INGLESE

(orsola.petillo@unicampania.it)
082327478
Orario di ricevimento
Martedì ore 10-12
A richiesta, tramite e-mail, è possibile fissare un appuntamento al di fuori del giorno di ricevimento;
a seconda del calendario didattico, giorno e orari di ricevimento possono variare, si consiglia di controllare
gli avvisi.

Mary at University (Riassunti)

[Scegliere 4 episodi da riferire all’esame]

Episode 1 – Leaving home

Mary has been offered a place to study for a degree in Business at the University of Studies, which is one of
the best university in UK. Her parents are proud of her but worried too. Her mom is afraid that she might
meet bad people and not eat properly, while her dad keeps on listing some things that she might forget to
pack up, like her clothes, books, credit card and cash. She also receives a phone call from her grandma who
whishes her luck. At the end of the episode we see Mary going away on a taxi leaving behind her teddy
bear, and her father getting a little bit emotional.

Episode 2 – Just landed

In episode 2 Mary arrives in London, but as soon as she arrives, she gets lost. She decides to ask some
passers-by for directions, but nobody seems to be helpful, until she meets a boy named Daniel who tells
her that he’s heading to the same University and that it’s his first day too. He looks very confident and sure
about where to go, so Mary decides to follow him, but at the end they both get lost and need to call a taxi.

Epidose 3 – Roomate
Mary finally arrives at University and finds her room, the room 101. Here she meets Abi, the girl she’s
gonna share the room with. She looks a little bit messy and not really interested in studying; in fact, parties
and guys are the first two things she speaks about. She tells Mary not to worry about her clothes on the
floor and stuff on the desk, but since Mary needs to have some space for herself in the room, she decides
to speak up and set some ground rules. She asks for some space on the desk and half of the room, adding
that she’d like the room to be a bit more tidy. Abi answers that she looks a bit bossy, but she’s ok with that
and they’re going to get along very well. At the end of the episode Daniel enters the room, Abi asks Mary
who’s that loser and tells her that she’s going to introduce her to lots of new guys at the Freshers’ Week.

Episode 4 – Freshers’ Week

Mary attends the Freshers’ Week, an important event where new students can meet new people and find
out how things works at University. As soon as she arrives, a lot of students invite her to join their clubs and
she finds a bit difficult to say no, even if those clubs are not her “cup of tea”. At a certain point she meets
Daniel, who speaks about the book club being so boring, but actually Mary likes reading, so she decides to
sign up to that club. At the end of the event she attends to the first university party, where Abi is trying to
get her drunk. Mary accidentally drops her glass spilling the drink on someone’s new shoes. The man looks
at bit angry about that. Mary apologizes introducing herself and finds out that he’s Professor Not, her new
lecturer.
Episode 5 – Registration
Mary needs to do something before her lessons begins: she needs to go to administration to register and
fill in some forms. At the desk she meets Sharon who gives her a lot of papers like one that asks for D-O-B
and a plagiarism declaration. Mary doesn’t really know what to do and needs some help, so goes back to
Sharon and gently asks for suggestions. Sharon, who looked a bit rude at the beginning, now calmly
explains everything to Mary, showing her a form where she has to indicate her next-of-kin, a person to
contact if somethings happens to her. She also helps her with a form that allows her to get a student card,
an important card to obtain discounts and access the student nightclub. The last thing Mary is required is a
passport, but she can’t find it. Luckily, Daniel comes in help with the document she’s looking for.

Episode 6 – Lectures begin

The lectures finally begin. Mary is a bit nervous, but she’s ready for the lesson. Daniel is a little bit late, so
Prof. Not explains that punctuality is the soul of business. He goes on with more details about the concept
of business, but the lessons is not very clear to both Mary and Daniel. Daniel is very nervous and not
capable to stop Prof. Not to ask for clarifications, so he asks Mary to do so. Mary tells Prof. Not that the
lesson is interesting, but she’d like him to repeat what he said in different words. At the end Mary finds
everything to be clearer and Prof. Not tells her to get his book “Mind your own Business” from the library
and also invites her to his seminar which is held at the local pub. Mary thanks him and says she’s gonna be
there.

