In the morning he looked at himself in the mirror for a longtime, every time with the fear of waking up and not being able to recognize himself. He was not awaiting nor had asked for all these body changes. Because of them, he felt submersed in a fog of confusion and doubts. He had been able to surround himself with things and actions that made him feel serene and hopeful.

His physical appearance was one of them. His black curly hair falling on his white forehead, his red lips framed under a small straight nose and his prominent eyebrows framing a lively but intense look, created an image from the past, right out of a Caravaggio painting. This look he felt comfortable with made him feel safe.

As a result, these morning inspections in front of the mirror revealed a frowning forehead that revealed preoccupation and disappointment. He had been living with his parents in a small, isolated house on the Umbrian hills surrounding Orvieto since he was five, since — that is — his father Josh he had ruined his life in that crazy merry-go-round that is New York City. He had then bravely chosen to move, in agreement with his wife Mary. Both had been pondering that possibility for years and every detail had been taken care of with extreme care.

Josh wrote articles on Italian customs, traditions and culture for the American market, while Mary worked in photography. Markus was not enthusiastic about their choice, even if he was familiar with those places since he was very young, as he had been vacationing there in the summer every year. He realized he was going to lose all his friends to find himself in a completely new place, without anything familiar to refer to. The family would talk about it at length in the evening. In the end, he accepted the move, even if his decision was prompted more by his desire to make his parents happy, than to make himself happy.

When the world turns upside down, the only way to remain strong is to lean against recognizable stable pillars. His family, his room, his bicycle and his first true friends were pillars of strength to Ughino. Three years went by before he could give up the New York Yankees poster hanging in front of his bed, to make room for a poster of an Italian soccer team. He had learned to speak Italian perfectly and he attended the local middle school with notable success. Despite some initial difficulties, he was immediately cheerfully accepted by all his schoolmates and teachers.

The small realities of both the province and the country luckily did not destroy human relationships like urban centers do, revolting anonymous machines that they are. Markus then became friends with everybody, despite his initial distrust. Among all his friends though, there was one special friend, a girl: Unfortunately, destiny made this friendship hard for the boy, for Angela lived in Rome and only during the summer, and sometimes during some holidays, she would vacation with her parents where Markus lived and where her parents owned a small house inherited from an elderly aunt. Angela was a year younger than Markus and they had become friends before he left New York, since both families had chosen the same place to vacation at.

It was because of his great friendship with Angela that Markus learned to speak Italian quickly. For a couple of years, Markus and Angela had been enjoying more freedom with the permission of their parents. As a result, they would spend their days on the hills, biking along the wooded paths, looking for small animals and climbing trees, looking for hideouts. Angela was a lively, blond girl, always ready for any adventure Markus would suggest.

She was slim and agile like a gazelle in the fields and a squirrel on the trees. He never thought about the difference of the sexes too much, nor was this bothering him in any way. All this, up to that year when — in summer — Angela went back to the village again.

Formazione & Insegnamento 2/ by Pensa Multimedia - Issuu

Like Markus, she was growing and physically changing and Markus was aware of all these changes. The once-bold little girl had gotten taller, her hair was styled differently and had a different shine, and her clothes did no longer disguise the flat and dry figure of years past. Her look had also changed and become so piercing it went right through you like a dagger.

Markus was thinking about this, while hesitating for quite a few minutes in front of the mirror… Suddenly he heard someone knocking at the bathroom door.


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I will be back tonight. Your father is up in his den, writing. She would leave early in the morning with all her photo equipment and spend the whole day traveling through the hills and bordering villages. At night, she would come back with a good number of pictures, which, through the night, she would examine and make changes to.

Hidden in his den, he would write all-day long and send his work to editors by e-mail. After breakfast, Markus went into the garden, making his way towards the back of the garage, where Josh had set up a basketball court for him, using one of the garage walls. The boy would spend a lot of time bouncing the ball on the pavement, then throwing the ball into the basket.

All this physical activity calmed him down. As he was slowly swirling around, dragging behind him the ball bouncing on the pavement, that morning he thought of his friend Ughino, with all the problems his image would conjure up. So intent was his thought, that Markus stopped the ball with his hands and stood for a moment looking at the climbing roses that were decorating the garage door. Markus turned around and his face lit up. She threw it on the ground and they hugged happily, transported by the spontaneity of a gesture they were accustomed to since they were five. Markus though realized he had perhaps been too spontaneous.

He pulled away immediately, blushing. His face beamed with delight. Cheerful, playful and full of life. He was greeting everybody loudly But his mother has gotten worse. He told me himself and I actually saw it for myself. He said there is very little that could be done since she is mentally sick. They suddenly heard a loud noise of metal, stones and wheels coming from the access road to the village house.

The two got up and moved towards the lane that led to the main entrance. When they got to the corner of the garage, they had to move back to make room for a boy who was riding a strange three-wheel vehicle with great speed. Then he addressed both of them: I am very happy. Ughino started to get off the bike and then hesitated. Would you like some juice?

He looked at Markus and said: I have to continue my deliveries I just wanted to say hello. He looked at Angela, trying to let her know. She understood immediately and said: I have to go help my parents get set up. Then Ughino got off his bike, stopped pretending he was happy and hugged Markus. Then Markus pulled his bicycle out of the garage and pointing to the road said: He was ten years old, but because of the emotions and the grief that life had reserved for him, he could teach good judgment and maturity to his fifteen-year-old friends.

The engineers of the municipality had tried various times to have the two legally evicted, as the dwelling was considered not desirable for health reasons, but every time, independent groups of people had dissuaded them and convinced them to defer action.

Paola, the mother, was still young, but she looked like an elderly woman. She was afflicted by many ailments and when she was able to rustle up a little alms money, she would always go home with a bottle of wine in her hands. Paola was an orphan and she had never known her parents.

She grew up in a convent and when she was twenty she had gone to work as an attendant at a summer camp for children on the Emilia Romagna coast, where she had met her first and last love. Salvatore, a tourist traveling in that area, invited her to dinner and they stayed together until morning, when Paola had to go back to work.

The following days she waited for him in vain on the beach where they had met. She looked for him in a futile search throughout the whole city, only to realize the only thing she knew about him was his first name. Salvatore had left her, much like her mother had done. At the end of the season, she returned to the village pregnant with Ughino, her mind totally empty. As the baby was getting bigger, the mother was withering away. Her body slowly sagged like a bamboo whipped by the wind and only alcohol could make her bear the eternal grief of life. Ughino understood immediately, since he was very small, that he had to take care of himself, as well as his mother.

So he would go to school and after school he would take care of the house, helping Paola as if she were a little girl. Despite his sad destiny, Ughino smiled all the time and he would play with his friends, who loved him a lot, any chance he got. The boy did not want his friends to pity him because of his condition, so often he would tell innocent lies to mask his meager truth.

Sometimes, he was invited to lunch by families of friends, and was served with wonderful dishes of Umbrian tradition. He would then thank the hostess by saying: Just the way my mom fixes it! Things were different with him. He spent a lot of time with him and thought of him as an older brother.

Academic development

Once, when school let out, a couple of older boys arrogantly stopped Ughino. It was Giovanni Montaldi and Piero De Lisis, sons of two wealthy businesspeople from Orvieto, dressed from top to bottom in fashionable clothes. They did not have many friends at school, but their private alliance seemed to satisfy them and they did not feel they had to be friendly to other people. Always bold and arrogant, they had several times shown lack of courage in their actions. Therefore, they usually would bother the younger and the weaker kids. Ughino was one of them. One time, Giovanni and Piero started making fun of him because of his older shoes with holes, shoving him around as they spoke, while he was trying to resolve the situation with a smile.

Suddenly Piero kicked him and his backpack filled with his school notebooks fell in the sand. Then Ughino turned and saw the boy turning red, because an arm, behind him, was grabbing him by the neck. With a yank, Piero fell on the ground and immediately Markus was on top of him, beating him up, while a couple of friends were holding Giovanni back. During the summer, Ughino helped Mario, the manager of the only food store in the village, with deliveries to clients.

Since during the summer holidays the number of people increased because of the arrival of all the people who owned a country cottage, the need for deliveries increased, as the store was getting bigger and acquired more clients. So, Mario had given Ughino a bicycle he had modified for small deliveries: Little Ugo felt mighty proud when he was riding this unique vehicle and often he would come back from his deliveries full speed, doing acrobatics on two wheels. But when he went home, he left his cheerfulness outside the door, like a coat hanging from the door.

The boy would put his love and patience clothes on and cross the door bravely. His mother would usually sit by the window, crossing her legs, with her foot constantly moving up and down. Her gaze was lost in empty infinity and nearly always she did not even know her son had come back.

Ughino thought his mother was the most beautiful woman in the world and he hoped every day that she would heal quickly. His continuous care and attention was not enough, he thought. Maybe he should take her to the hospital. But how could he love her more? He loved her more than himself! Every day he tried to be more affectionate.

