Topic Five: Euthanasia & the Law

I think that Euthanasia is really a complex matter - it includes philosophy, religion and morals... It's a controversial legal problem above all, because nobody knows how to behave in situations like the case of Piergiorgio Welby or Terri Schiavo, so no one could tell exactly what is Right or Wrong. In my opinion Italian Law should be less inflexible about Euthanasia - that is the only solution sometimes - particularly when the patient himself wants to die (we call it ''eutanasia attiva volontaria''). Maybe there's more to discuss about it if the patient can't express his will by himself. Nowadays Italian Law is very severe towards every kind of Euthanasia - it is considered a crime and who practises Euthanasia is practically a murderer according to our Codice Penale.
Anyway something is going to change in Italy as well. For example, the anaesthetist who was accused of the murder of Piergiorgio Welby (Mario Riccio) was finally acquitted. Maybe Euthanasia isn't always a crime...

Conditionals and other Hypotheticals

(A) Find an example for each type from the sentences below.
1. If I went out tonight , I would see John but I’m going to stay in. ----> 2nd conditional
2. If I had gone out last night, I would have seen John. ----> 3rd conditional
3. If I go out, I see John, he’s always in the pub. ----> 0 conditional
4. If I go out tonight, I will see John, he said he was going into the West End. ----> 1st conditional
5. If I couldn’t speak English well, I wouldn’t have gone on the Erasmus programme. ----> Mixed 2/3
6. If we had listened to the instructions properly, we would know what to do. ----> Mixed 3/2


(B) Other modals apart from will and would can also be used. Now add the sentences below to the groups above.
1. If you hadn’t reminded me, I might have forgotten his birthday. ----> 3rd conditional
2. If I had the money, I could lend it to you. ----> 2nd conditional
3. If you get sick, you should see a doctor. ----> 0 conditional
4. If you make an appointment, you can see the doctor tomorrow. ----> 1st conditional


Look at the 3 sentences below. How is each situation different? (n.b. they are all present situations)
(a)If the train is late, what do you do?
(b)If the train is late, what will you do?
(c)If the train was late, what would you do?

Which speaker:
Lives in Germany where the trains are never late? ----> Speaker C
Lives in Italy where the trains are sometimes late? ----> Speaker B
Lives in England where the trains are always late? ----> Speaker A

Topic Four: Barack Obama

I think that lawyers must be interested in politics, because there are lots of connections between law and politics. Just think of costitutional lawyers, who are practically politicians. It's positive that many lawyers go into politics, because they are supposed to be qualified people and to make the right choices when it's necessary. Anyway lawyers aren't always good politicians - it depends on the fact if you are a GOOD lawyer or not! Obama was a lawyer and a professor: hope he'll do his best!

Podcasts

I've tried the podcasts out, and I've appreciated them - even if MTV website doesn't interest me very much... I think it isn't a serious channel, it's good only for very young people... BBC website is very well organised - there are many browse podcasts of different radio stations, so you can choose anything you like! Anyway I prefer to watch BBC TV channel, where you can hear the authentic British English pronunciation. Capital radio is a good alternative as well - you can hear spoken English and the latest hits!

B2 Assessment: Writing

I think that the most important legal matter concerning Italy today is the growing importance of the European Union as a law maker. Nowadays we live in a global world, and globalization has influenced our law system as well. That means that we can’t examine the constitutional law like we used to do fifty years ago, when the main law maker was the State (and partially the regions). Today Italy is a member of E.U., and there are some international organizations that make law – the most important ones are O.N.U. and W.T.O. . When one of these organizations issues a directive, this must be respected by every single nation.
What is the main advantage of this new situation? Supervision of course. O.N.U. was born after the Second World War to guarantee international peace, and it has the same function still nowadays. W.T.O. was born to supervise international trade in order to avoid that rich countries grow richer and poor countries grow poorer.
Anyway Italy is getting used to the new context a bit slowly. That’s the problem. Constitutional law needs to be revised, but Italian people aren’t usually up-to-date… For example, you may read in some books expressions like ‘’the supreme power of the State’’, that are old concepts. This is why having a good professor is very important!

Topic Three: Lord Denning

I didn't know anything about Lord Denning, probably because I'm not an English law student... I've read something about him now. He seems to be an innovator, someone who has definitely changed the common law system with his inventions - obviously he wasn't appreciated by everyone because of some of his decisions. But his importance is proved by the admiration that law students have for him and by the Order of Merit he received in 1997. He was also a controversial figure, because he made some infamous decisions during his career. Anyway charismatic people are always controversial figures!

Ten Mistakes!

The day began like any other. I’d started to get ready for school when I turned on the radio. The announcer said that the Wall was down. I couldn’t help WONDERING if I was dreaming, it was so unbelievable. I thought I’d better hurry to school to see what was happening. In the school playground, everyone seemed to be very happy and excited. Then the head teacher came out. He said he wanted US TO join in the celebrations and so would let us HAVE the whole day off school.
My friends and I decided to go immediately to Checkpoint Charlie, the main crossing point from East to West Berlin. We were keen ON welcoming the people arriving from the East. When we arrived, everything was in chaos. We saw young people, old people, friends, and strangers laughing and hugging each other. The first cars from East Berlin started arriving and people were clapping, cheering, and throwing flowers. At first the borders guards attempted TO CONTROL the flow of cars but soon gave up trying because there were so many, and instead joined in dancing. After a while they didn’t prevent people FROM CLIMBING the Wall either. Soon the people at the top were helping others to clamber up – me and my friends among them – and we all carried on DANCING. Someone lent us a hammer and suggested THAT WE KNOCKED chunks of concrete off the wall. I remember WAVING to the East German guards in their watchtowers and they waved back. Only yesterday they would have been ordered TO shoot us! What a day. I shall never forget it.

Topic Two: Pronunciation & Phonetics

Phonetic symbols are surely useful to learn the pronunciation of new words, and I use them particularly with difficult words. But they aren't enough. I think the best way to get the right pronunciation is listening to a good English teacher, possibly a native speaker - that's a faster way as well. If you don't have a teacher, then you can go to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/. It's a good site where you can hear the correct pronunciation of every word (American and British pronunciation) thanks to a recorded voice and then make practice. Much better than phonetic symbols!

Topic One: Cinema & English

I really like watching films - I go to the cinema once a month at least and I buy DVDs as well. Among other things, watching films in English is a good way to learn the language - you gradually get used to the real spoken language and its different accents. For example, American pronunciation is very difficult to understand, because the words are all stretched togheter! Subtitles can help you with difficult accents - you can read if you don't understand- but there's a disadvantage - you make less effort to hear the dialogues and get the meaning of them. I've recently seen an interesting film about lawyers, ''Michael Clayton'', with George Clooney, even if the plot is quite complicated... It shows you the dark side of the Law and lawyers, so it's worth watching!