Episode 7 – The seminar

Mary attends the seminar Prof. Not invited her to. There are not many people because it’s raining. Sharon
from administration is there too because she’s helping with spreadsheets and photocopying. When Prof.
Not asks his first question, Daniel tries to give his answer but doesn’t let other people speak, because he’s a
bit of a chatterbox. Mary gently asks for a chance to speak and explains her idea of business. At the end of
the episode they’re all leaving the pub, but since it’s still raining, Sharon is looking for a lift home. Prof. Not
is going to help her and Mary too, but when it comes to Daniel, he tells him that his car is small and full.

Episode 8 – The library

In this episode Mary goes to the library because she needs some books for her lessons. She finds Sharon at
the desk, who explains that she’s doing different jobs because the university hasn’t got much money. Mary
asks where she can find business books but when she reaches the right section of the library she finds out
that none of the books she needs is available. She decides to go back to Sharon to ask if any of the books is
in stock. Sharon finds out that Daniel Smythe has taken them all, so Mary asks for them to be reserved
when they come in. When she finds out that they’ve been taken for three weeks she gets in panic and
reaches Abi for help. Abi looks among her first year books and finds “Mind Your Own Business”, one of the
books Mary needs. Abi has never read it and doesn’t need it, so she gives it to her and then they both head
to the canteen for dinner.

Episode 9 – Dinner time

In the canteen Mary needs a little bit of help because she’s vegetarian and she can’t understand the food
labels. In the meanwhile, Abi is just trying to fill her boots because the food is free. Mary asks the dinner
lady if they got any veggie stuff, but she’s not very trustworthy since she indicates the spaghetti bolognaise
which got meat in it. Thankfully, Prof. Not passes by and suggests her to try the lentil dal, an asian dish. He
explain that he’s there to eat out with his wife and also gives Mary a spare red ticket for dinner because
she’s only got a blue one that’s valid for breakfast. At the end of the episode Daniel comes in a rush talking
about an idea about business and spills Prof. Not’s lentil dal all over his suit. Prof. Not gets angry and goes
away, while Mary invites Daniel to share her food.
Episode 10 – Getting down to business
In this episode we see Mary attending her second lesson. Prof. Not is asking for an assignment and is
explaining to his students how he wants it to be done, but the instructions are not very clear. Mary asks for
more details about the theme of the assignment, if she has to put text or photos in it and how many words
she needs to type and, last but not least, what’s the deadline and how she’s supposed to send it. Prof. Not
says that 2.000 words is a good number and that she can drop the work to his house or just email it to his
address; he also sets the deadline in two weeks. After the lesson Daniel invites Mary out for a coffee and
she’s about to accept, but Prof. Not is passing by and tells her about a workshop he’s doing in fifteen
minutes in the library. She accepts to go there and asks Daniel to join her; he sadly accepts to follow her
changing his plans.

Episode 11 – Study skills

In this episode Prof. Not is holding a workshop about study skills but his techniques are a bit alternative,
consisting in holding each other’s hands in a circle with blindfolds on and staying “in the right zone”. Mary
wants to give some advice because she read a book about the topic. She suggests to study every day and
choose a regular place and time to do it. Furthermore, she suggests to take short breaks and to plan time
and goals. A tech student manages to hear Mary’s words and is impressed by her commitment, so asks her
to spend some time together comparing study notes. Mary accepts the invitation and decides to meet the
boy in the bar later that day, while Daniel seems to get a little bit jealous.

Episode 12 – Reboot!
Mary is working on her assignment in the library when Daniel arrives. They start talking about their works,
then Daniel notices Mary’s laptop and says that it’s a little bit ancient. Mary disagrees but in the exact
moment she shows her work to Daniel, the computer freezes and stops working. She panics because she
hasn’t saved her work yet, but Daniel says that there’s nothing to worry about and that she only needs to
reboot it. As soon as Daniel touches the laptop, the screen goes black and Mary panics even more. She
notices that the same tech student from the study skill session is in the library too and decides to ask him
for help. The boy manages to restore the work that had been saved onto the laptop memory and gives her
a memory stick to back up her assignment, but Daniel lends her his own one. The boy, whose name is
Malcolm, also asks her out for a drink. At the end of the episode Daniel is in trouble too because his laptop
won’t turn on, so he has to ask Mary for her laptop and the same memory stick he lent her; he asks if she is
gonna need them, but she won’t because she’s going out with Malcolm in the evening.