His heart would break, for he could not see any improvement. He would cook for her, talk to her, he cared for her hands and feet, and he would tell her about what was happening in school, but she would rarely answer, and when she did, only in monosyllables. He would then go in the bathroom, turn on the faucet and cry his heart out, hitting his head with all his strength, crying rivers of steaming tears into the basin, clutching his heart because of the pain.

She is completely mad. I met her yesterday and took her home. He tried to change the topic: Do you want to go to the beach with us? Do you remember the last time, when she fled at night and we found her on the bridge? Who gets to the square first decides the punishment! Markus looked at him straight in the eyes and said: Let us through, I have to go to the store! Piero did not move. The left window of the car was lowered and a voice screamed from inside: Giovanni grabbed his bike and started pedaling towards the descent. But he did not need to; he already knew it was a heavy person with white withered skin, with his head dripping with sweat and black sun glasses perennially resting on his forehead.

Not because of you. Ughino got off his tricycle and said: He enjoyed watching the women in and out of the store, chatting, with bags filled with heads of lettuce and loaves of bread. Those images were engraved in his mind since he was small, even though they were not keepsakes from his own land. He only remembered a lot of confusion and the icy cold of the huge supermarket in the city where he was born.

The younger told the oldest: You see how nice and polite he is? Despite all the bad things that happened to him Just yesterday, I found his mother at my front door. She had finished the wine. Once in a while she comes over to my house too. But what should I do? I would feel like I did Ughino wrong. But now we have to do something. And we can take turns caring for the boy. How much trouble can that polite boy be? I know he takes care of all the housework, he could even help me! He wanted to tell those women that if they really loved Ughino, the last thing to do was to separate him from his mother.

He had to find a solution. Meanwhile, Ughino had left the store and was loading the bags on the cart. When they were alone again on the road, Ughino continued: Tell me about your idea. But we know nothing about him; he has been living there by himself for years, since he first came to the area! But they call him Doctor Draconis, and I heard that he was a doctor. He may be able to help me.

How did you come to think of him? Maybe because I heard he was a doctor, and maybe because nobody can help mom. What do you say? Would you go see him with me, and ask for his advice? Are you aware of what everybody around here says about him? There is just one thing She is a friend of mine and you can trust her. Let me know when you intend to go. I have to go home now. Markus was happy to see him like that, even if deep inside he was doubtful of the decision he had made.

He lived with his cat, Bastet, in a decrepit house, lost in a small wooded area between the villages of Sugano and Orvieto. Nobody knew what he did all-day, but if you walked along the house you could nearly always hear the sound of a clarinet, which — from the windows up high — would meander up to the top of leafy trees. It was not a pretty house and it certainly did not bring a smile to the people passing by.

The window shutters were hanging down like the eyebrows of sad eyes. The outside walls served as a perennial bed to the gigantic climbing vegetation and even the main front door was so misshapen that it appeared to be grinning with contempt and grief. In winter, he would always wear a long, black overcoat and a large hat with brims curved towards the bottom, while in summer, he would dress entirely in white. Shirt and pants were so big that his thin, tall figure would appear ghostly. His face was thin and sunken under his cheek bones and his eyes were set deep and overshadowed by his sockets, blocked and hidden from any observer.

His hair was long and smooth, down to his shoulders, by now partially grey, even though the age of the doctor was a mystery. When he would go to the village, he would speak to people in a very polite manner, often speaking in a polished style, not characteristic of that area. His speech was concise, just what was necessary and no more. Under no circumstances he had appeared hesitant when starting a conversation with unknown people. He was heard talking in public only once. It was when, at the market, a mother was screaming to her son, who apparently had stolen a pen from a man who sold stationary.

The woman hit him on the back, as she was screaming: I am hitting you also for having lied, for saying you did not steal that pen! Hermes was the one who told him to lie. And who is this Er When they found out, the young Hermes denied it repeatedly; he lied with strength and courage to the God who was accusing him. Faced by such impertinence, Apollo started to laugh and forgave him. Children must lie, Hermes tells them to.

When he would leave the house to do some shopping, he would walk on foot through the wooded area, dragging behind him a small four-wheel wooden cart on which he would load his supplies. The title of doctor had been given to him by the inhabitants of the village, as it looked like in the past he had practiced medicine. No one knew, however, what kind of medicine, nor if he ever had taken care of, or healed anybody. The elderly ladies were very suspicious and if they happened to meet him, they preferred to go another way.

Talk had it that he did not have any children and that he had moved to his house a long time before, following the untimely death of his young wife, whom, as a doctor, he apparently had not been able to save… Since then, he had been a recluse in his own house, a house where the only sound was that coming from his sad clarinet. Doctor Draconis lived in that area in great privacy and this had created stories, testimonies and fairy tales about him. One of the stories about Draconis around San Quirico was that while he was travelling around the world looking for answers to his questions, young Doctor Draconis met and fell in love with Suseri, a Japanese girl.

Once, unbeknown to him- he hid a poisonous spider in the pocket of a jacket hanging in the closet. As fate would have it, that morning, Draconis did not wear it when he left. The spider bit her and she fell on the ground, where she died after a few minutes. When Draconis returned home, he found her on the ground and tried to save her, unsuccessfully.

Word has it, that the grief was of such magnitude that the doctor from that day onward became a loner. The inhabitants of Porano had an addition to the story: Draconis would communicate with the spirit of the young Suseri through the sound of the clarinet. Someone also said he had seen him at night go down the well in front of his house and come out only in the morning. No one could tell if the stories were true or born from the imagination of the people. The truth of the matter is that Draconis was, by then, an integral part of that environment, just like the woods, the houses, the vineyards and the vegetable gardens.

That afternoon he was going with him to the Orvieto library to pick up some books Josh had ordered the week before. He climbed on the seat of the jeep that was already in motion and they took off on the white road leading to the highway. Markus had an open and sincere rapport with his father and often shared his interests leafing through his papers, articles and books. When the family moved to Italy, through the whole delicate moving phase, Josh had been very close to his son, trying his best to offer him a strong and firm support at a time of great uncertainty. As they were getting onto the highway, they met Ughino who was entering the road, going towards the Allen residence on his delivery tricycle.

I have to ask Ughino something. I will be right back. I can come by around six. Be at my house at six. Markus was lost in thought. I often think about him and I am tempted to go visit him to write an article. But Mary discourages me all the time On the other hand, not even Melampus was aware he was one! He was the first mortal granted divine powers by the gods. You know I love it when you tell me mythic stories! It was as if there was a universal mould for every occasion. Wait; let me think about the story He would understand the language of birds and insects because it seemed that two serpents, grateful for a favor, licked his ears.

The man had been sick since he was a young boy, ever since he had witnessed the sacrifice of two rams by his father, when he saw him walking holding a knife covered with blood. That sight made Ificlus sick, but no one understood that, with the exception of the two birds of prey that witnessed the fact. He ran to get the old knife that was still stuck in the trunk of a tree and made Ificlus drink the rust formed by the blood of the ram, dissolved in a little water.

Somehow, he had to get rid of that terrible image from his childhood, and perhaps the blood of the ram reminded him of that. And what does Melampus have to do with Draconis? It was just to show you that Melampus was a doctor without knowing it. They got out of the car and started walking towards the escalators that were climbing inside the hill like a worm making its way upwards inside an apple. All around, they were surrounded by the tuff walls of the gallery, the color of toasted hazelnuts. The gallery was a steep climb, until it exited near Piazza Raineri.

When they got off the escalators, the two turned to the right towards via Loggia dei Mercanti and when they stopped in front of the Piccolomini Hotel, they had to flatten against the wall to make room for a car with a powerful engine that was coming down the alleyway. Markus was familiar with that car. I am happy to see you. And since city hall gave us the license, it would be very useful if you could write an article for your American editors.

And the tourists would be very happy to know that here they could find the same food they eat in their own country! His small eyes hidden by the fat of his cheeks and his nose, flat above his swollen lips, made him truly grotesque. They said goodbye and as soon as the car was gone, Markus vented his disappointment: You even promised him you would write him an article? But I did not tell him what I will write in the article! As they were paying for their snack, Josh heard someone calling him: Come sit with us for a little while!

I find you very well. Looking towards the display case of the news vendor, Markus said: He said he is going to be at my house at six. We'll go there together. He motioned Markus who was approaching them. Then Angela turned to her mother saying: I will see you later, at home. Matilde used to go to the cemetery every week. She would clean and shine up the marble slab that had been guarding the memory of Anselmo, hear husband, for over ten years. To her, that visit was a pleasurable break from her daily monotony and after having taken care of the flowers, changed the water and washed the marble, she would sit on the stool she brought from home, and chat peacefully with Anselmo's smiling picture.

