A morning cleaning up the woods Sunday was the "giornata del verde pulito", a day devoted to the cleaning of the environment from rubbish. So, also this year we organized a morning of cleaning in the surrounding woods and fields of my town. As these mostly belong to a local park, this is even more important. This morning thus we met in the market square of my town at 8.30. we were about 30 people only, not so much given the fact my town is more than 5000 citizens. We created 4 groups: each group had to clean up a zone. We had gloves, plastic bags and 4 trucks. It's really sad to see how much rubbish there is in the green areas... any kind of rubbish: bottles, food and cigarettes packs, contruction wastes, clothes, shoes... I cannot understand how some people can do this, given the fact that this is: detrimental for the beauty of our environment; risky, as they can receive a fine; unconfortable, as i think it's much more easy to bring these things to home or to the garbage dump (we have exactly in our town and it's absolutely free). Before midday we were able to finish the task, having filled up the truck with the rubbish, but i know that one truck was not enough for at least one of the other teams. At midday we were offered a sandwich and a coke. A good job, but unfortunately the next year the situation will be probably the same again.

last archery competition On saturday 16th march I was, as usual, practicing archery in the field of my archery team. There I knew that the following day it would have been an archery competition not so far away. I was dubious about joining the match, as the weather was supposed to be quite bad: snow during most of the day. Another fact that I was worried about was the cold temperature: my hands suffer very much these conditions and gloves are unconfortable in this sport. One guy from my team advised me to buy a cream that helps the blood circulation and gives a warm sensation to hands. In the evening I thus went to the pharmacy and bought this cream: about 8 euros, at that point I could not stay at home the next day. Moreover in my town was supposed to be rainy, so I chose the snow. On sunday morning I met another guy from my team and we went together to the locality where the match would have taken place. When we arrived, at 8:00, it was snowing. I put the cream on my hands and we went to the little house to register our presence and pay. The organization offered some coffee. Then we waited for the other people arrival and for the making of the groups. During the wait i started to feel my feet get icy, so I decided to use the cream also on my them. After more than 30 minutes the organization made the groups and we were so able to start walking towards our starting point. The walk in the wood helped my feet to warm up and I was thus feeling good. Also my hands were not suffering the cold. At 9:20 we started shooting. A beautiful background for a competition: a silent wood with snow falling. This alone paid back for the early rise. Near midday the temperature rose a bit so the snow started to turn into rain and I started to get wet. In a few time my hat was completely wet and when I had to note the scores the water flooded my sheets, so that was almost impossible to write without making a hole into them... damn! Anyway the contest was beautiful and ended at 14.00; we then have lunch: minestrone as first dish, boar stew with polenta as second. A piece of cake in the end. After the lunch there was the prizegiving of the winners. Obviously I was not among them, anyway I am quite satisfied with my performance. Only today I received the e-mail with the complete ranking list: I placed 18th out of 27, with 328 points. The winner gained 680 points! what a shame! I have much to do in order to get better. I hope the next time will go better.

last year: 3 days in the UK (part 2) The supervisor told me my interview was good. The examiners looked to me good people. After the interview, the supervisor drove me in a tour of the university, where I knew other nice students. Then we go to lunch. This time I ate another sandwich, with pork, but I decided to drink water. Another guy ate a big cooked potato, filed with tuna and something else. This for sure was much more interesting than my sandwitch, but anyway it was too late. After lunch I visited the surroundings of the campus: this is what i liked the most. I walked past the lake, in the woods and then I came back. there was a sort of old palace next to the campus, with superbe lawns. Also here there were oaks and squirrels everywhere, looking for nuts. The weather was incredible. I thought "I have to take advantage of my time, because i'm not sure I will get the job. I have to enjoy it the most I can". So i spent about an hour sitting on a bench, looking at meadows, at woods, at the misterious horizon, enjoying the fresh wind and the warm sun. this was simply amazing. Then i decided to walk down the hill along a dirt patch boulevard, through the meadows: this was also amazing, walking in the middle of nowhere, towards the unknown, in a green landscape with hills and fortunately no cities in your view. In the evening I went agin to the town, where I ate a pizza in a italian restaurant (nobody among the staff was italian). A pizza only in the appearance. later I took another guinness in the same pub, where i could talk with the barman (nice guy, his grandfather was italian, if I am not wrong) and a strange guy, Charlie, a musician (I spoke as he was a hobbit). The next morning me and Andy, on the way to the airport, had a good english breakfast (bacon, sausage, eggs, beans...). i really enjoyed it. So this was the end of my journey in UK. I loved that place, so green, somehow fantasy. This is probably cause of the perfect weather I found during those three days. In fact, I had been told that it was the first sunny day after 2 months of rain. Now I understand why the grass is so green. The following week I receive the unpleasant notice that I was not hired. what a pity, I really liked that place. Sometimes I like to remember those moments, hoping one day I will return to those places agin and enjoy the same feelings. I was a little wordy... forgive me. Bye!