Episode 13 – Deadlines
Mary faces some problems the last day before the deadline. She must send her work to Prof. Not, but
Daniel has got the memory stick with her work on it. The only thing Mary can do is to ask Sharon for some
extra time. Sharon replies that it’s not that easy to get extra time but Mary explains that she actually wrote
the assignment and she just can’t email it that day. Sharon says that she’s going to put in a good word for
her when she sees Prof. Not but she must not let that happen again. When Mary meets Daniel and explain
the situation to him, he finds out that he hasn’t got the memory stick with him: he must have dropped it.

Episode 14 – Lost property

Mary and Daniel go to Daniel’s room to check if they can find the memory stick, but the room is too
chaotic, so they decide that it’s better if Mary goes to the lost property office while Daniel keeps on looking
for it among his stuff. At the office they say they have thousands on those, so she needs to be more
specific. The one she’s looking for is black with the name “Daniel Smythe” written on it. The caretaker can’t
find it, so Mary leaves her contact details in case it pops out. When she meets again with Daniel in the
laundrette, they get into a big surprise: while she’s helping him with his first wash, he finds the memory
stick among his dirty clothes.
Episode 15 – Feedback
In this episode Mary is in Prof. Not’s office to get a feedback from him about her work. He tells her that her
work during the term has been average and that she needs to work on expressing ideas more clearly. Mary
doesn’t agree and replies that she actually likes him as a teacher, but she can’t accept the evaluation, so
she asks what are the evidence for his feedback. Prof. Not show her the D minus she got for her assignment
and she begins to cry because she knows how much efforts she put in it. Sharon enters the room to bring
some biscuits and when she sees Mary in those condition, she offers her a cup of tea. Outside of the room,
Sharon finds out that she gave Prof. Not the wrong reports and the one he read was the one written for
Daniel. In that moment Daniel arrives, impatient to hear what Prof. Not has got to say about him,
convinced that he’s done a good job. Mary and Sharon laugh while he enters the office.

Episode 16 – A home from home

During this episode, the students are going home for Christmas holidays. Abi is waiting to be picked up
from her boyfriend and Daniel is about to go home by train, but Mary didn’t manage to book a flight in
time, so she’s going to stay at Univeristy. Abi is sad for her friend but since Daniel has got a spare bed at his
house she suggests that they could spend the holidays together. Mary is happy to do so if it’s not a trouble,
so Daniel makes a phone call to her mom.
When they arrive at Daniel’s house, Daniel’s mom thinks that Mary is her son’s girlfriend and she’s happy
about it because she is such a lovely girl. Mary thanks Mrs Smythe for the hospitality and the compliments
but also makes clear that Daniel and her are not a couple.
Suddenly someone rings the bell: Prof. Not and Sharon are at the door. He asked Abi where Mary was
because he wanted to apologize for the wrong report and bring her a present. Daniel’s parents also
prepared some gift for Mary, while Sharon made some mince pies. Mary opens the presents: Prof. Not gave
her his new book “Funny business”, Daniel’s parents gave her a woolly scarf and mittens, while Daniel
gifted her a new memory stick with her name written on it. Mary is really happy to spend holidays with
them and at the end of the episode they all stay together for dinner.

Episode 17 – Take note

At the University the term is starting again and Mary and Daniel are attending a new Prof. Not’s lesson
about marketing. Mary can’t keep up with Prof. Not’s rhythm because he’s too fast, so she asks him to slow
down and repeat. The narrator suggests that Mary could find useful taking some notes because she can’t
write everything down, so she asks Prof. Not some advice about taking them. He says she only needs a pen
and a notebook, while Daniel suggest to use a voice recorder so she can listen back to the lesson after it’s
finished. Prof. Not says that notes are more useful and that he’s gonna emphasise the parts to jot down. He
also suggests to write down quotes “word-for-word” and to use abbreviations and symbols if needed. Any
information gap can be filled up at a later moment. After the lessons Prof. Not goes to a yoga class while
Daniel’s got a trouble with its voice record which batteries are dead. Mary comes in help offering him her
notes to copy.