At the village, nothing new, except the seasonal tourists are coming and at least there is someone on the road. Fausto and Teresa are here too, and they say hello. I have always taken care of them you know, just like you used to do, and I remembered that in November you prune only the stems that didn't bloom during the season, leaving only the flowers dry on the other stems. Next spring you will have hydrangeas as large as watermelons! The lavender bush has grown a lot too. This time though, I am going to take all the branches off and make them into scented laundry baskets like my mother used to do when she was alive.

She told me that after the summer, Giovanna and she are going to city hall to convince them to put Paola Stoppa, that poor soul, in an institution, while Ughino is taken care of. Life was unkind to her since her birth, but now Ughino needs a normal life with a normal family. He needs someone to take care of him. This is another one of her lunacies: Did you know she comes on foot from Sugano? She never takes the bus and the road is very long! She was holding a bunch of small wild flowers she had likely picked up along the way and from time to time, she would put one in the vases of the loculus.

What are you saying? We give her wine, anytime she wants it! In the meantime, Paola seemed happy with her visit and she started moving towards the exit of the cemetery, lazily dragging her feet on the stone pavement. When she reached the large entrance gate, she turned towards the tombs one more time and observed them, turning her head from right to left in a collegiate greeting and exited towards the road.

From the back seat, Angela pointed to the woman and said: He then stopped in an open space. Markus got out of the car and moved towards the woman. Then, running, he caught up with her. After they left, Josh asked: Do you have someone there? Markus helped the woman get out of the car and accompanied her inside. On the way home, Josh — deep in thoughts — could only say: He was trying to shoot a basketball, but he was probably too short for that.

He waved cheerfully to all of them and Josh stopped the jeep. I am going in, have fun and Ughino placed the ball on the ground, tucked his shirt inside his pants and said: As soon as they reached the highway, they crossed it, entering an alley in the front that ran along the perimeter of a thicket. The other side of the road was delimited by grassy fields that sloped along the side of the hill; the grass was very tall and, for the most part, dry. We have to leave our bicycles next to the large oak tree. Then, they had left, for they thought they heard some steps coming down the stairs.

Markus remembered that day well, because it was very cold and on the way back home it had started to rain cats and dogs. They arrived in the vicinity of the turn to the inside of the wooded area. The pair on the tricycle was moving slower and at every pothole Ughino would jump really high, almost falling to the ground. She was standing by the road, looking in the direction of a tree. We almost hit you! She turned towards them, her mouth open and in disbelief, pointing to the tree. It was standing still in the middle of the road and would not move Then it opened his mouth and I thought it was about to speak!

It had an acorn in its paw and Then it retreated to the tree Markus bent down and grabbed an acorn in his hand. Suddenly acorns began to pour from the tree, hitting the children from up high, nonstop, as a thick hailstorm. As they stopped, Angela slid on the leaves and fell right next to the trunk of the big chestnut tree.

Angela was sitting on the ground, looking up high towards the top of the trees, in all directions. But what was wrong with those squirrels? It would have been impossible to use the bicycles. Unexpected notes, from very heavy to very light acute trills, the notes floated through the vegetation, to the ears of the children.

Two small bushes of red berries, like bony, bleeding hands marked the entrance to the garden. The three crossed the threshold of the fence, and found themselves in the green area in front of the house. The house seemed abandoned, as did everything else around it. In the middle of the area in front of the house, there was an old well made of rock stone, which brightly stood out against the green.

Angela and Markus kept approaching the front door of the house cautiously, when they realized that Ughino was moving towards the well. I want to see. You could not see the bottom, but along the side there was a long metallic ladder hooked onto a border stone. I thought there was some one Markus, was this here when we were here before?

I remember it very well. Markus, you go ahead. Markus looked at his friends, sighed and lifted his hand to knock. He knocked three times. The music stopped immediately and a cat meowed. The children heard noises of chairs and moved objects coming from the first floor, along with heavy steps on a wooden ladder and a muffled grumble. In the meantime, the cat must have reached the door, because the meows sounded much closer now and the steps were becoming heavier and sounder. The door snapped open, quickly, causing the three children to jump backwards.

In his hands, he was holding a long wondrous clarinet made of ebony. He was holding it like a club and between his feet— in a pair of leather sandals — standing upright, a grey cat with velvety hair was observing them annoyingly. There are many doctors around. He then turned towards the door and walked into the house, slamming the door. As he was climbing the stairs, you could hear him mumble: It was hard to tell whether Ughino was more frightened or disappointed after the short meeting. He stayed on the side, staring at the closed door, without saying a word.

Angela put her arm on his shoulders, pulling him back towards the garden. He then started walking behind his friends, his gaze to the ground, while the sky was turning red and the nocturnal animals lazily began to yawn and wake up. After midnight, the sky filled with a multitude of stars and even the smallest ones were visible to the naked eye, from the hills that were void of the luminous shine of the metropolis. You could also hear better. You could hear noises that during the day were hidden in the neglected acoustic background: But for Ughino, that was not a peaceful night.

He kept turning in his bed over and over again, jabbering words during his agitated sleep, while thinking back to the images of a cold rusty ladder, down the bottom of a well. A continuous metallic noise resonated in his ears, caused perhaps by an object hitting the steps of the ladder. In his sleep, he thought that was caused by the heel of a shoe, hitting an iron pole. He forced himself to open his eyes and in the darkness of the room, he looked up high towards the small open window that overlooked a small vegetable garden behind the house.

The light of the moon lit the window panes, which were protected by metallic grids. In the square of light projected on the wall, Ughino noticed a large shadow that was knocking lightly on the metal grid. The boy turned on the light on his night table and a faint soft light lit up the bluish walls of the room. Rubbing his eyes, he directed his attention to the small window, now able to see clearly what was happening. A large barn owl stood upright on the sill, hitting the metallic grid with its beak.

The animal appeared proud and composed, as if taking pleasure in his wonderful attire illuminated by the moon. The light of the moon, in fact, made the whiteness of his facial feathers shaped like a heart really stand out. Ughino loved all the animals in the countryside and the presence of the night bird truly did not bother him. The only thing that bothered him was the fact that the animal had woken him up, by hitting his beak on the grid. He had seen other barn owls during his summer nights on the hills, but that was unusually large. I am tired of hitting my beak against the grid; it was beginning to hurt!

The barn owl had spoken! His voice was similar to that of an unexpectedly disappointed old grouch.


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    • Ughino then got out of his bed and said: Come closer and listen to me. The barn owl continued: They are waiting for you there with all the instructions. I was dreaming of an iron ladder that was going down into But why do I have to go down there? I am a little scared. I have no time to waste. If you want to help your mother, go down the stair in the well and you will realize that it is not dangerous. That said, I bid you farewell. Slowly the boy sat at the side of the bed. Should he go down the metal stair? On the other side of the coin, how could he trust a night bird that spoke like an ill-tempered old man?

    A grey feather was right next to the grid. Would anybody ever believe him? He had to go. It was a lucky break he was allowed to bring Markus and Angela along. Without them, it would have been a real problem. Yes, it was still night, but who could have slept after that encounter? Ughino looked at his old alarm clock on the night table. It was three in the morning. He grabbed his pants and shirt off the chair and got dressed in a hurry, silently. He pushed the door aside lightly, but in the semidarkness of the moonlight through the window, he saw an empty bed! Yet, he remembered he had wished her good night, the night before and that she was already in bed.

    Maybe the barn owl had woken her up and she had gone into the kitchen to get a drink of water. The house, however, was immersed in darkness. He went into the small kitchen and turned the light on. As he was turning around, he thought he heard a soft noise coming from behind. He turned just in time to protect his head. Paola, from behind, lowered the bottle she was holding on the head of her son with all her might. She let an angry cry escape.

    Ughino jumped to the side to avoid the woman. Luckily, the boy was so agile that he managed not to get hit. While he was jumping around, he grabbed a towel and wrapped his bleeding hand in it. Go away, you and your snakes! There was no other choice: Ughino then ran out of the door, climbing the stairs that were leading to the road. As soon as he got outside, he jumped on his delivery bicycle and started to pedal with all his might.

    He pedaled and cried. He cried and sobbed. His bicycle, though, knew the way. Servo Inutile General field: E' un riflesso al " saeculorum " finale. Frutto delle preghiere dell'infanzia. Fin da bambino infatti, ho scorazzato nella chiesa di fronte alla mia casa. Una chiesa povera, austera come i suoi servitori.

    Burberi e severi frati Francescani Cappuccini. Quelli con la barba per intenderci. Ed ora sono qui. Se non osservassi l'orologio, uno Swatch da pochi soldi; un regalo delle mie figlie: Mi guardo intorno ed incrocio il volto dei colleghi. Nei loro occhi la medesima domanda: Vorrei poter sospendere tutto.

