Lingua IngleseComunicazione e Pubblicità

Lesson OneWhat is a Text?

Road Sign

Nelle centrali nucleari i reattori realizzano la fissione nucleare controllata e vengono impiegati per produrre energia elettrica.Il funzionamento di una centrale nucleare può essere così schematizzato: l'energia prodotta dalla fissione, che si libera sotto forma di calore, viene ceduta dal reattore a un fluido refrigerante. Questo allora si trasforma in vapore e alimenta una turbina.La turbina mette in moto un generatore che a sua volta produce l'energia elettrica. Il meccanismo del funzionamento di una centrale nucleare è dunque molto semplice, ma i rischi connessi all'uso dei combustibili nucleari richiedono che essa funzioni nelle condizioni di massima sicurezza.Purtroppo non esistono centrali nucleari sicure al 100% e proprio per questo l'impiego dell'energia nucleare ha suscitato e suscita numerose polemiche.Le centrali nucleari, infatti, sono in grado più di tutte le altre di soddisfare la sempre maggiore richiesta di energiae consentono di risparmiare altre fonti a più rapido esaurimento, come il petrolio, ma, nello stesso tempo possono causare danni gravissimi.

NUCLEAR POWER STATIONSNuclear power stations contain reactors which are used to produce electric power through controlled nuclear fission.How a nuclear power station works can be illustrated as follows(a diagram also accompanies the text): energy produced by fission, which is released in the form of heat, passes from the reactor to a cooling fluid. Here it is transformed into steam to feed a turbine, which works a generator which in turn produces electric power. The working mechanism of a nuclear power station is therefore very simple, but the risks involved in using nuclear fuels require that it function in conditions of maximum security.Unfortunately 100% safe nuclear power stations do not exist and for this very reason the use of nuclear energy has given rise in the past and is still giving rise to a great deal of controversy.Nuclear power stations are indeed better equipped that any other to satisfy the ever growing demand for energy and enable us to save other resources which are nearer to being worked out, like oil, but at the same time they can cause immeasurable damage.

• Nelle centrali nucleari i reattori realizzano la fissione nucleare controllata e vengono impiegati per produrre energia elettrica.

• Nuclear power stations contain reactors which are used to produce electric power through controlled nuclear fission.

Spoken vs. Written Language (1)

Interactive non interactive face-to-face not face-to-face language as action language to reflect spontaneous not spontaneousCasual formal

Spoken vs Written Language (2)

turn-taking context dependentdynamic (false starts,

hesitation, interruption, etc.)

everyday lexis complex grammar lexically sparse

monologic context independent static (polished final draft,

complete, closed, etc.)prestige lexis simple grammar lexically dense

The Visigoths (1)

(action only)Visigoths are sacking Rome

The Visigoths (2)

One Visigoth says to the other“Hey Waldemar, here’s a great statue.

Let’s bust it.”

The Visigoths (3)

A Roman observer describes the scene to his blind grandmother

“Well, Gran, there’s a whole lot of Visigoths down there, big blond guys, horns on their hats and they’re busting all the statues.”

The Visigoths (4)

A group of Visigoths reminisce“Man, you should have seen Valdemar

when he busted the statue.”

The Visigoths (5)

A report of the sacking in the ‘newspaper’Almost the entire city was devastated in

the raid by the invading Visigoths on Thursday.

The Visigoths (6)

A later explanation of why Rome fell.The fall of Rome can be attributed to a

number of factors.

The Visigoths (7)

A work on imperialism using Rome as an example.

While imperialism is an enduring ideology, the tendency is for empires not to endure. For example, Rome….