Epidose 18 - Emergency
In the last episode Mary is a bit overwhelmed by studying so her roomate Abi suggests her to have a break.
They both go to the Bikram yoga class and there they find Prof. Not and Sharon too. Abi says that yoga
helps keeping her fit and losing weight. The yoga teacher welcomes everyone and tells them to breathe
deeply, stretch their arms and bend over. Prof. Not’s got some problems while doing that and gets stuck.
Mary calls the medical centre for help saying there’s an emergency and that Prof. Not’s got hurt and needs
help as soon as possible. They recommend to chill out until they arrive and take him away in an ambulance.
Mary tells Abi that she has enjoyed the yoga class and is going to join the yoga club. Daniel overhears the
conversation and decides to join the club too.
Rubrica (fonte: Macmillan Dictionary)
In caso di termini con più significati, sono riportati quelli incontrati durante le lezioni.

▪ Actually (adverb) (in realtà) = used for emphasizing what is really true or what really happened.
▪ Advice (noun uncountable) (consiglio) = an opinion that someone gives you about the best thing to
do in a particular situation.
▪ Averages (noun) (medie) = the amount, level, standard etc that is typical of a group of people or
things.
▪ Behaviour (noun) (comportamento) = the way that someone behaves.
▪ Bias (noun) (pregiudizio) = an attitude that you have that makes you treat someone in a way that is
unfair or different from the way you treat other people.
▪ Blast (noun) (scoppio, festa) = a very enjoyable experience.
▪ Bookworm (noun countable, informal) (topo di biblioteca) = someone who enjoys reading books
and spends a lot of time doing it.
▪ Bullying (noun uncountable) (bullismo) = behaviour that frightens or hurts someone smaller or
weaker.
▪ Calm (adjective) (calmo) = not affected by strong emotions such as excitement, anger, shock, or
fear.
▪ Carry on (phrasal verb) (continuare) = to continue doing something.
▪ Characteristic (noun countable) (caratteristica) = a particular quality or feature that is typical of
someone or something.
▪ Committed (adjective) (impegnato) = loyal to a belief, organization, or group, and willing to work
hard for it.
▪ Computer (noun countable) (computer) = a machine that stores programs and information in
electronic form and can be used for a variety of processes, for examples writing, calculating, and
communicating on the internet.
▪ Currently (adverb) (attualmente) = at the present time.
▪ Emotional (adjective) (emozionale) = relating to feelings and the way that they affect your life.
▪ European (adjective) (europeo) [richiede l’articolo a, NON an] = relating to Europe, or its people or
culture.
▪ Graduate (noun countable) (studente della magistrale) = someone who has finished their studies at
a high school, college, or university.
▪ Halo effect (noun singular) (effetto alone) = the way that an impression created in one area
influences the way people feel about another area.
▪ Hand out (phrasal verb transitive) (distribuire) = to give things to different people in a group
▪ Impact (noun) (impatto) = an effect, or an influence.
▪ Laundrette (noun countable) (lavanderia) = a place where people go to wash clothes in machines
that they pay to use.
▪ Laundry (noun) (bucato) = dirty clothes that you are washing, or clean clothes that have just been
washed.
▪ Luggage (non countable) (bagagli) = bags and suitcases that you take on a journey.
▪ Mushy (adjective) (molliccio, piagnucolone) = sad and emotional.
▪ Passer-by (noun countable) (passante) = someone who is walking past a place, especially when an
accident or violent event happens.
▪ pretend (verb) (fingere) = to behave in a particular way because you want someone to believe that
something is true when it is not.
▪ Psychology (noun uncountable) (psicologia) = the study of the mind and how it affects behaviour.
 ▪ Recognize (verb transitive) (riconoscere) [fare attenzione alla pronuncia] = to know who the person
is or what the thing is that you are seeing, hearing etc because you have seen, heard, etc them
before.
▪ Stalker (noun countable) (molestatore) = someone who develops an extremely strong interest in
another person and follows and watches them all the time in a threatening way.
▪ Stereotype (countable noun) (stereotipo) = a very firm and simple idea about what a particular type
of person or thing is like.
▪ Successful (adjective) (riuscito) = achieving the result that you want.
▪ Tearful (adjective) (lacrimoso) = crying, or feeling as if you want to cry.
▪ Tidy (adjective) (ordinato) = a tidy place looks nice because everything is in the correct place or
arranged or is organized properly.
▪ Tip (noun) (punta, suggerimento, mancia, discarica) = a dirty or untidy place.
▪ To hurt (verb) (ferire) = used for telling someone that they should do something.
▪ Trait (noun countable) (tratto) = a particular quality in someone’s character.
▪ Undergraduate (noun countable) (studente della triennale) = a student who is studying for a first
degree at a college or university. A student who already has a first degree is a graduate.
▪ University (noun countable/uncountable) (università) = an educational institution where students
study for degrees and where academic research is done.
▪ Untidy (adjective) (disordinato) = an untidy place does not look nice because many things are in
places where they should not be. The usual American word is “messy”.