    Io non ho colpe. Ma rimango e in silenzio, mi rivolgo ai miei Santi. A San Giuseppe mio patrono. A San Giovanni della Croce di cui avevo un'immaginetta bellissima. A Santa Bernardetta che non posso dimenticare. Alla Madonna di sale che aveva mia nonna e che baciavo tutte le sere prima di andare a letto. Salvate, salvate la mia anima. Non potevi trovare una scusa?

    Bastava dire che non ti sentivi all'altezza. Bastava poco per non essere qui, cretino! Una paura atavica, ancestrale. Tutto quello che la mia formazione culturale non ammette. Anni di studi, anni di materie astruse come fisiologia, anatomia, patologia che impediscono di riconoscere quello che la fede non ha mai messo in dubbio. Rivolgo gli occhi a padre xxxy e tutto si placa.

    E' la sua voce che calma tutto. E una grande pace mi prende. La mia gola articola in silenzio: Sono venuto con il pellegrinaggio che la mia Diocesi organizza ogni anno. Un viaggio in treno di millecinquecento chilometri, un convoglio di ventiquattro carrozze per ottocento pellegrini; una bolgia pazzesca. E' la quinta volta che vengo con loro ma prima, per altre tre volte, da giovane, con un gruppo di amici, sono stato in questo posto. Mi si permetta, anche se potrebbe suonare blasfemo, di far riferimento alla mitologia.

    Ad Omero in particolare. Al canto delle sirene che irretiscono Ulisse. E' come se ci fosse un richiamo. Del consumismo sfrenato che circonda l'area sacra. Molti osservano di non aver visto nulla di particolare. Tanti sorridono ricordando le innumerevoli e variegate manifestazioni della fede popolare. Troppe persone sono ritornate da Lourdes a mani vuote.

    Era sufficiente leggere, prima di partire, il Vangelo di Matteo. E' questo quello che succede a Lourdes. A Lourdes quelli che sono ciechi nella fede: Quelli che zoppicano nella fede: Quelli che hanno una fede macchiata, piagata: Quelli che sono sordi al richiamo della fede: Quelli che sono morti nella loro fede: A tutti quelli che ascoltano: Caricare, senza disturbare alcuno, il mio tasso di nicotina nel sangue.

    Stavo appunto tirando a pieni polmoni che ti vedo arrivare costui. Avrei compreso in seguito l'importanza che quest'ultima rivestiva per lui. Posso fare una domanda? Il tono nasale e stentato mi fece subito capire che si trattava di un francese. Il vestito scuro, accompagnato da una camicia grigia, ed in particolare la piccola croce sul risvolto della giacca mi fecero pensare che fosse un sacerdote.

    Stavo per raccogliere nella mente una splendida risposta nella sua lingua che tra parentesi, amo tanto, quando lui mi precedette nuovamente. Non mi meravigliai per la sua perspicacia dato che indossavo un camice bianco e un fonendoscopio mi usciva di tasca. Avrei sempre potuto rifiutarmi in seguito, una volta conosciute le problematiche. Chiesi di che cosa si trattasse per potermi organizzare con eventuali sussidi terapeutici. Un prete, un malato, gli psichiatri.

    Stavo per dire che del paragrafo sulle ossessioni avevo studiato solo il titolo quando lui riprese: Quella sera, a cena, non stavo nella pelle. Non mi seppi trattenere e parlai con due miei colleghi di quello che mi era successo. Anche loro convennero sull'importanza di quell'esperienza. Nessuno di noi aveva mai assistito ad un esorcismo, se di questo forse si trattava. Si, malati psichiatrici ne avevamo visti anche noi ma nessuno che avesse manifestato qualche tipo di possessione.

    Avrei ringraziato in seguito per la loro presenza. Il giorno dopo, oggi, ci siamo trovati tutti e tre puntuali all'appuntamento. Il prete, padre xxxy ci aspettava assieme ad una suora. Nell'attesa che venga il malato, che ora sappiamo essere una malata, il padre ci spiega tutto quello che dobbiamo fare, quello che possiamo e quello che non dobbiamo fare. Mettetevi poi ai lati del malato.

    Non correrete alcun pericolo se vi atterrete a questi consigli. E questa sarebbe l'indemoniata? Vengo distolto dalla sua presentazione. So che siete preoccupati ma Io non ho mai fatto male a nessuno. E ci vorrebbe che questo simpatico criceto, possa farmi male! Hai dormito troppo poco. Il sacerdote si avvicina e saluta la ragazza. Strano, osservo, il prete non le ha dato la mano.

    La ragazza mi squadra e poi mi strizza l'occhio. Si china verso di me e sussurra: Sai, sono tre mesi che mi vede, due volte alla settimana. Qui non ci siamo! Mi sa che sto sbagliando tutto. Quando parla di Babilonia. Dopo, sono stata benissimo. Ma di cosa sta parlando? Quasi quasi me ne vado. Ad un cenno del padre lo seguiamo nella sacrestia. La ragazza viene mandata avanti, nella chiesa e il prete si rivolge a me. Dopo entriamo anche noi nella chiesa. E' una chiesa a navata unica.

    Con il soffitto in legno sorretto da architravi. Due file di panche sono separate da uno spazio, lungo fino in fondo. Le panche sono di legno, leggere e facilmente spostabili. Ci avviciniamo e il sacerdote ci indica i posti. Io mi siedo alla destra della ragazza. I miei due colleghi, uno a sinistra e uno dietro. Il prete si sposta di lato, a quasi due metri ed inizia la vestizione. Mentre ci guardiamo l'un l'altro, la suora sta armeggiando alle finestre. Ad una ad una le chiude e le spranga.

    Poi va alla porta da cui siamo entrati e la chiude a doppia mandata. Torno a guardare i colleghi e leggo nei loro occhi la stessa voglia di fuga. Di traverso, vedo la ragazza sorridere mentre si segna. Poi la voce lenta di padre xxxy ci raggiunge. Il suo latino fa compiere alla mia mente un balzo di trent'anni ed io entro nel coro dei frati.

    Rispondiamo sperando che il Signore non consideri gli errori di latino. This study was inspired by the idea that there is more diversity in the ways languages come into contact to create efficient and fair communication. The alternative mode explored in this study is called lingua receptiva or, LaRa: English as an Academic Lingua Franca: English is unquestionably the world language of academia--yet its most notable characteristic, being predominantly used by non-native speakers, has not seriously been taken on board in ESP descriptive studies. The project English as an academic lingua franca ELFA based at the University of Helsinki investigates academic discourses, branching out….

    Epistemic stance marking in the use of English as a lingua franca. A comparative study of the pragmatic functions of epistemic stance marking in problem-solving sequences at student project group meetings, with special emphasis on meetings where English is used as a lingua franca La chiesa antica nella storiografia italiana recente. Il contributo prende in esame problemi, tendenze e prospettive nella recente storiografia italiana , con particolare attenzione ai nodi interpretativi che le attuali indagini appaiono privilegiare sul tema della Chiesa nei primi secoli.

    The recent Italian studies in the history of ancient Church show many novelties and new approaches, related to the new interests and methodologies of the various sciences involved in the religious history of Antiquity. The paper deals with the problems and the trends in the recent Italian historiography, with special attention to the main subjects of the research about the Church in the first Christian centuries.

    Il caso della letteratura ucronica italiana. Ucronia e propaganda nella narrativa italiana. Full Text Available Oggetto dello studio sono le narrazioni ucroniche italiane del secondo dopoguerra, in comparazione con le principali opere anglosassoni del genere e in relazione con i movimenti di estrema destra. La problematica viene inquadrata con un approccio storico e le opere sono confrontate con i modelli stranieri in un'ottica comparativa.

    The use of English as a lingua franca in translation. Full Text Available In translation, not only two languages but two cultures come into contact which means that translators must consider who wrote the text, when, why, for whom and who is now reading it and for what purpose. In the wake of rapid technological advances and the need to spread information quickly and efficiently, translation has grown in importance in the globalized world.

    So has its reliance on English in its role as a global lingua franca. This is the linguistic hybridity used in constructing a wider view of the world. However, the prime aim of any lingua franca communication is mutual intelligibility. In this study , the translation of linguistic units can only be understood when considered together with the cultural contexts in which they arise, and in which they are used. Chinese English in as lingua franca in global business setting: A case study of ongoing emails of a foreign company in China. Full Text Available With the process of globalization, English has been increasingly become the lingua franca for people speaking different languages to communicate with each other, among whom the number of non-native speakers of English far outnumbers those native speakers in traditional sense.

    Against this background, the principle of taking the rules of native English speakers as the norms is undergoing challenges. The non-native speakers are claiming the ownership and rights of norm-providing to the English language Crystal, In business setting, this is especially true Charles, This paper intends to explore the use of Chinese English as lingua franca in business setting. Taking a foreign enterprise based in China as the case, this paper investigates over ongoing business e-mails written in English by its Chinese employees, including the management and other staff.