last year: 3 days in the UK (part 1) Last year, on 5th september I went to the UK for an interview. More precisely I went to Keele University, near Stoke-on-Trent. I arrived by plane to East Midlands Airport, next to the Donington circuit. The sun was shining and it was a little windy. perfect temperature, around 20 degrees. One student from the university was waiting for me at the airport, Andy: red hair, freckles, very funny. He would have been my workmate, if they would have hired me. In about an hour he took me to Keele, travelling through a quite green landscape, with some big coal power plants. This was a nice place: some buildings in the middle of a green area on smooth hills. A strange smell in the air. We had lunch first, together with my hypotetic supervisor. As you can imagine i did not know what to order, so I decided to take the same meal of my supervisor. this was a nearly cold sandwich with chicken (quite dry) with a glass of black carrot syrup (this is really terrible in my opinion). After lunch we took a (long) coffee. The interview would have been the next day, so I was advised to visit the near town, Newcastle Under Lime. I cought the bus and I reached the town. A beautiful town, with nice houses made of red bricks in the outskirts. The town centre was also beautiful, full of shops and people walking in the no-traffic area. One girl helped me in finding a map of the town, so then I visited it. It's really nice but strange: churches with old cemetery on their backside, accessible to everybody: as in a movie there were tilted gravestones, earlier than 1950. I also went to a little park, with oaks and lawns. I could see squirrels searching for nuts in the grass. beautiful. At dinner time I went to McDonalds, because I wanted to compare the english McChicken with the italian one. It is in fact slightly different in taste... everyone has got his own chickens. Then I went back to the campus, where I decided to have a Guinness in its little pub. fantastic. At last I went to sleep. My room was basic. Unfortunately the pillow was like a slice of bread and I am used to a more puffy pillow. In the morning I woke up early, so I decided to go for a walk in the surroundings before to have breakfast. After 10 minutes I changed my mind as the temperature was still cold and I had forgotten the jacket in my room. I had a typical breakfast, coffee and croissant. I was then ready for the interview. This went good and I think I also made a good impression to the examiners.

IELTS Academic writing task 1: 4° another exercise... instructions: <<The bar chart below shows the estimated sales of jeans for two companies next year in Turkey. The pie chart shows the projected market share of the two companies in jeans at the end of next year. Write a short report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below.>> answer: ---------------- The charts below provide a prevision of the sales of jeans for two companies in Turkey next year. The bar chart shows an overall rising trend for both of the companies, but with several differences. Jack & Jones Co. will start in January with 450 thousand of pairs sold, but in February the number will dramatically drop by 50% and then return to rise more slowly. Between June and August the sales will be steady at 400 thousand of pairs. The sales will then return to rise more fastly, reaching about 850 thousand in December. The prevision describe a more steady situation for Mango Co., stable at about 150 thousand between January and April and at 500 thousand between August and November. Also this company will sell the greatest number of jeans at the end of the year (600 thousand of pairs in December). Comparing the two previsions we can notice that the sales will be higher for Jack & Jones Co. almost every month of the year, the only exception being July and August. The pie chart confirm this conclusion: Jack & Jones Co. will represent almost one third of the whole market, while Manco Co only one fifth. --------------- Thank you Bye!

