28 January 2008

RESULTS - esami, esoneri**

** see end of this post for a possible answer to the grammar paper

LAUREA SPECIALISTICA 1° anno
2006/7 sessione invernale:
The following students passed the written paper with the following marks:
866516 A.M. 28/30
959745 M.A.C. 26/30
977526 E.C. 21/30
978891 M.F. 18/30
979020 E.C. 18/30
983643 V.B. 19/30
983946 E.S. 18/30
1029766 D.B. 26/30
1181171 G.F. 18/30
1181265 MC.M. 22/30
1182337 P.S. 23/30

These students are invited to take the oral exam on Thursday 28th February at 13.00, or at a convenient time to be arranged with me.
N.B.
The oral exam requires you to choose two articles on the same subject from a broadsheet newspaper and a tabloid, published within the seven days preceding the oral examination. Their language must then be analysed and compared.

LAUREA SPECIALISTICA (Important)
From what was said by one or two students doing the first year examination, it seems that it has not been understood that all students of the translation course have to do part of the practical English examination in their 2nd year, as well as the theory part, in order to get their four credits. If you have any doubts about this matter, I recommend that you re-read my posting for 11th October 2007.

Unfortunately the following students did not pass the exam and should see me during my 'ricevimento'. If they attended my lessons they will be able to move to Prof Leyland's current 1st year 'Specialistica' course as 'frequentanti', in order to retake the examination in June.
967565 F.B.
983644 V.C.
984444 C.C.
1180721 I.S.
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LAUREA SPECIALISTICA 2° year (a.a. 2007/8)
These results represent either the mid-course test mark for 'artistico-letterario' students,
OR
the final practical language result which will be put with the theory marks for the 2nd year credits of 'tecnico-scientifico' students (see N.B. above). 'Tecnico-scientifico' students who are unsatisfied with their marks will be able to take a grammar exam in June.

866516 A.M. 27/30
968421 AM.P. 28/30
969638 R.G. 20/30
975379 V.P. 24/30
975821 V.P. 19/30
976243 AA.S. 26/30
976819 V.V. 23/30
976941 A.L. 27/30
977348 A.X. 28/30
977504 M.M. 27/30
977526 E.C. 21/30
977555 F.V. 27/30
978581 D.B. 25/30
978690 G.V. 25/30
978698 P.O. 30/30
978770 OS.T. 25/30
983857 F.S. 25/30
1174156 E.S. 25/30
1176087 I.P. 23/30
1180761 S.S. 25/30
1181265 MC.M 18/30

INSUFFICIENTE
972377 M.C.
983643 V.B.
983644 V.C.
1180721 I.S.




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ESAMI SCRITTI DI LINGUA INGLESE (Vecchio Ordinamento)
Faiola-Bulla-Wilson
III e IV annualità

Hanno superato l'esame i seguenti candidati:
III annualità
BERARDI, V............Sufficiente*
CORAZZI, C............Discreto
TERENZI, M............Sufficiente*
IV annualità
ARBIA, A.G.............Sufficiente

La visione dei compiti per gli studenti che non hanno superato la prova avrà luogo mercoledì 6 febbraio alle ore 10.00 (stanza del Dott. Wilson). I quadriennalisti di inglese accanto a cui voto compare un asterisco sono invitati a presentarsi al Dott. Wilson durante le sue ore di ricevimento.
------------------------------------
The results will come out day by day from now onwards, in order of urgency.
3rd year: Students who were in room VI should refer to me. I shall give times for the oral exams later. Students in rooms III, VIII & IX should refer to Dr Leyland (jleyland@alice.it), who will give results and oral exam schedules.

ORAL EXAM: an analysis of the language of an advertisement taken from an actual printed newspaper or magazine. You may NOT use material from other courses you have attended, and the advertisement must be the ACTUAL COPY OF THE ADVERT from the magazine, with a photocopy for the examiner. A linguistic analysis of the text of the advertisement will be expected.

Results (all with matriculation numbers and initials, mark out of 30):
LAUREANDI III anno 2006/7 [I had hoped that more people than this would have passed the exam. It is with no pleasure that I give these results. The only way to pass this exam, which I remind you is of degree level, is to write in simple and clear English. Whatever the content of the student's work may be, the language must be clear and correct. Those who have not passed the examination may come to see me during any ricevimento to see their papers.]
sufficiente:
1072719 -IC - 18/30 (oral exam Wed 6 @ 10.00)
insufficiente:
972287 - AC - 9/30
978410 - GC - 15/30
1062028 - GC - 11/30
30154498 - CD - 11/30

III anno
These people who did the exam in room VI have passed with the following marks in the written exam. They may come for the oral examination on either Monday 11th February at 10.00 or Wednesday 13th February at 10.00. Please write to me at wilsonsapienza@libero.it specifying which day.

960097 - PC - 22/30
971230 - RB - 21/30
976422 - MC - 19/30
976883 - JG - 19/30
978382 - RC - 25/30
978559 - SD'A - 20/30
987764 - AAEM - 18/30
1051340 - EC - 23/30
1072719 - IC - 18/30
1131754 - MB - 18/30

The following students did not pass the examination. They are strongly advised to come and see their papers during one of my ricevimento sessions before the start of the coming semester. Some students need to do serious remedial study and there will probably be a special course which they may attend starting in March.

