EXAM PRACTICE - Università di Cagliari

EXAM PRACTICE

A credit card is not valid until the holder has s_____ it.

After graduating last week Peter immediately applied for a job
with a law f_____ in New York.

Sarah is a g_____ sort of person, always happy and cheerful.

This idea is more than clever; it’s i_____.

Julia is slim and fit because she trains in the g_____ three times a
week.

EXAM PRACTICE

A credit card is not valid until the holder has signed it.

After graduating last week Peter immediately applied for a job
with a law firm in New York.

Sarah is a genial sort of person, always happy and cheerful.

This idea is more than clever; it’s ingenious.

Julia is slim and fit because she trains in the gym three times a
week.

HYPOTHESES (singular: HYPOTHESIS)
Pages 472 and 473

Zero Conditional: present + present

First conditional: present + will future

If not and Unless

Exercises 1 and 2

NOUNS WITH LATIN OR GREEK PLURAL FORMS

              SINGULAR                  PLURAL
       criterion             criteria
       phenomenon            phenomena
       bacterium             bacteria
       millennium            millennia
       focus                 foci /fəʊsaɪ/
       nucleus               nuclei
       fungus                fungi
       amoeba                amoebae
       formula               formulae

Zero Conditional: present + present, present + imperative
1. For things that are always true       2. To give instructions

1. If you have a high-calorie diet, you put on weight.
2. If you see anything suspicious, call the police.

First Conditional: present + will future
1. Warnings and consequences         2. Realistic hypotheses

1. If we don’t hurry, we’ll miss the train.
2. If you go to London on a study holiday, your English will improve.

Might replaces will to indicate greater uncertainty:

If I feel better tomorrow morning, I might go back to work (but I still have a high
temperature).

If… not v. Unless
We’ll have a picnic if it doesn’t rain.
We’ll have picnic unless it rains.

I won’t forgive Michael unless he apologizes for his bad behaviour.
I won’t forgive Michael if he doesn’t apologize for his bad behaviour.

The word unless already has a negative meaning (a meno che non), so it is not
used with a negative verb. Remember that double negatives are not permitted in
formally correct English.

To forgive = perdonare
To apologize = scusarsi
Behaviour = comportamento
To behave well/badly (not reflexive verb) = comportarsi well/badly
To behave oneself = comportarsi bene       Behave yourself ! = Comportati bene!

SECOND CONDITIONAL (Pages 475-477)
Less likely or impossible hypotheses.

If we saw George Clooney in Monserrato we would ask him for his autograph.
If I had US citizenship, I wouldn’t vote for Donald Trump.

The Past Simple (went, didn’t go) is also used as the equivalent of the Italian congiuntivo.
Would + verb (often contracted to ’d) is the equivalent of the Italian condizionale.

If Sally lived in the countryside she would have a dog.
If I lived in Madrid I wouldn’t have a car because public transport is very good.
If he didn’t need to work, he would be really bored.
Paul can’t swim. If he could swim he’d go to the beach every day.
If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
If you were a colour, what colour would you be?
What would you do if you found a big spider (ragno) in your bed?
If we were thirty years younger, we would emigrate to New Zealand.
What would happen if extraterrestrial beings visited our planet?
If the students won the lottery, they would share the money with their English teacher.

TO BE
If I were you (Se fossi in te) I wouldn’t take the risk.

In conditional sentences were is used with the subjects I, he, she and it in formal
English. In colloquial English If I was you is acceptable.

          COULD and MIGHT to express ability or possibility

If we had a scanner we          could        make a digital copy of this document.
                            would be able to

If you spoke to Julia she       might      be willing to help you.
                             would perhaps

willing = disposto, unwilling = non disposto, willingly = volentieri

THIRD CONDITIONAL (Pages 478-479)

Hypotheses about the past

If   + Past Perfect +           would/wouldn’t have + Past Participle
If Daniela had studied more she would have (she’d have) passed the exam.
If Robert hadn’t eaten so much he wouldn’t have had indigestion.

If Gigi Riva had gone to Inter in 1969, Cagliari wouldn’t have won the “Scudetto”.
If more young people had voted in the 2016 referendum, Brexit would never have
happened.
If Hitler hadn’t invaded the Soviet Union in 1941, he might have won the War.
                                                      probably would have
If the lockdown had started two weeks earlier, we would have saved many lives.
I’d have helped you if you’d asked me.

[’d is the contraction of both would and had]
Double contractions – I’d’ve helped you – are a phonetic nightmare for you!

MIXED CONDITIONALS (Pages 480-482)
If he had followed his parents’ advice, he wouldn’t be in prison now!
     3rd conditional                     2nd conditional
La situazione presente sarebbe diversa se si fosse verificato un dato evento nel
passato.

If you were not such a male chauvinist, your wife wouldn’t have left you.
      2nd conditional                               3rd conditional
Se la situazione presente/permanente fosse diversa anche la situazione passata
sarebbe stata diversa.