    Four most salient patterns of Chinese English structures are identified, i. Based on the afore-said analysis, this paper concludes that Chinese English, during the process of language contact, has become a legitimate English variation, and has been providing new norms for the other countries to follow.

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    It is suggested that business English users in China need to use their Chinese English with a confident stance, while business partners from other countries need to get familiar with this English variation in order for them to communicate effectively with their Chinese partners. The objective is to highlight some of the most typical features in relation to one of the most representative professionals in oral tourist communication, between expert and public: The first part of the article is devoted to the definition of the language of tourism and, in particular, to the characteristics of the.

    La letteratura italiana tradotta in Argentina. Il presente lavoro tratta in maniera sistematica, ma provvisoria, il panorama della letteratura italiana tradotta in Argentina. La Storia della letteratura italiana come romanzo. Describes a project to make a corpus of English spoken as a lingua franca in university settings in Finland.

    This corpus is one of the first to address the need for corpora that show the target for English-as-a-Foreign-Language learners whose goal is not to speak with native speakers but to interact in communities where English is a lingua franca. Older patients are prone to multimorbidity and polypharmacy, with an inherent risk of adverse events and drug interactions. To the best of our knowledge, available information on the appropriateness of lipid-lowering treatment is extremely limited.

    The aim of the present study was to quantify and characterize lipid-lowering drug use in a population of complex in-hospital older patients. Lipid-lowering drug use was closely correlated with the clinical profiles, including multimorbidity markers and polypharmacy. The patients treated with lipid-lowering drugs amounted to subjects At logistic regression analysis, the presence of coronary heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, and hypertension were significantly correlated with lipid-lowering drug use, whereas age showed an inverse correlation. Diabetes was not associated with drug treatment.

    In this in-hospital cohort, the use of lipid-lowering agents was mainly driven by patients' clinical history, most notably the presence of clinically overt manifestations of atherosclerosis. Increasing age seems to be associated with lower prescription rates. This might be indicative of cautious behavior towards a potentially toxic treatment regimen. The goal of this article is to re define key terminology in the study of English as a lingua franca ELF.

    Although the diverse perspectives and ideological standpoints represented in competing definitions of terms is appreciated, a critical conversation on definition and interpretation of ELF and other related concepts is crucial in providing a…. English has become the " lingua franca" of international exchanges. This is reflected in sociolinguistic studies of linguistic landscape LL which tackle the coexistence of English with local languages e. However, there is little…. Controversies on Hodgkin's disease and anaplastic large cell lymphoma. Just one year ago the Italian Society of Pathology S.

    Pasquale Calapso was asked to chair the Group and Prof. Stefano Pileri to take care of secretarial duties. The aim of the Group is to spread hematopathologic knowledge among young pathologists and to promote activities that can contribute to updating Italian pathologists on topics of both speculative and diagnostic interest. The first Workshop of the S. About pathologists from all over Italy took part in the meeting, which consisted of two sections devoted to: The first section included 5 presentations and a Round Table chaired by Prof.

    Below, the contributors to this section summarize the content of their presentations, which were aimed at answering specific questions the Organizers had put to them. This interdisciplinary field of knowledge is related to linguistics, pedagogic psychology, development psychology and acmeology.

    Lingua -pedagogy undergoes the formation process; therefore, there still are a number of open questions concerning its place among the other sciences, and the final definitions of the main concepts and terms. The author recommends the systematic approach to developing the theoretical foundation of lingua - pedagogy. The paper outlines the subject and aims of the lingua -pedagogic research, its content and affecting means. The system in question is poly- functional, its main functions being the integral pedagogic effect in foreign language teaching, stimulating self-dependent learning, and arranging the in- tercultural integration.

    The linguistic faculties at universities can be taken as the key elements of the lingua -pedagogic system — the development centers, nurturing the value-oriented respectful attitude to the native and foreign cul- ture, providing intercultural competence acquisition, and training pedagogic staff capable of fulfilling the poly-cultural development tasks.

    Identification of the conformities of intercultural socialization makes it possible to organize the system of pedagogic facilitation for students learning foreign languages; and develop the perspective methods and technologies of language competence acquisition and consolidation. Full Text Available The article deals with lingua -semiotic representation of the power ritual as one of the symbolic forms of behavior that over time ceases to be spontaneous and becomes regular and repeated.

    Under discussion is the rite of coronation, which was becoming more complicated and acquired a final form throughout the history of Anglo-Saxon statehood. The process of defining parameters and characteristics of the power ritual is performed by chrono-, topo-, sound and language components of the ritual; it is established that in ritual communication the verbalization of the event is gradually becoming more complicated, clarifying its linguistic component, which largely ensures the success of the ritual; the non-verbal signs acquire additional meaning becoming dominant over simplified verbal signs.

    It is proved that within the ritual space of the Anglo-Saxon statehood an extensive and rigidly fixed system of signs and symbols has been formed, nominating the process of interaction between the sovereign and his subjects — three groups of signs characterizing the Anglo-Saxon power ritual communication: Their content distinction is analyzed. Authority widely applies these signs as tools to influence the society through social stereotypes and ethnic psychological associations. Artifacts, as symbols of state power, and oaths, as discursive element of the coronation, are stated as the central elements of the ritual.

    Full Text Available The function of English as a lingua franca for communication needs rethinking in the teaching of English as a foreign language classroom as a consequence of globalisation. The present contribution is an empirical study carried out in an Italian university environment which aims to show how teachers should take on board awareness raising activities in the recognition of other varieties of English which, albeit not exploited as benchmarks for language testing and certification, must nevertheless boast a relevant place in the global scenario.

    This can be achieved in practical terms by interrogating an expressly made corpus of Chinese English news texts and carrying out simple concordance activities. There is a lack of research on the impact of study abroad SA on the development of L2 English when students study in non-anglophone countries. The English language sometimes fails in its ability to describe the severity or complexity of medical symptoms and complaints.

    In frustration, patients or families occasionally create new words to convey the subtleties of their medical history. Although medicine has created a comprehensive technical lexicon for physicians, we have failed to develop a corresponding patient-centric vocabulary lingua patientis that provides more accurate symptom description.

    The social networking of lingua patientis words might enhance history taking and afford improved appreciation of disease impact on individual patients. The English language is renowned for its capacity for flexibility and adaptability - we need to exploit this capacity for the benefit of our patients. A Lingua Franca for Africa. The actual possibilities for communication among Africans are unsatisfactory. While the north has adopted Arabic as its lingua franca, most African states south of the Sahara still use the language s of their former colonial masters as official languages, thereby neglecting their native languages.

    This situation excludes many people from higher…. This article will provide an overview of current research focussing on the use of English as a " lingua franca" in international business contexts. It selectively reviews research investigating the role of written and spoken communication in English and the work that has been done on specific text genres used by the international business…. English as a Lingua Franca: Over the past 15 years or so there has developed a school of thought within English language education and applied linguistics globally which refers to the phenomenon and use of English as a lingua franca ELF.

    The thinking of ELF movement researchers has placed their work at the centre of current debates about the form, function and legitimacy…. It has long been maintained that the etymology of zani, zanni — the servant or buffoon of the commedia dell'arte — is a northern Italian variant of the proper noun Giovanni, or its shortened form, Gianni. In Tommaseo and Bellini's Dizionario della lingua italiana , published in Turin between and , it is stated that the The analysis of speech, particularly for emotional content, is an open area of current research. Ongoing work has developed an emotional speech corpus for analysis, and defined a vowel stress method by which this analysis may be performed.

    This paper documents the development of Lingua Tag, an open source speech analysis software application which implements this vowel stress emotional speech analysis method developed as part of research into the acoustic and linguistic correlates of emotional English as a lingua franca used at international meetings. Full Text Available The paper deals with the use of English as a lingua franca. It concentrates on the environment of international meetings where English is used as a lingua franca.

    The aim of the research conducted through a survey of members of a NATO working group is to find out how native and non-native speakers feel about English used as a lingua franca during international meetings and how these two groups of speakers see each other in multinational interaction from the point of view of linguistics. The sections dealing with non-native speakers concentrate on the level of knowledge of English and on how native speakers cope with the English used during the meetings.

    The sections dealing with the views of English native speakers should establish the approach they take towards mistakes made by non-native speakers, whether native speakers should adjust the way they speak at international meetings and how they generally view the fact that their mother tongue is used all around the world. The origin of the notion of P. Exploring solidarity and consensus in English as lingua franca interactions.

    The purpose of this paper is two-fold: These instances are dealt with through laughables and laughter sequences. Sequential analysis of these naturally occurring audio-recorded conversations indicate that participants make salient and orient to what Un sistema di supporto alle decisioni per Rete Ferroviaria Italiana. It traditionally operates with a consistent view on innovation, safety and quality, and with a strong opening to processes optimization.

