If you have an email address or tag people on social media you know what the at sign is: @. This symbol, an “a” written inside a circle, is actually very old! In the Middle Ages it was used for trade. In fact, it also means “at the price of”. Its shape resembles that of an animal: a snail*, in which the “a” is the body and the circle is the shell*, or a monkey, a dog or a cat with its curled* tail.
The symbol became famous in the ‘70s with email and the internet. In fact, it is used for email
addresses. Today it is also used in discussion* forums, because if you put @ before a name you are replying to a certain person, or on X (Twitter) or Instagram to tag people.
In 2010, it was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art in New York for its collection because of its significance to humanity, and its ability to reach out and connect people all over the world!
Greetings Welcome back, my friends!
This year there is something new for page 2, as you can see: you will find some symbols that are used all over the world, their meanings and some interesting facts abo ut their origins. In this first issue I will also tell you about some topics that I really love: literature and books (better paper or digital?), the cinema, with an interview with the young and talented Bella Ramsey, and sports. We will learn about a fantastic event in the United Kingdom, The Totally Thames Festival, and also visit the New York of the South—Atlanta. In other words, I am happy to start this new year together. And you?
record sphere
It is located in Las Vegas and it is the largest sphere-shaped construction in the world: it is 112 meters high and 157 meters wide and is called “MSG Sphere”. It is an enormous auditorium that can hold up to 20,000 spectators. Inside there is the biggest LED screen in the world: 15,000 square meters to project 260 million pixel (16K) videos. In short, a real record sphere!
To celebrate this incredible place last year U2 performed 25 times in four months in the MSG Sphere. The Irish band thus commemorated* the 30th anniversary of its legendary album Atchung Baby
The launch* of these concerts took* place during the Superbowl, through a commercial that was truly... science fiction!
The leader of U2 is really famous and very committed to solving some of the world’s problems, like poverty and disease in Africa, peace and health care rights. Everyone knows Bono Vox. However, do you know U2 guitarist David Howell Evans’ nickname? Do the secret code and find out!
Glossary
commemorated: celebrated curled: form a spiral shape
discussion forums: platforms where people speak to each other and give their opinions about certain topics
launch: publicity, promotion of something shell: external and hard part that protects some animals
snail: an animal with a single spiral shell took place: happened
Also known as Hotlanta, ATL and the New York of the South, Atlanta is a city rich in history, culture and beauty. Let’s check out the capital of Georgia and its most populous city...
Atlanta, Georgia
Where trains met
Atlanta is a city on the east coast of the United States. It is in the southern state of Georgia. This city was originally created as a terminus* for a major state railroad. Soon, it became a place where many railroads met, making the city grow rapidly. The WesternAtlantic Railroad, from which “Atlanta” got its name, was the biggest of the railroads that came together here. Atlanta quickly became a major transportation hub*.
The Civil War—before
and after
This state also had an important role during the Civil War, which divided the country. Georgia was part of the Confederacy—a group of states that wanted to separate from the United States—during the war. Atlanta played an important, strategic role until it was captured in 1864. The city was almost burned to the ground during this time. After the war, however,
Guess
Atlanta came* back stronger than ever. It became a national industrial center and the unofficial capital of the “New South.”
Home to the Civil Rights Movement
Atlanta was also important during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. The most famous and significant Civil Rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., was born in this city. He—with other organizers and students from Atlanta’s historically African-American universities—made Atlanta a major coordination center for the movement, which changed American history forever. Reverend King also played an significant role in the introduction of the Civil Rights Act, which ended public segregation* throughout the country.
Georgia is well-known for this particular fruit. During the Civil War, soldiers found it in the trees of surrounding battlefields and were delighted by its delicious flavor. What fruit is this? a Apple b Cherry c Peach
The answer is on page 14
For this reason, Atlanta is home to the Martin Luther King, Jr., National Historical Park. Inside it is the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King was once a pastor. The World Peace Rose Garden was planted here in 1992 in his honor. It is a symbol of worldwide peace and its value in today’s world.
Arts, Culture and... nature!
Atlanta also has a vibrant music scene. It is well-known for hip-hop, as many famous artists come from this city, like Ludacris, 21 Savage and Gucci Mane. However, it is also famous for the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, which performs classical music. Atlanta hosts the Atlanta Jazz Festival and the Atlanta Music Festival, which features* a variety of other music genres as well. There are also wonderful parks to see, like Piedmont Park, which has jogging paths, picnic areas, tennis courts and a public swimming pool. It also houses the Atlanta Botanical Garden, where you can see a wide variety of plants and flowers. For these reasons, Atlanta really is hot!
came back: returned features: have as a prominent aspect hub: the center of an activity segregation: the action of setting someone apart from others terminus: the end of a railway
Backgammon
It is one of the oldest games in the world, it never gets boring and it is very simple. Have you ever played backgammon? And what is it called in your country?