IELTS Academic writing task 1: 3° Instructions: The graph below compares the number of visits to two new music sites on the web. Write a report for a university lecturer describing the information shown below. (150 word as a minimum, in 20 minutes) Here is my answer: ------- The graph shows the number of visits of two new music websites, recorded in a 15 days timespan. Music Choice website started the first day with 40000 visitors and fluctuated, after a little peak of 60000 visits in the third day, between 20000 and 40000 till the eleventh day.In the day 12 the number of visits rocketed to 120000. In the following two days the website was still frequented more or less at the same level, but the 15th day the number of visitors dropped to less than 80000. Pop Parade website, instead, started the first day with a much higher number of visitors (120000) and then, from the third day, began to loose visitors. The lowest result was reached the seventh day, with less than 40000 visits. The number of visits remained low for other two days then it rose fastly, eaching a peak of 150000 on the 11th day. The following day the number of visitors slipped back to about 80000 and in the 14th day soared to over 160000, plateauing at 170000 in the last day. If we compare the two lines we can conclude that Pop Parade gained more visits than Music Choice in most of the days (13 over 15). ------------------ After I wrote this answer, I had a look at the sample answer and I realized it was far better than mine. It was more focused on comparisons and, even if there was no explicit request in the instructions, I think I should have written something like that. Instead I tried to use some new verbs, as varying the language is important. Thank you! Bye!

IELTS Academic writing task 1: 2° Hello again, This is another simulation. I took the pie charts from "the economist". As for the previous, the instructions could be: Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. (20 minutes; 150 words as a minimum) Here below my answer: ----- The pie charts show the ratio of obese and over weight people in 2008, in the world and in three selected countries: Mexico, South Africa and Brazil. The pie chart of the world reveals that about one third of the global population was over weight, having a BMI more than 25. among these almost one third (12% on the whole) had a BMI more than 30, thus being named as obese people. If we have a look at the pie charts from Mexico, South Africa and Brazil, we can notice that the percentage of people that were overweight was considerably higher. Mexico had the worse situation, having more than two thirds of the population (69%) over weight. Among these the obese people were about the half (33% on the whole). South Africa had only 2% less fat people, even if the obese portion was slightly higher. At last, in Brazil nearly half of the population was overweight. Despite the people with a BMI between 25 and 30 were pretty the same than in the other countries, the percentage of obese people was substantially lower, being only 19%. ----187 words Thank you! Bye!

IELTS Academic writing task 1 Hello! I write here below my answer to a sample writing task 1 found in this website: http://www.dcielts.com/task-1-2/a-model-bar-chart-report-step-by-step/ Instructions are: The following pie charts show the results of a survey into the most popular leisure activities in the United States of America in 1999 and 2009. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features, and make comparisons where relevant. (20 minutes; 150 words as a minimum) My answer: ------------ The two charts show the results of a survey about the most popular leisure activities in the USA in two selected years: 1999 and 2009. In 1999 the most popular activity was walking, with 29% of people choosing it. The second more popular activity was soccer, with 17% of people. Hobbies as aerobics, bicycling, swimming, camping and jogging each totalized percentages between 13% and 7% respectively. The least popular sport was yoga, that obtained only 5%. In 2009 walking was still the most popularv activity and increased by 2 points per cent. Soccer remained about the same, at 18%, and was reached by swimming, that thus resulted to have doubled its practicants. Camping, as well, remained almost the same, while a new entry, weightlifting, reached 10%. Bicycling reduced of 5% and yoga was no more practiced by the interviewed people. In 2009 the least popular activities were then aerobics and jogging, that achieved respectively 4% and 3%. -------------------- thank you Bye

First notebook entry: Introducing myself Hello, I am learning English cause I need to be fluent in order to get a job position in the USA. My native language is Italian and Italy is where I grew up and live at present. I am a Geology graduated and I love archery, table soccer, woodcarving and hand labors in general. I also enjoy cooking. Bye!