[Oltre alla rubrica, per l’esame sono necessarie 12 ore di utilizzo effettivo della piattaforma Rosetta Stone
(da dimostrare tramite invio dello screen alla prof.), il completamento dei testi e test dei moduli del libro
(con annesso completamento degli esercizi “use of english” contraddistinti dalle bandierine) e gli altri
contenuti richiesti e indicati sul programma d’esame].
Silent Letters
Alcune lettere possono essere silenti (non vengono pronunciate) in diverse parole. Di seguito alcuni esempi
per ogni lettera:

A
Ready – Read – Speak – Bread – Deaf – Hear – Death
B
Debt – Doubt – Climb – Comb – Crumbs – Dumb – Numb
C
Muscles – Conscience – Scene – Obscene – Disciple – Evanescent
D
Wednesday – Handkerchief – Sandwich – Edge – Badge – Gadget – Handsome
E
Write – Fine – Alive – Hate – Hope – Hide – Side – Wine – Quite
G
Foreign – Champagne – Sign – Design – Resign – Consign – Ensign – Sigh – Weigh – Weight – Light – Sight –
Daughter
H
Why – What – Where – When – School – Ghost – Stomach
I
Fruit – Juice – Friend – Suit – Suitable – Parliament – Business
K
Knowledge – Knee – Knock – Knickers – Know – Knife
L
Would – Could – Should – Salmon – Calm – Half – Talk – Walk – Folk
M
Mnemonic
N
Autumn – Hymn – Column – Damn – Condemn
P
Psychic – Psychology – Psychiatry – Pneumonia – Pneumatic
R
Fork – Bird – Cart – Father
S
Isle – Island – Aisle
T
Thistle – Whistle – Castle – Listen – Seatbelt – Fasten – Often – Christmas – Ballet – Gourmet
U
Guitar – Guest – Guess – Guide – Guilty – Tongue – Colleague – Dialogue – Catalogue – League
W
Write – Wrong – Wrap – Wrist – Wrestle – Whole – Whose – Whom – Answer – Sword
Z
(French words) Rendez-vous – Chez
F–J–O–Q–V–X–Y
Non ci sono casi rilevanti per queste lettere.
Parts of speech
Le diverse parti del discorso appartengono alle 8 categorie qui sotto descritte (con relativi esempi):
Irregular verbs
Conoscere il paradigma dei seguenti verbi irregolari.
Per la pronuncia si rimanda a questo link.
Verb Tenses
Uno specchietto riassuntivo dei tempi verbali in inglese:

[Ai fini d’esame è richiesta almeno la conoscenza di present simple, present continuous, simple past,
present perfect, simple future]. Per un ripasso della costruzione della frase specifica per ogni tempo verbale
si rimanda a questo link.
Per la costruzione del futuro, si può ricorrere a diversi modi:
Il condizionale, invece, si divide in diverse tipologie [il third conditional non sarà oggetto d’esame]:
Passive
Le forme passive si costruiscono con il verbo “to be” coniugato nello stesso tempo del verbo in forma attiva
+ il participio passato del verbo.
A seguire un prospetto [ai fini d’esame ci interessano solo le forme passive del presente e del passato]:
Reported speech
A seguire un prospetto per la costruzione del discorso indiretto tramite l’utilizzo del verbo “to say”:

Avverbi di tempo e locuzioni vengono trasformati:

Modal verbs
I verbi modali sono una categoria particolare di verbi essenziali per esprimere concetti specifici. Oltre a
quelli riportati negli schemi a seguire, fanno parte della lista anche will e would.
Possiedono tre caratteristiche fondamentali:
• affiancano il verbo all’infinito senza la preposizione “to” (es. must go);
• non hanno un infinito né un participio;
• la terza persona singolare non termina in “-s”.