962472 - PB - 15/30
972287 - AC - 09/30
976884 - RB - 15/30
978410 - GC - 15/30
978894 - RC - 14/30
980657 - VD'A - 14/30
984521 - AA - 11/30
1051345 - CC - 11/30
1062028 - GC - 11/30
1063346 - F D'A - 16/30
1072055 - CC - 16/30
1074316 - AC - 14/30
30154054 - MDP - 16/30
30154498 - CD'A - 11/30
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** POSSIBLE ANSWER TO THE GRAMMAR PAPER

Please note that these are "POSSIBLE" answers and not necessarily desirable answers. You may be able to improve upon them or come up with very different but correct versions. Do not copy them, but notice how the exam need not have been difficult.

The clear instructions were:
Write English versions of the following sentences / passages. You must bear in mind that this is a Grammar test and a test of your English, and so you must write complete and correct English sentences.

1) Donne incinte non bevete caffe'. La caffeina infatti, contenuta anche in te', cioccolata e coca cola, aumenterebbe il rischio di aborto. A lanciare l'allarme e' uno studio americano.

“Don’t drink coffee if you are pregnant! The alarm comes from American researchers who report that caffeine, which is also contained in tea, chocolate and Coca-Cola, increases the risk of abortion.”

2) Aborto, unioni civili, omosessualità. La Cei (Conferenza episcopale italiana) non molla e torna a dettare le priorità della politica del mondo cattolico. Con una postilla: la visita di Ratzinger alla Sapienza sarebbe stata sconsigliata dalle autorità italiane. A svelarlo è proprio il presidente della Cei, cardinale Angelo Bagnasco, che nella prolusione d'apertura del Consiglio episcopale permanente riaccende la polemica sulla mancata visita di Benedetto XVI all'università di Roma.

“As far as abortion, civil unions and homosexuality are concerned, the CEI (Italian Bishops’ Conference) is not giving up and continues to dictate its political priorities to the Catholic world. It now seems that the Italian government recommended that Benedict XVI should not visit the Sapienza university. In his opening speech to the permanent Council of Bishops, the CEI president, Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, revealed this and thus reopened discussion about the Pope’s cancelled visit to the Roman university.”

3) Nel corso dell’audizione è emerso che con molta probabilità quel computer sia di appartenenza della sorella di Sollecito e che quest’ultimo non l’abbia utilizzato dal luglio scorso.

“It was said during the hearing that the computer probably belonged to Sollecito’s sister and that Sollecito had not used it since last July.”

4) All'indomani del ''basta'' di Clemente Mastella che ha di fatto aperto la crisi di governo, si continua a lavorare per cercare di salvare il salvabile.

“The day after Mastella said “Enough!” and opened the government crisis they are continuing to work in order to save what can be saved."

5) ''Il piano presentato -ha detto Iervolino- permettera' di allergerire notevolmente l'emergenza rifiuti che in questi giorni incombe sulla Campania. E' positiva anche la decisione di incontrarsi di nuovo, a breve termine, per un esame delle varie tipologie di impianti che si renderanno necessari e per la riorganizzazione della raccolta differenziata al fine di impostare un iter che consenta di uscire definitivamente dall'emergenza''.

“Iervolino said, ‘ The plan presented will allow us to significantly lighten the refuse emergency which has affected Campania in recent days / which affects Campania. The decision to meet again soon is a good one and we shall be able to examine the various kinds of plants / machinery needed to reorganise collections of different kinds of rubbish, so that we can solve this problem once and for all'.”

6) Le discusse elezioni presidenziali dello scorso 27 dicembre continuano a causare sanguinosi scontri di piazza in numerose città del Kenya: ieri i morti, uccisi dalla polizia, sono almeno dieci, secondo l’opposizione; cinque, stando alla polizia. Divergenti anche i dati aggiornati di coloro che hanno perso la vita negli incidenti delle ultime settimane: sarebbero state mille, dicono gli avversari del governo; settecento, affermano le autorità.

“The controversial presidential elections, which took place on 27th December, are still causing bloody fighting / bloodshed in many Kenyan towns. The opposition claims that the police killed ten people yesterday, whereas the police say only five were killed. There are different statistics about the number of deaths in clashes over the past few weeks: those opposing the government say a thousand people have died, whereas the government says the figure is seven hundred.”

LAUREA SPECIALISTICA (Important)

From what was said by one or two students doing the first year examination, it seems that it has not been understood that all students of the translation course have to do part of the practical English examination in their 2nd year, as well as the theory part, in order to get their four credits. If you have any doubts about this matter, I recommend that you re-read my posting for 11th October 2007.

24 January 2008

THE LAST GRAMMAR EXAM ("Thoughts of a dry brain in a dry season")







The first question on the grammar paper asked for an English version of the following from the Italian: "Donne incinte non bevete caffè. La caffeina infatti, contenuta anche in tè ..."
It is not unreasonable to expect that 3rd and final year students should be able to spell the national drink of the UK, especially as they are mostly students of Mediazione linguistica. It is spelt TEA, not thé or té. Similarly, coffee is spelt COFFEE and not caffe or coffe, and chocolate is CHOCOLATE and not ciocholate or other derivations of Italian.
It is also not unreasonable to suppose that these students know the difference between a simple statement and a simple imperative in English. The essential importance of syntax as grammar is taught exhaustively from 1st year onwards. "Donne incinte non bevete caffé" cannot be translated with the same syntax as in Italian, as "Pregnant women don't drink coffee", which means: "Donne incinte non bevono caffé". A possible correct version could be "Pregnant women must not drink coffee" or "Don't drink coffee if you are pregnant". This is basic English.
This kind of mistake is indicative of general carelessness, and it is strongly recommended that students who have this kind of problem spend a lot of time reading articles and books in good English and spend more time studying before expecting to take a final exam.