Sessione ordinaria 1990Seconda Prova Scritta
Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione
ESAMI DI LICENZA LINGUISTICA SPERIMENTALE
LINGUA INGLESE
(Comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)
TESTO LETTERARIO
He was a very silent man by custom. All day he hung round the cove, or upon the cliffs, with a brass telescope; all evening he sat in a corner of the parlour next the fire, and drank rum and water very strong. Mostly he would not speak when spoken to; only look up sudden and fierce, and blow through his nose like a fog-horn; and we and the people who came about our house soon learned to let him be. Every day, when he came back from his stroll, he would ask if any seafaring men had gone by along the road. At first we thought it was the want of company of his own kind that made him ask this question but at last we began to see he was desirous to avoid them. When a seaman put up at the "Admiral Benbow" (as now and then some did, making by the coast road for Bristol), he would look in at him through the curtained door before he entered the parlour; and he was always sure to be as silent as a mouse when any such was present. For me, at least, there was no secret about the matter; for I was, in a way, a sharer in his alarms. He had taken me aside one day, and promised me a silver four penny on the first of every month if I would only keep my "weather-eye open for a seafaring man with one leg", and let him know the moment he appeared. Often enough, when the first of the month came round, and I applied to him for my wage, he would only blow through his nose at me, and stare me down; but before the week was out he was sure to think better of it, bring me my four penny piece, and repeat his orders to look out for "the seafaring man with one leg". How that personage haunted my dreams, I need scarcely tell you. On stormy nights, when the wind shook the four corners of the house, and the surf roared along the cove and up the cliffs, -I would see him in a thousand forms, and with a thousand diabolical expressions. Now the leg would be cut off at the knee, now at the hip; now he was a monstrous kind of a creature who had never had but the one leg, and that in the middle of his body. To see him leap and run and pursue me over hedge and ditch was the worst of nightmares. And altogether I paid pretty dear for my monthly four penny piece, in the shape of these abominable fancies.
(from Robert Louis Stevenson, Treasure Island, Zephry Books, pp. 23-24)
Sessione ordinaria 1990
Seconda Prova Scritta
Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione
ESAMI DI LICENZA LINGUISTICA SPERIMENTALE
LINGUA INGLESE
Comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera
TESTO LETTERARIO
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
I . Describe the environment where the episode is set, and list the key words.
2.Say whether "Admiral Benbow" is a person or not, and give reasons for your opinion.
3.Define the (main) character's personality and attitude.
4.Point out the expressions revealing that the man is in a state of anxiety.
5.Who, or what, is the man afraid of
6.Make hypotheses on the possible reason for the man's fear.
7.Is the narrator outside the story or one of the characters?
8.To what extent is the narrator involved in the events described?
9.A detail in the physical description of a person seems to be extremely impressive for one of the characters: what is it?
10.What age group does the narrator belong to? Give reasons for your inference.
11.How would you define the general atmosphere of the passage?
COMPOSITION
Briefly summarize the passage and say what the idea of a treasure island suggests to your imagination.
ESAMI DI LICENZA LINGUISTICA SPERIMENTALE
SESSIONE ORDINARIA I984/85 - SECONDA PROVA SCRITTA
COMPRENSIONE E PRODUZIONE IN LINGUA STRANIERA
Once, following his father from Chatham to Devonport, they had lived in a cottage on the edge of the moors. In the succession of houses that Ralph had known, this one stood out with particular claritybecause after that house he had been sent away to school. Mummy had stillbeen with them and Daddy came every day. Wild ponies came to the stone wall at the bottom of the garden, and it had snowed. Just behindthe cottage there was a sort of shed and you could lie up there watching the flakes swirl past. You could see the first flake that lay down without melting and watch the whole ground turn white. Youcould go indoors when you were cold and look out of the window, pastthat bright copper kettle with the little blue men.
When you went to bed there was a bowl of cornflakes with sugar andcream. And the books - they stood on the shelf by the bed, leaning together, with always two or three laid flat on top because he had notbothered to put them back properly. They were dog-eared and scratched. There was the bright, shining one about Topsy and Mopsy that he neverread because it- was about-two girls, there was the- one about the Magician which you read with akind of tied-down terror, skipping pagetwenty-seven with the awful picture of the spider,there was a bookabout people who had dug things up, Egyptian things; there was The Boy's Book of Trains, The Boy's Book of Ships. Vividly they came before him; he could have reached up and touched them, could feel the weight and slow slide with which The Mammoth book for Boys would come out and slither down... Everything was all right; everything was good humoured and friendly.
(W. Golding - Lord of the Flies chapt. 7)
SESSIONE ORDINARIA I984/85 - SECONDA PROVA SCRITTA
COMPRENSIONE E PRODUZIONE IN LINGUA STRANIERA
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
- Where was Ralph’s home once?
- Why did he remember the place so well?
- What do you understand from the presence of the word “still” in line 3?
- What was Ralph’s favourite pastime in winter?
- What did he usually have for supper?
- Why didn’t Ralph care about the book on Topsy and Mopsy?
- What particularly frightened Ralph in the book about the Magician?
- What kind of childhood does the author suggest R alph had?
- What is the general tone of the passage? Humorous, serious, nostalgic, friendly, dogmatic? List some of the words that determine the tone.
- What effect does the author reach by using the pronoun “you” instead of “he” from line 5 to line 9?
COMPOSITION
What memory from your childhood is particularly vivid in your mind? Describe it in detail.