How you play
An ancient story
The origin of backgammon goes back to about 4,500 years ago, precisely to the “royal game of Ur,” found inside the tomb of a Sumerian* king in the city of Ur, in Mesopotamia, in present-day Iraq. Some think it was invented by a king of Persia, others by an Indian sage*, others still by a Greek man as a pastime during Troy’s* isolation: its origins are certainly very old! Backgammon can have different names: for example, in Scotland it is called “gammon”. A very famous variant* is Senet, which was played in ancient Egypt. Some Senet tablets were found in the tomb of the Pharaoh* Tutankhamun in 1500 A.D., along with scenes of the game painted on the walls.
The game is simple: there are two players and they have 15 counters* each. The pieces are moved along 24 triangles, depending on the roll of the dice. The aim of the game is to be able to eliminate all of your pieces first from the game board, trying to block your opponent and avoid their disruptive* actions. The rules of backgammon were only defined and written down in 1743 by Mr. Hoyle, an English writer and card game theorist. Today, many people compete at backgammon against the computer. Unlike chess, where people are almost always beaten* by the computer, in backgammon the game is open*. That’s why it is fun to challenge the computer and win with
Queen Elizabeth I of England was a big fan of backgammon. In the sixteenth century she even made a law to promote the game and write its rules!
The name of the game may come from back, because the backgammon board was often designed on the back of a chess board.
Even the famous Italian artist Caravaggio depicted the game of backgammon in his famous painting from 1594: The cheaters. Who are the cheaters? Dishonest and cunning* players, especially in card games.
Glossary
open: (here) no one knows who will win or lose beaten: (in a game) having lost cunning: having the skill of achieving things with dishonesty
pharaoh: king of ancient Egypt
counters: small disks that you move around a game board
sage: a very wise person
Sumerian: of the Sumerians, an ancient population of Mesopotamia
Troy: a city of Asia Minor, mentioned in Homer’s The Iliad, which was surrounded by armed forces and isolated by the Greeks
variant: a very similar game with some different features
Reading: ebooks or paper books?
What do book lovers buy?
Paper books or ebooks? What has changed over time for readers? Let’s find out together!
The latest research on reading says that avid* readers, that is, the few who read at least one book a month, today prefer to buy books in digital form, in other words ebooks. Ebooks have certainly brought a lot of readers together, especially young ones. But what are the advantages of the ebook and those of the paper book?
The paper book
A book is a beautiful object—it has a cover with artistic value, it is a pleasure for the eyes and, if you want, it is instagrammable. Haven’t you ever taken a selfie with a book in your hand to show how intelligent and cultured you are? Let’s not forget its scent: if you like the smell of printed paper, you’ll only find it in paper books. You can go back to a specific page where you have read a really good sentence, and not just to a certain chapter like with the ebook. Sometimes that can be useful, especially if you love underlining sentences and write some notes and thoughts between the pages. At the park or on the train someone will tell you that they, too, have read that book. It can be a negative thing if you don’t feel like talking and breaking away from what you are reading. It can be a positive thing if you like chatting about books. If you want to have a good book read and shared with other people you can do bookcrossing, that is, leave a copy of your book around the city. And finally… you can lend* it to anyone: this is truly wonderful!
The ebook
You can read an ebook at night, in the dark, without bothering your sister or brother if they sleep in the same room as you. So stop the noise of the pages and turn off the night light because the screen is already bright. You always have a lot of books with you: there are many
Did you know that you can read the classics* in ebooks in original language for free? It is a wonderful reading opportunity! With one click you can choose the foreign word that you do not know and find out its meaning.
opportunities to read, sometimes unexpected*, and you can always download one, using your cell phone as a hotspot. There are wonderful free extracts*, like previews from the cinema. If you like the author’s style, you will want the whole book: no one likes half of a good story!
They cost less, about 40% less than paper books, because you save on printing and distribution* costs. Various ereaders are very resistant—you just need a cover. You can enlarge the font*sizes, which is very convenient if you read 300-page books with very small fonts!
During your holidays you can take very little weight with you. If you
take a long flight, for example, you can’t have unnecessary weight with you but you will certainly need to read to pass the time so... a very light ereader is perfect.