    RFI solutions provide total process integration: Italian as lingua franca, the law of connected vessels and the improvement of the results into the multilingual class. About a teaching experience. Influenze lunguistiche romanze nello sloveno letterario di Trieste. La lingua di Boris Pahor. Per comparare il comparabile sono state messe a confronto alle opere di Pahor v.

    Full Text Available The issue of the interference of English in modern Italian has always been of interest to researchers in Italy. This paper outlines how this interference has affected the Italian language over the last two decades. Arrigo Castellani and Tullio De Mauro. The most widespread English loanwords of the economic crisis found in the three major Italian newspapers from 1 September to 1 March have been taken into account and it has been verified whether they are present in three wellknown Italian monolingual dictionaries.

    It will also be shown that most of these loanwords have been adequately integrated into the Italian language in both written and oral texts. Curriculum Guide for Italian Language Arts. A curriculum and teaching guide for introductory literature appreciation in the Chicago public schools is an orientation for the bilingual teacher of Italian students. Concepts such as rhyme and personification are developed for the teacher. For each of the two levels included, the section begins with a list of specific performance objectives,….

    The historical issue in film genre Commedia all ' italiana: Full Text Available The theme chosen for this article was to join "Cinema and History" to the cinematographic genre commedia all' italiana. First, there is a general introduction that discusses the italian genre. Promoting lingua franca English in Europe. The paper is based on a longitudinal study of factors influencing the local language learning and the improvement in English language proficiency among exchange students coming to Scandinavia. The study included four Scandinavian universities: The paper presents findings on the students' perceived patterns of interaction and language use while in Scandinavia and discusses some of the consequences of EU exchange programs on the use of ELF English as a lingua franca in higher education.

    The last decade has brought a number of changes for higher education in continental Europe and elsewhere, a major one being the increasing use of English as a lingua franca ELF as the medium of instruction. With this change, EAP is faced with a new group of learners who will need to use This overview paper first discusses the changes that have taken place in the field of EAP in terms of student body, followed by an outline of the main findings of research carried out on ELF.

    It is argued here that EAP needs to be modified accordingly to cater for the needs of this group. These revolve around the two major issues: If the aim of EAP I tre giorni del congresso sono stati caratterizzati da letture, sessioni scientifiche, corsi educazionali, incontri con gli esperti, sezioni poster, corsi di aggiornamento su temi speciali, e diversi simposi. Dal punto di vista clinico, sono The Development of Lingua Bytes: Full Text Available Young children with multiple disabilities e.

    Stimulating the adult-child communication can decrease these limitations. Within Lingua Bytes, a three-year research program, we try to stimulate language development by developing an interactive and adaptive play and learning environment, incorporating tangible objects and multimedia content, based on interactive storytelling and anchored instruction. The development of a product for such a heterogeneous user group presents substantial challenges.

    We use a Research-through-Design method, that is, an iterative process of developing subsequent experiential prototypes and then testing them in real-life settings, for example, a center for rehabilitation medicine. Can Englsh fulfil the role of a Lingua Franca? Full Text Available Abstract — The debate which surrounds the role of English as a lingua franca has been lively and extensive over the last twenty years or so.

    Numerous conferences and specific publications in the field testify to the interest and importance that the question of the development of a possible international functional language has stimulated. The present article aims to critically reassess the claims made for ELF and, at the same time, highlight the profound significance of the issues the debate has raised. Discussion of ELF has touched upon the perception of linguistic diversity, inaccuracy and variation, intelligibility and the potential functions of an international language.

    Other topics of profound importance that are part of the debate relate to the role of any language in creating and maintaining identity, enabling social mobility and empowering its users. Some criticisms of ELF proposals have been easily rebutted, but this paper aims to underline the serious linguistic and socio-linguistic aspects of the debate in order to emphasize the need for a theoretical underpinning to our understanding of how language can operate in the global environment.

    Clarification of what we can and cannot know about language change and behavior will also contribute to ideas as to future research in ELF but will also bring us to the conclusion that predictions of the future development of ELF are of little purpose beyond the curiosity value they may possess. English1; lingua franca2; non-native speaker3. Luces y sombras de la historia de la renta italiana. La contabilidad nacional se ha planificado en Italia sin dar lugar a una democracia liberal, como fue el caso de los Estados Unidos.

    La narrativa italiana racconta la politica contemporanea. Full Text Available Recensione di: Claudia Boscolo e Stefano Jossa a cura di, Scritture di resistenza. Sguardi politici dalla narrativa italiana contemporanea, Roma, Carocci Editore, , p. Clinical strategies for the management of intestinal obstruction and pseudo-obstruction. Moreover, a general agreement in this field is currently lacking, thus SICUT Society designed a consensus study aimed to define their optimal workout.

    The Delphi methodology was used to reach consensus among 47 Italian surgical experts in two study rounds. Consensus was defined as an agreement of Four main topic areas included nosology, diagnosis, management and treatment. A bowel obstruction was defined as an obstacle to the progression of intestinal contents and fluids generally beginning with a sudden onset.

    Panel also recommended a surgical admission, a multidisciplinary approach, and a gastrografin swallow for patients presenting occlusions. Criteria for immediate surgery included: Moreover, rules for non-operative management to be conducted for maximum 72 hours included a naso-gastric drainage placement and clinical and laboratory controls each 12 hours.

    Conversely, consensus was not reached regarding the exact timing of CT scan and the appropriateness of colonic stenting. This consensus is in line with current international strategies and guidelines, and it could be a useful tool in the safe basic daily management of these common and peculiar diseases. Delphi study , Intestinal obstruction, Large bowel obstruction, Pseudo-obstruction, Small bowel.

    Front-line window therapy with cisplatin in patients with primary disseminated Ewing sarcoma: Response was assessed using the Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumours criteria, and Simon's two-stage design was applied.

    La speranza del gesto educativo (Collana Quaderni Vol. 4) (Italian Edition)

    Twelve consecutive patients were enrolled in stage 1. Only one objective response was observed. Since the target response rate was not achieved, accrual was stopped and CDDP as a single agent in ES was judged unworthy of further assessment. The use of anthracycline at first-line compared to alkylating agents or nucleoside analogs improves the outcome of salvage treatments after relapse in follicular lymphoma The REFOLL study by the Fondazione Italiana Linfomi.

    Follicular lymphoma FL patients experience multiple remissions and relapses and commonly receive multiple treatment lines. A crucial question is whether anthracyclines should be used at first-line or whether they would be better "reserved" for relapse and whether FL outcome can be optimized by definite sequences of treatments. Randomized trials can be hardly designed to address this question. The addition of rituximab to first-line chemotherapy had no significant impact HR: Autologs stem cell transplantation performed better than any other salvage treatment HR: The outcome of second-line treatments, either with salvage chemoimmunotherapy or with autologs stem cell transplantation, was better when an anthracycline-containing regimen was used at first-line.

    Repertori retorici e negoziazione culturale nei racconti di vita di rifugiati: Lingua Franca e implicazioni ideologiche. Full Text Available Abstract — This chapter analyses the storytelling performance of an asylum seeker speaking in English for an international audience and recorded on a video released by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The primary purpose of the study is to investigate the rhetorical structuring of the narrative in an ethnopoetic perspective Hymes , and to identify the presence or, even more significantly, marked absence of dialogic signs of intercultural negotiation deployed in the process of conveying to a culturally diverse audience a highly culturally situated story embedded in a personal narrative of displacement.

    At the same time, the study also intends to contribute to the current debate on English as a Lingua Franca ELF by addressing the issue of the inherently situated nature of ELF, and of the political and ideological implications of an ELF approach to intercultural communication in both asymmetric and programmatically symmetric power situations. Because of their global outreach, these videos qualify as instances of ELF usage in a broad international context and are eminently suited to the investigation and discussion of ELF approaches to conventionally asymmetric institutional communication.

    The growth of English into a lingua franca has inevitably created linguistic deviations and innovations in the use of English. These emerging uses that result from the needs and preferences of speakers whose mother tongues are all different can be broadly identified as lexico-grammatical and pronunciation features and they compose one of the main….

    The main feature of Monty Lingua is the coverage for all aspects of English text processing from raw input text to semantic meanings and summary generation, yet each component in Monty Lingua is loosely-coupled to each other at the architectural and code level, which enabled individual components to be used independently or substituted. However, there has been no review exploring the role of Monty Lingua in recent research work utilizing it.