ESAMI DI LICENZA LINGUISTICA SPERIMENTALE
SESSIONE ORDINARIA 1985 - SECONDA PROVA SCRITTA
COMPRENSIONE E PRODUZIONE IN LINGUA STRANIERA
The typical West German motorist, it is said, buckles his seat belt even when no policeman is around and brakes at green pedestrian lights even with no pedestrians in sight. Once out on the country's 4,300 miles of motorway, though, the same motorist seems to become possessed. Left lanes on the two-or three-lane superhighways, by custom, are the domain of the fastest drivers. Anyone moving into them had best be prepared for the rearview mirror apparition of a Mercedes or Porsche bearing down at 125 m.p.h. flashing its headlights. Still, two weeks ago, in a remarkable break with tradition speed limits were imposed for the first time on two stretches of motorway, one between Bremen and Hamburg, and the other south of Nuremberg.
Such a draconian restriction on the hallowed freedom of West German drivers could only have happened for the gravest of reasons.
And so it was. The nation’s beloved forests, where many West Germans love to hike or hunt, are in desperate peril. Like its European neighbors, West Germany is suffering Waldsterben, or dying forests, owing to air pollution. According to the federal environmental agency, about 50% of the country's woodlands are affected, and perhaps one tree in five is beyond saving. Studies conducted by federal environmental officials and by the Technical University of Berlin have pinpointed the internal combustion engine, particularly at high speed, as the principal culprit. Some experts believe that cars give off 65% of the carbon monoxide and 55% of the nitrogen oxides that are affecting the forests. Environmentalists insist that the noxious output could be decreased by as much as 20% if cars were limited to 100 km/h. The Federation of Auto Manufacturers conducted its own study and found that lower speeds diminished pollution by a negligible 3%.
(From "Time”25 march 1985)
Ministero della Pubblica Istruzione
ESAMI DI LICENZA LINGUSTICA SPERIMENTALE
SESSIONE ORDINARIA 1985 - SECONDA PROVA SCRITTA
COMPRENSIONE E PRODUZIONE IN LINGUA STRANIERA
ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
- What does a German driver do as soon as he gets in his car?
- What happens when the driver enters the motorway?
- What is the meaning of "m.p.h." in line 7?
- Why have these restrictions been imposed?
- Have speed limits been imposed on all German motorways?
- What is the main factor that affects the trees?
- What are the different opinions of the Environmentalists and of the Auto Manufacturers?
- What do you think the attitude of the writer on the problem is and what makes you think this?
COMPOSITION
What do you personally think of the problem of air pollution affecting plant life and what measures would you suggest to improve the situation?
Sessione ordinaria 1999Seconda Prova Scritta
TESTO LETTERARIO - LINGUA INGLESE
(Comprensione e produzione in lingua straniera)
I AM always drawn back to places where I have lived, the houses and their neighbourhoods. For instance, there is a brownstone in the East Seventies where, during the early years of the war, I had my first New York apartment. It was one room crowded with attic furniture, a sofa and fat chairs upholstered in that itchy, particular red velvet that one associates with hot days on a train. The walls were stucco, and a colour rather like tobacco-spit. Everywhere, in the bathroom too, there were prints of Roman ruins freckled brown with age. The single window looked out on a fire escape. Even so, my spirits heightened whenever I felt in my pocket the key to this apartment; with all its gloom, it still was a place of my own, the first, and my books were there, and jars of pencils to sharpen, everything I needed, so I felt, to become the writer I wanted to be.
It never occurred to me in those days to write about Holly Golightly, and probably it would not now except for a conversation I had with Joe Bell that set the whole memory of her in motion again.
Holly Golightly had been a tenant in the old brown-stone; she'd occupied the apartment below mine. As for Joe Bell, he ran a bar around the corner on Lexington-Avenue; he still does. Both Holly and I used to go there six, seven times a day, not for a drink, not always, but to make telephone calls: during the war a private telephone was hard to come by. Moreover, Joe Bell was good about taking messages, which in Holly's case was no small favour, for she had a tremendous many.
Of course this was a long time ago, and until last week I hadn't seen Joe Bell in several years. Off and on we'd kept in touch, and occasionally I'd stopped by his bar when passing through the neighbourhood; but actually we'd never been strong friends except in as much as we were both friends of Holly Golightly. Joe Bell hasn't an easy nature, he admits it himself, he says it's because he's a bachelor and has a sour stomach. Anyone who knows him will tell you he's a hard man to talk to. Impossible if you don't share his fixations, of which Holly is one. Some others are: ice hockey, Weimaraner dogs, Our Gal Sunday (a soap serial he has listened to for fifteen years), and Gilbert and Sullivan - he claims to be related to one or the other, I can't remember which.
And so when, late last Tuesday afternoon, the telephone rang and I heard 'Joe Bell here,' I knew it must be about Holly. He didn't say so, just: 'Can you rattle right over here? It's important,' and there was a croak of excitement in his froggy voice.
(TRUMAN CAPOTE, Breakfast at Tiffany's - Penguin Books, pp. 9-10)
Answer the following questions:
1. Where is the narrator's apartment?
2. Give a full description of it.
3. List the colours and the images employed to describe it.
4. Why is it considered to be a gloomy place?
5. Why is its owner happy after all?
6. Describe each of the characters mentioned in the text.
7. What use was made of Joe Bell's telephone?
8. Why is Holly Golightly an important character in the text?
SUMMARIZE the content of the passage.
COMPOSITION: Speak about a bar, a pub, a club, an association or an institution that is the meeting point for you and your friends. Alternatively, invent a completion of the story starting from Joe Bell's telephone call.