If you read an ebook you can maintain your privacy because no one knows what book you are reading. Perhaps you don’t know that some adults are ashamed of passionately reading Harry Potter
Environmental respect
The emissions* produced to make an ebook correspond to those used to make approximately 30 paper books. Therefore, if you read two books a month, the ebook is the more environmentally friendly choice because after a year of
Match the author
What are the most read books in the world—besides political and religious books like the Bible? Try and match the title to the author. Some of these are the most read books ever!
A. Don Quixote
B. A Tale of Two Cities
C. Lord of the Rings
D. The
E. Harry
reading your emissions decrease. Remember, however, that there are also even more eco-friendly choices—for example, buying used books, asking for book loans from friends and family or going to the library. Many libraries today also have a digital book-lending service!
font: a typeface that defines the design and style of characters lend: give something to someone for a certain period unexpected: not thought likely to happen Glossary
avid: having or showing a keen interest in something classics: books that are considered very important to read, especially from the past distribution: delivery to all bookshops emissions: a set of substances that, in order to produce something, pollute the air extracts: chosen parts from some pages of a book
Small, famous for having starred in two global TV series but most of all very courageous: Bella Ramsey tells us about her problems with nutrition and talks about her difficulties.
How did you become an actress?
When I was four, I liked acting, which is why my parents enrolled* me in a theater school. After seven years I started auditioning and in 2016 I was offered a role in the sixth season of the very famous TV series Game of Thrones. Lyanna Mormont is the young queen that will die in the eighth and last season, becoming a star beloved by the fans. Since that role I have had to make a lot of choices and I also have had some difficult moments. My fans know this well, because I have shared my stories on social media.
Do you want to share with us, too, Bella?
In 2018, on the
Bella Ramsey
World Mental Health Day, I decided to share something very personal, an illness. Doctors had explained to me shortly before that I had anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder. I got help and tried to find the cause of this problem, but we weren’t able to. There isn’t always an answer, but there is always a way out. There is always a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it seems far away and very faint. I overcame this horrible disease also thanks to my faith.
Name: Isabella May
Surname: Ramsey
Identity card
Place and date of birth: Nottingham, 25 September 2003
Profession: actor
Interesting facts: she is vegan*, loves animals and is committed to supporting the cause of vegan nutrition and respect for animals.
Then you became really famous with The Last of Us…
Yes, I suddenly became very famous. At first I didn’t know HBO’s adaptation* of the video game could become such a success: they explained to me that I had to play Ellie Williams, one of the best characters ever written in the world of video games, alongside the actor Pedro Pascal. For The Last of Us I also received my first Emmy and Golden Globe nominations for Best Actress in a Drama Series! Wow!
Is it true that you like Greta Thumberg?
Very true! I am vegan and an environmentalist, just like her, and I respect her. I love animals and I agreed to be one of the voices in a wonderful film. In Chicken Run 2 (Dawn of the Nugget) I play Ginger and Rocky’s son: it is a film that talks about an important topic—animal liberation—in a really fun and intelligent way.
What advice do you want to give to people?
Keep speaking, don’t close yourself off, talk about what is wrong. We must always talk about mental health, because there are many people in the world who suffer and are afraid of not making it. When we tell our stories, we become freer.
Glossary
adaptation: creation of a work (film, show) starting from another work that uses a different medium enrolled: officially registered as a student in a course vegan: person who does not eat any food or use any products derived from animals
apps
We have a lot of apps on our smartphones, depending on what interests us most, from sports to technology. But how long have apps been around and which ones are the most popular?
The history of apps: true or false?
1 The first smartphone in history was from IBM and called Simon.
2 A calculator and a cooking course were among the very first apps.
3 With the Blackberry, emails started arriving on our telephones.
4 The first iPhone was in 2007 and had a lot of cutting-edge apps.
5 In 2009 one of the most-requested apps was Twitter.
6 In 2010 “App” was the Word of the Year for the American Dialect Society.
7 Since 2017, more than 2 billion apps can be downloaded.
8 Some of the most popular downloads today are cinema platforms.
Guess
A. One of the most loved apps is CupCut because…
1 it creates photo collages to print.
2 it creates original videos perfect for social media.
3 it writes messages while you speak.
B. Art Selfie 2 is an app from Google Arts & Culture that with AI* helps you to…
1 take a photo and turn it into a selfie.
2 take a selfie and turn it into a painting.
3 take a selfie and put it inside a work of art.