    This paper aims to review the use of and roles played by Monty Lingua and its components in research work published in 19 articles between October and August We had observed a diversified use of Monty Lingua in many different areas, both generic and domain-specific. Although the use of text summarizing component had not been observe, we are optimistic that it will have a crucial role in managing the current trend of information overload in future research. Il panorama editoriale italiano offre pochi strumenti dedicati: Il linguaggio della medicina, Bonacci, e Daniela Forapani, Italiano per medici, Alma edizioni, Particolare attenzione viene prestata al lessico registrato nei glossari dei volumi.

    Learning the language of medicine in l2: Italian publishers offer few dedicated tools: Il linguaggio della medicina, Bonacci, and Daniela Forapani, Italiano per medici, Alma editions, This study aims to compare the two texts, highlighting their features and language teaching setting, showing how linguistic content is proposed, which skills are promoted, what the learning objectives are and what tools are provided.

    Particular attention is paid to the vocabulary in the glossaries. Incoming exchange students' learning and use of lingua franca English and local languages in Scandinavia. Each interview concluded with two tests: Findings relating to the interviewees' language goals, interaction with others and language use in such interaction will be presented and discussed Full Text Available Si fa una breve desorizione della funzione degli Osservatori Scientifico-Sperimentali del Servizio Meteorologico deU'Aeronautioa, militare italiana OSSMA, con particolare riferimento a quello di Messina, clie tra i suoi coinpiti ha anche quello degli studi e delle ricerclie sulla radiazione solare, con la gestione di una Rete attinometrica di 31 stazioni.

    Si passa quindi ad una rapida rassegna evocativa degli studi sulla radiazione solare su scala mondiale, notificando il contributo italiano e mettendo in particolare rilievo quelli della radiazione globale D -j- I anche a scopo sinottico, che formano oggetto di particolari applicazioni da parte dell'OSSMA di Messina. Inoltre fatta una breve descrizione del funzionamento della Rete attinometrica A.

    Detti fenomeni, unitamente all'azione delle correnti superflciali marine calde, a circolazione ciclonic. Si auspica pertanto una maggiore collaborazione t r a Meteorologia e Oceanografla. Inline, in relazione tra i fenomeni sopra detti e l'andamento della acqua precipitabile notturna e diurna, ricavata dai radiosondaggi, si emette l'ipotesi che una parte dell'ossigeno atoinico atmosferico possa trovare la sua origine nella scomposizione delle molecole del vapor d'acqua dell'aria,.

    Filmowa commedia all' italiana w latach In the time of 70's Italian and foreign critics thought about possibility of existence comedy movie all' italiana. Turn of the unmodernised time, comedy movie all' italiana will come into impure hybridize form. The deepest transformation give way for comedy of manners. Directors bravely trespass on politic sphere and kitsch, movie scribblers and pornography. Old masters of this genres has duplicated typical features schematic diagrams, they used incompetent narrative techniques and differen Ma come parlano i bambini stranieri nati in Italia?

    Second generation Italian speakers. In Italian schools there is an important change which regards foreign children enrolled: How do foreign children, born in Italy, speak? This observational study focused on some foreign 5-year-old children in Italian preschools and attempted to describe the language used by these second-generation speakers, between hesitations, silences, achievements and linguistic creativity.

    Il concetto di storia della lingua nell'opera grammaticale di Benedetto Buommattei. A questo dato di fatto si deve senz'altro l'opinione altrettanto estesa che prima dell' non esistesse il concetto di linguistica diacronica o cambiamento linguistico in senso scientifico, come pure quella non meno erronea che la linguistica, come scienza, sia stata fondata solo nell' In formal organizations, VCs are regarded as dynamic; people or work processes move back and forth between formal business processes and VCs. It is interesting to see how VCs in enterprise landscapes can execute using a common understanding Applied Linguistics, Marxism, and Post-Marxist theory.

    My reading leads me to claim that traditional Marxist thinking is compromised by its association with authoritarian and totalitarian stances, as opposed to Post-Marxist views of pluralism, libertarianism, and openness to the cultural climate of postmodernism. Estudio comparativo de los aportes de las inmigraciones italiana y portuguesa a la vida nacional venezolana. This article explores the issues of pronunciation and comprehension in the English as a lingua franca ELF context of pilot--air traffic controller radiotelephony communication, and how these are handled in the proficiency rating scale globally used to assess pilots and air traffic controllers engaging in international flight and air traffic….

    Planning for a Global Lingua Franca: In this paper I outline the challenges for feminist language planning in the context of a global lingua franca--English. Drawing upon the views of speakers of "World Englishes" I discuss their reactions as well as reported practices in relation to gender-inclusive language use. This reveals the complexities of managing the tension between the…. Determinati e direttrici della politica finanziaria italiana. Determinants and trends of Italian financial policy. Altri due tendenze - privatizzazione e deregolamentazione - sono stati molto meno in primo piano rispetto al resto del mondo.

    L'autore fornisce un'ampia panoramica dello stato della politica finanziaria italiana , guardando le circostanze economiche e le politiche macroeconomiche , l'innovazione finanziaria , il processo di liberalizzazione e privatizzazione di regolamentazione. Italian financial policy in the eighties has been aimed mainly at improving the relevant segments and achieving a better mix of the whole range of instruments and intermediaries.

    Two other trends - privatisation and deregulation - have been much less to the fore than the rest of the world. The author provides a broad overview of the state of Italian financial policy, looking at economic circumstances and macro-economic policies, financial innovation, the deregulation-regulation process and privatisation. Suitability of linear scoring in meat sheep: Full Text Available Linear scoring is widely applied in domestic animal species, mainly in cattle and horses. There are only few cases of linear scoring in sheep, probably because the small body size and the narrow range of the classes make difficult to correctly evaluate the measures.

    In this paper the results of a linear scoring test carried out on Merinizzata Italiana sheep breed in order to verify the feasibility of this method in sheep, are reported. Twenty untrained people, with three different levels of scoring experience in meat sheep morphology, evaluated 52 pluriparous ewes for body length, chest circumference, chest width, rump height, rump width, and withers height; to check for misclassification, their scores were compared with a reference score, previously obtained measuring the same animals by the suitable tools measuring tape and a Lydtin stick.

    The percentage of correct scoring ranged from These results encourage to further verifying in practice the linear scoring in the Merinizzata Italiana sheep and in other meat breeds. Lists statistical surveys, research papers, and…. Conceptualising English as a lingua franca ELF as a tertiary To explore the clinical characteristics and speech therapy of 62 children with lingua -apical articulation disorder. PPVT was used to measure receptive vocabulary skills. The speech test was adopted to assess the speech development.

    The children received speech therapy and auxiliary oral-motor functional training once or twice a week. Firstly the target sound was identified according to the speech development milestone, then the method of speech localization was used to clarify the correct articulation placement and manner. It was needed to change food character and administer oral-motor functional training for children with oral motor dysfunction. The 62 cases with the apical articulation disorder were classified into four groups. The combined pattern of the articulation disorder was the most common 40 cases, The third was palatal disorder 4 cases, 6.

    The substitution errors of velar were the most common Oral motor dysfunction was found in some children with problems such as disordered joint movement of tongue and head, unstable jaw, weak tongue strength and poor coordination of tongue movement. Some children had feeding problems such as preference of eating soft food, keeping food in mouths, eating slowly, and poor chewing. After 5 to 18 times of therapy, the effective rate of speech therapy reached The lingua -apical articulation disorders can be classified into four groups. The combined pattern of the. Data came from a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews.

    A hundred Turkish EFL teachers working at two universities in Istanbul responded to the questionnaire. Ten randomly selected EFL teachers and 10 teacher educators working in language teacher education departments of two universities were interviewed to elicit their views about the role of ELF in language teacher education. Findings of the study revealed a number of important results and implications for the field.

    Full Text Available The parallel existence of languages and cultures brings forward the necessity of studying this linguistic phenomenon and designing special methods of speech development for the bilingual children. The particular attention should be given to the preschool age, for according to A. The peculiarities of language interference are described with the reference to the Russian-Tatar bilingual environment. The author believes that the bilingual interference problems are not caused by the phonetic and grammar system differences of the two languages.

    To find out the potential source of inter-language transition and interrelations between the native and non-native languages, it is necessary to identify the cognitive, neurolinguistic and psycho-linguistic aspects. Therefore, the regional phenomenon of mass bilingualism among the Tatar population is examined by the author in the framework of the psycho-linguistic and cognitive approaches.

    The paper presents the model of the lexical and grammar categories formation based on differentiated preschool teaching of the bilingual children. The proposed model makes it possible to overcome the limited viewpoint on the general speech dysfunctions, as well as the specifics of lexical and grammar categories development. It can be used for the further development of educational programs in psycho-linguistics, ethno-linguistics, onto-linguistics, cognitive linguistics, social-linguistics, contrastive linguistics and the language theory by means of extending the teaching course content.

