.
Alexandria is a predominantly female society for which the ideal is measured in terms of the intensity of emotion, the subservience of social responsibility to the demands of feeling.
Caesar regards his “great competitor” as a man who has betrayed his own ideals but Cleopatra sees him as a man who has become at one with herself.
Into the characters there are different feelings depending on the mood and circumstances in which characters find themselves.
Antony – Cleopatra: enchanting queen/triple-turned whore.
Cleopatra- Antony: horrible villain/ a proper man
Caesar-Antony: old ruffian/mate in empire, brother



Images of instability
Shakespeare seems to be creating his own vocabulary to establish the feeling of disintegration in the Roman world.
Caesar, foreseeing that his own and Antony’s temperaments are so incompatible that their friendship is unlike to last, longs for a “hoop” which will hold them “staunch” or watertight; Antony, ashamed of his lost reputation and his pitifully botched suicide, hopes that his fame as “the greatest prince o’th’world” will remain intact, and Enobarbus recognizes that a servant willing to remain loyal to a “fallen lord” will “(earn) a place i’th’story”.

Notable quotes in Romeo And Juliet

Qui di seguito riportiamo alcuni brani della tragedia di Shakespeare "Romeo and Juliet".
Leggi e associa le frasi con il personaggio che le pronuncia. Poi prendi il testo e controlla!

- Eyes, look your last! Arms, take your last embrace! and, lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death

- if you had the strength Of twenty men, it would dispatch you straight

- A glooming peace this morning with it brings; The sun, for sorrow, will not show his head Go hence, to have more talk of these sad things; Some shall be pardon'd, and some punished: For never was a story of more woe Than this of Juliet and her Romeo

- Beautiful tyrant! fiend angelical! Dove-feather'd raven! wolvish-ravening lamb! Despised substance of divinest show! Just opposite to what thou justly seem'st, A damned saint, an honorable villain! O nature, what hadst thou to do in hell, When thou didst bower the spirit of a fiend In mortal paradise of such sweet flesh? Was ever book containing such vile matter So fairly bound? O that deceit should dwell In such a gorgeous palace!

- Sometime she driveth o’er a soldier’s neck, And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats, Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades, Of healths five-fathom deep; and then anon Drums in his ear, at which he starts and wakes, And being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two And sleeps again.

- Upon hearing that Romeo has killed her cousin, Tybalt, Juliet both curses and blesses her husband, Romeo.

- In Mercutio's "Queen Mab" speech, how a person's life experiences come back in dreams.

- The apothecary warns Romeo of the strength of the poison.

- Just before he takes the poison, takes his farewell of Juliet with a kiss.

- Prince Escalus delivers the last speech of the play

Look this video: Romeo+Juliet Soundtrack. Enjoy it!

Imperativo

Studia l'Imperativo con Cantaimpara e Englis Gratis:
l'uso dell'imperativo in Inglese può essere appreso facilmente con questa canzone tratta dal Muiscal "Jesus Christ Superstar".
Un moderno Erode, decisamente fashion-victim, mette alla prova Gesù ordinandogli dei prodigi. Trova i verbi all'imperativo e segui il link!

Ecco il testo:

Jesus, I am overjoyed to meet you face to face.

You've been getting quite a name all around the place.

Healing cripples, raising from the dead.

And now I understand you're God, At least, that's what you've said.

So, you are the Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ.

Prove to me that you're divine; change my water into wine.

That's all you need do, then I'll know it's all true.

Come on, King of the Jews.

Jesus, you just won't believe the hit you've made around here.

You are all we talk about, the wonder of the year.

oh, what a pity if it's all a lie. Still, I'm sure that you can rock the cynics if you tried.

So, you are the Christ, you're the great Jesus Christ.

Prove to me that you're no fool; walk across my swimming pool.

If you do that for me, then I'll let you go free.

Come on, King of the Jews. I only ask what I'd ask any superstar.

What is it that you have got that puts you where you are.

I am waiting, yes I'm a captive fan.

I'm dying to be shown that you are not just any man.

So, if you are the Christ, yes the great Jesus Christ Feed my household with this bread.

You can do it on your head. Or has something gone wrong. Jesus, why do you take so long?

Oh come on, King of the Jews.

Hey! Aren't you scared of me Christ?

Mr. Wonderful Christ? You're a joke. You're not the Lord. You are nothing but a fraud.

Take him away. He's got nothing to say!

Get out you King of the, Get out King of the, Oh get out you King of the Jews!

Get out of here! Get out of here you, get out of my life.

E qui troverai il video di Erode