C. Magic Mitten is an app with a really important goal. What?
1 Sleep well anywhere in the world.
2 Respect the environment and your city.
3 Help children deal with the consequences of war.
Put in order
In your opinion, which are the most downloaded apps of 2023? Try to put them in order!
Do you like beautiful photographs? Download the Snapseed app! It allows you to make all of your photos better, by readjusting* the color and retouching* every element of the photo, but in a very simple way. And also... it’s free!
AI: Artificial Intelligence readjusting: set something again retouching: modifying to improve
The Totally Thames Festival
What better way to get to know one of the world’s greatest cities than exploring it from one of its most famous rivers? Let’s learn about this wonderful event which celebrates London’s most important natural feature.
A celebration
The Totally Thames Festival is an annual celebration of the River Thames and its importance to the city. What better way to honor it than organize activities all month along, beneath and on the river? The Thames Festival Trust, an independent charity, organizes this event every September. They host* different activities like talks, art workshops, dance session, and a food and crafts market.
A record-breaking high-wire walk
Originally called the Thames Festival, it began in 1997 with a high-wire walk across the river.
American Jade Kinder-Martin and Frenchman Didier Pasquette walked along opposite ends of the two-and-a-half centimeter (one inch) thick wire, which was about 305 meters (1,000 feet) long and 46 meters (150 feet) above the water—without a safety net. It was the first time in history! This marked* the festival’s beginning. At first, it was only held for two days. Then, in 2014, it was expanded to a month-long event.
“The cultural voice of the river” The objective of the festival’s organizers, the Thames Festival Trust, is to highlight London’s biggest natural asset*. The Trust considers itself “the cultural voice of the river”. That is why they organize a variety of events. During this month-long festival, visitors can see films, concerts, art exhibits, listen to talks or take boat rides... It’s truly a celebration of this city’s main artery*!
The Thames Barrier
nominal predicate; the superlative form
Interesting facts about this iconic waterway
· It is the longest river in England (346 kilometers long).
· It was used as a pool for a polar bear! (a present to King Henry III from the King of Norway in 1251).
· It is one of the cleanest rivers to run through a major city.
· It gives London two-thirds of its drinking water (despite its brown color).
· It is crossed by more than 200 bridges—from wooden footbridges to the incredible Tower Bridge!
Did you know that the River Thames is at risk for flooding*? When this happens, serious damage can occur. The most disastrous flood happened in January 1928. Fourteen people died and thousands became homeless as water from the river poured* over the top of the Thames Embankment. Although this was the most disastrous flood, it wasn’t the only one. For this reason, the Thames Barrier was built in the 1970s. It is a series of gates that close when needed during high tide. It is about 520 meters long and was officially opened on 8 May 1984 by Queen Elizabeth II.
Make three groups!
Find three groups of three words that have something in common.
tide called concerts crossed pool art exhibits used films flooding
Glossary
The answers are on page 14
artery: an important way in a system of rivers asset: a useful or valuable thing flooding: the covering of dry land with a large amount of water host: a person/people who receives other people as guests marked: celebrated with a particular action poured: flowed quickly in a steady stream
Play with A Tot of English
Find the words about books
Find and cross out the words about the world of paper books in the diagram. The remaining letters, in order, will give the name of one of the best novels of Haruki Murakami, a very famous Japanese author who still writes.
colophon cover acknowledgements editor sheet genre index bookshop page words fold tell back author print style title plot characters
Insert the word
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger is a classic in American literature. Read the summary and insert the words in the correct places.
Holden is a 16-year-old boy. He was thrown out of his private .................................................... because he was doing very badly. Holden feels .................................................... about life. He travels from his school to New York City, where he is from, before the Christmas ..................................................... He is very disappointed with the adult world. The book is about two days of his life. It follows him on his .................................................... through the city as he looks for .................................................... and the meaning of life. It is a classic for young teenagers as they struggle to enter adulthood.
The answers are below.
free answers.
holidays, adventures, truth. P 16 Word Scramble: A a) novels 9, b) smartphone 1, c) railroad 8, d) ereader
three groups! First
Word Scramble
A. Have you carefully read the magazine? Then put the letters in order to make words from its articles and match them to their definition.
1 a mobile device with a touchscreen that is similar to a computer.
2 a small cube with numbers on it used for playing games.
3 relating to the whole world.
4 a person who does not eat or use animal products.
5 a photo you take of yourself.
6 a large place to bury the dead.
7 the female ruler of a state.
8 a system of tracks where trains pass.
9 books of fiction.
10 a handheld electronic device where books can be read.
B. Choose five of the words above and write sentences.