    Polilinguismo nella scrittura murale urbana: Note sulla lingua spagnola. Full Text Available Abstract — In this paper I focus on the polylinguistic and polycultural landscape of Milan on the theoretical basis of daily life studies , the sociolinguistics of globalization, and intercultural pragmatics. The relevance of this field is determined by the need for urban anthropology to semiotize the urban spaces as an interpretative bridge between the microsystem the individual level and the macrosystem the social level.

    More concretely, I investigate the presence of the Spanish language in the superdiversity of Milan and, methodologically, I collect ethnographically and interpret qualitatively a corpus of daily life texts of various types of street writing. The results show the significant presence of Spanish in the urban landscape and a high level of hybridism which is, nevertheless, totally functional in communication.

    I also detect the emergence of linguistic, pragmatic and intercultural awareness in the writers. Finally, with some precautions, I confirm the scientific potential of the daily life documents to investigate complex urban dynamics. Il valore di questo approccio risiede nel privilegiare una messa in discussione della corrispondenza univoca tra due termini in due diverse lingue: Focus on language sensitivity: Reporting on the preliminary findings of an ongoing research project into the use of translation in language learning at the University of Warwick, UK in collaboration with the University of Monash, Australia, the authors investigate the advantages of a specific translation model in terms of linguistic sensitivity and cultural awareness.

    Full Text Available The article is written to identify lingua -cultural norms and axiological determinants of modern ergonomicon of Kazan implemented in borrowings from foreign languages, they serve markers of major changes in the linguistic landscape of the modern city viewed as a socio-linguistic category. The borrowed elements in the city ergonyms register synchronous state of axiological determinants of participants of interaction: The common significance of the language of this kind of phenomena is determined by the possibility of using them to predict the range and diversity of linguistic and axiological changes, including the partial loss of national and ethnic identity.

    To create a high perlocutionary effect of ergonyms nominators use a variety of creative mechanisms, changing the shape and functions of native lexems, by borrowing lexems from foreign languages, resorting to different methods of derivation such as contamination, transliteration, hybridization, pun, etc. Unfortunately, at present time these processes demonstrate fast increase. Most clearly this kind of phenomenon is explicated in preferred nominator names of urban sites, and advertising slogans, transmitting an alien principles and postulates to traditional Russian culture. La cultura italiana en la literatura argentina: Las cartas de Manuel Puig Querida Familia: La lingua 2 nel Web.

    Full Text Available L'articolo si compone di due parti. Nella prima si espongono alcuni punti focali del dibattito sul rapporto tra glottodidattica e tecnologie digitali dai dispositivi mobili ai software per la comunicazione, fino agli attuali socialnetwork. L2 on the Web. Digital perspectives for teaching italian to foreignersThe article consists of two parts. In the first we illustrate some focal points in the debate on the relationship between language teaching and digital technologies from mobile devices to communication software and current social networks. In particular, we focus on the fact that the language of digital communication is a linguistic variety which L2 teaching can no longer ignore, and.

    Full Text Available La lingua filmata appare oggi uno dei campi linguistici in cui il dialetto torna ad essere scelta registica e veicolo di nuove istanze comunicative, in stretta relazione con un nuovo modo di intendere e praticare il cinema. Through careful analysis of the vernacular, the paper focuses on the motivations and the communicative effectiveness of the use of dialect and questions the degree of realism or linguistic mimesis that Diritti was able to reach.

    A New Exegetical proposal for De lingua Latina 5, 8. A group of undergraduate students was asked to produce an intralingual translation for the subtitles of the video Capsized in Lampedusa — Fortress Italia, which deals with the situation in Lampedusa after a boat capsized in October Young children with multiple disabilities e. Within Lingua Bytes, a three-year research program,. From a sociocultural perspective, this study…. Il cuore del saggio si incentra sull'analisi comparativa tra la versione daveroniana e l'ipotesto manzoniano, con particolare attenzione alle scaturigini del comico.

    When the parody of Promessi Sposi was sent to press, Guido da Verona did not imagine he was committing the crime of lese-majesty with regard to the Manzonian totem, nor that it would be blacklisted by the Fascist regime. This paper shows that, based on the analysis of the manuscript, the author's intention was not satirical, but a playful parody. It is a comparative analysis between the da Verona version and the Manzonian hypertext, with particular attention placed on the origin of the comic.

    Besides highlighting the traits that characterize the text brimming with linguistic wit by da Verona, the paper describes the comedic strategies used by the author based on the characters and situations, as well as in the discourse itself. The analysis shows how the comic meaning and the breaking of logical and temporal links crack the orderly vision of the world and the language carefully. In this thesis I investigate the understanding and use of the English emotion words guilty, ashamed, and proud by Japanese and Chinese speakers of English as a lingua franca.

    By exploring empirical data I examine 1 how Japanese and Chinese participants understand and use the three stimulus words In the thesis 65 participants are investigated. The participants consist of 20 native Japanese and 23 native Chinese. For comparison, a group of 22 British native English The framework, which is based on the theoretical notion of the word as an image-idea pair as suggested by the theory of linguistic supertypes, consists of three tests each addressing three different aspects of the understanding and use of the stimulus words: Online tools and technologies for teaching and learning languages This article analyzes the development of technologies aimed at online communication in the 2.

    The first part describes the current situation of the Internet, with its technological resources and peculiarities with respect to teaching. It is more and more important to keep in mind the new communication. However, the term 'best' is often indefinite and based on subjective elements. The aim of this study is to compare the Spanish, English and Italian leagues by using the ELO rating system to determine which league is more homogeneous in terms of balance between the teams. The level of interest in a league largely depends on the uncertainty of outcome or the competitive balance between the teams.

    If there is a competitive imbalance between the teams then the competition loses interest because the expected results coincide with the real results, namely the 'top' teams always win against the others. This can damage the spectacle, and therefore the earnings produced — especially in the case of television.

    Language Policy and Planning: The Case of Italian Sign Language. The acronym LIS derives from Lingua italiana dei segni "Italian language of signs" , although nowadays Italians refers to LIS as Lingua dei segni italiana , reflecting the more appropriate phrasing "Italian sign language. Lingua del calcio come una lingua settoriale. Full Text Available The main motives of this article involve tecnical terms used by journalists in the Italian football press. The paper presents the Italian of football, its multiple aspects and its characteristics as a special language.

    The aim of this article, in which we also consider the popularity of football press in Italy, is to analyse its semantic, stylistic, syntactic and textual features. This study focuses on the validation in the Italian context of the Brand Personality Scale developed by Jennifer Aaker. Five hundred and three Italians participated to this study.

    Bulgari's personality was assessed by means a questionnaire containing the Italian translation of the 42 traits of Aaker's Brand Personality Scale. Respondents rated how much each trait described Bulgari's personality. Results from exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses did not supported Aaker's Brand Personal More specifically it aims to evaluate to what extent large organizations in Italy attribute strategic value to the function of communication, with a particular focus on the degree of its institutionalization and the strategic contribution provided by Italian CCOs to organizational competitiveness and success.

    According to our findings, PR function has established itself within organizational structure, and Italian CCOs have become increasingly involved in strategic organizational decision processes. Our study allows us to outline a precise description of current trends within large organizations in Italy in terms of communication function and its role.

    Furthermore this study enriches the stream of research concerning institutionalization of PR and strategic communication as well as it provides practitioners and scholars with precise insights into the strategic role of communication and its link with innovation. Ossian e Shakespeare nella letteratura italiana tra fine Settecento e primo Ottocento. The work is structured in a chronological itinerary that intersects different literary genres, periods and persona Dirlo o non dirlo? Discrezione in situazioni imbarazzanti nella cultura italiana e in quella olandese. Full Text Available To say or not to say?

    Discretion in embarrassing situations in Italian and Dutch cultureHow tactful are Italians and the Dutch in embarrassing situations? This comparative study seeks to determine the factors that affect the degree of direction and communicative strategy used by native speakers of Italian and Dutch when involved in a situation that may cause embarrassment.

    The data were collected by means of a multiple-choice questionnaire and a discourse completion task. The results show that the two groups use the same strategies. However, a qualitative analysis at the lexical level reveals that Italian speech acts also contain discourse markers lenitives, downtoners, apologies, etc. Il Concilio Vaticano II nella stampa comunista italiana In order to improve the Christian spirit in history, these changes renewed some ways of action and the positions of Catholicism in the contemporary age. Full Text Available Background: Prevalently reported in children, eosinophilic esophagitis has recently been reported with increased frequency also in adults.

    Patients were excluded if gastric or duodenal biopsies showed a prominent eosinophilic infiltrate. The main clinical complaints were dysphagia, food impaction, and heartburn, and endoscopic findings consisted of mucosal thickening and inelasticity, longitudinal shearing, rings, and white specks, without difference between adults and children for both clinical and endoscopic variables. The two Spanish versions and , unlike the Italian one, are free reworkings of the original, in the sense that they alter the structure, transform the text and shape it to new ends.