WISH (Page 484)
Wish + Past Simple (desideri che riguardano il presente)
I wish I knew the solution. (Vorrei sapere qual’è la soluzione)
I wish things were not so complicated. (Vorrei che le cose non fossero così
complicate)

Wish + would/could (desideri irrealizzabili)
I wish my son would give up smoking. (Vorrei che mio figlio smettessi di fumare)
I wish I could speak Chinese. (Vorrei tanto saper parlare il cinese)

Wish + Past Perfect (regrets, cioè rimpianti)
I wish I hadn’t bought these shoes (Vorrei che non avessi comprato queste scarpe)
Jorge Arantes divorced J.K. Rowling before she became famous and super-rich.
Now he wishes he had stayed with her. (Ora vorrebbe che fosse rimasto con lei)

IF ONLY, IT’S TIME, WOULD RATHER (Page 485)
If only you would stop complaining. (Se solo smettessi di lamentarti)
If only I had married Jane instead of Carla! (Se solo avessi sposato Jane invece di Carla!)

Thirty years old and still living with your parents! It’s time you learnt how to be independent.
(È ora che impari ad essere autonomo)
It’s time the children went to bed. (È ora che i bambini vadano a letto)

One of us must live in the Bahamas for a year.
I would (I’d) rather go myself. (Preferirei andarci io)
One of us must live in Syria for a year
I’d rather you went. (Preferirei che ci andassi tu)

I’d rather not tell the boss about this fiasco. (Preferirei non dire…)
I’d rather you didn’t tell the boss about this fiasco. (Preferirei che non dicessi…)

n.b. flask and fiasco

Giving opinions about the environment
Page 596

FALSE FRIENDS
Patent (n) = brevetto
I believe that GM crops are safe but I think it’s immoral that Monsanto can
have a patent on basic foodstuffs.

Driving licence (UK)       Driver’s licence (USA)

Pavement (USA sidewalk) = marciapiede
Pavimento = floor

Prescription = ricetta medica
Prescrizione (termine legale) = non prevista nel codice penale degli Stati
                                uniti o del Regno unito
Ricetta (termine culinario) = recipe (la e finale viene pronunciata i)

GRAMMAR AND LEXIS

FALSE FRIENDS

BIOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY

GENERAL CONVERSATION

GRAMMAR AND LEXIS

1.  How do you translate perché into English? (PDF 1)
2.  What question do I ask if I want you to describe your friend Simona? (PDF 1)
3.  What can you tell me about the words ever and never? (PDF 1)
4.  What is the main characteristic of the Present Perfect in terms of tense or time? (PDF 2)
5.  Translate Conosco Michele da cinque anni and Ho conosciuto Michele nel 2015. (PDF 2)
6.  The auxiliary verb will is not always a future form. How do we use will to refer to the
    present? (PDF 3)
7. Translate Farò riparare la mia stampante. (PDF 3)
8. The word success is a noun. How can we convert it into an adjective? (PDF 4)
9. How do you say inutile in English? (PDF 4)
10. How do you translate svestirsi and stancarsi? (PDF 5)
11. The verb tolerate derives from Latin. Do you know a more idiomatic way to say Non
    sopporto la gente arrogante? (PDF 5)
12. The translation of dipendere is depend. What preposition is used with depend? (PDF 5)
13. “Simona spoke to Daniela”. Make two different questions about Simona and Daniela
    using Who in both. (PDF 6)

FALSE FRIENDS

1. How do you say pubblicizzare and avvertire in English? (PDF 1)
2. Give me an alternative word for rich for a society, a region or a nation but not a person.
   (PDF 1)
3. What is the English word for great pain that is not fatal? (PDF 2)
4. What is the word for a restaurant in a company or a university that is not open to the
   general public? (PDF 3)
5. What is the difference between the Italian word professore and the English word
   professor? (PDF 4)
6. What adjective do we use to describe a person who has studied a lot and has a high
   cultural level? (PDF 5)
7. We have a number of words to refer to a business. It can be a company, a corporation or
   a word beginning with f_____. (PDF 6)

BIOLOGICAL TERMINOLOGY

1. Your genes are found in your DNA and your DNA is found in your c_____.

2. Plants store glucose as the polysaccharide called s_____.

3. Connective tissue contins a structural protein called c_____.

4. The diffusion of water across a membrane is called o_____.

5. The structure of a cell is reinforced by that cell’s c_____.

6. When an organism metabolizes molecules, there are two types of chemical
   reactions: a_____ and c_____ reactions

1. chromosopmes 2. starch 3. collagen       4. osmosis    5. cytoskeleton
6. anabolic/catabolic

GENERAL CONVERSATION

1. What kind of person are you? What are your positive and negative charateristics? Do
   you think other people see you as you really are? Or do people misunderstand you?

2. Many people are overweight or even obese. What are the major causes? What should
   we do to encourage people to eat a healthier diet and take more exercise?

3. Which of the following would be mose effective in combating global warming? (i)
   becoming a vegan (ii) not travelling by air (iii) having no more than one child

4. What superstitions do people have in your country? For instance, are there lucky and
   unlucky numbers? Why do we still have superstitions in the year 2020?

5. Do you have any brothers and sisters? What are the advantages and disadvantages of
   being an only child (figlio/a unico/a) or of having brothers and sisters?

6. If you won five million euros on the lottery, what would you do with all that money?