Writing Test Part 1

Describe yourself

Hi, my name is Eva Cavallari and I’m seventeen years old. I live in a small town called Villa Vicentina in the northeastern part of Italy. I’m Italian but, since my mother is German, I have also a lot of relatives in Germany.

I’m a student at the scientific high school called Albert Einstein in Cervignano, and I’m attending the fourth class. I have a brother, he is 20 and he is a student too, and at the moment he is studying in Bologna. I get on well with him and we often give advices one to the other. I use to say I have also a sister, actually she is my dog, a German Shepherd of two years old.

If I should describe myself by few adjectives I would say I’m a really stubborn, moody and curios girl.

As regards my hobbies, I love basketball: I’ve been playing it since I was six. The passion for basketball comes from my father, and from my brother too. Also my passion for motorbikes and for skiing comes from my father. I am lucky because we live next to the mountains and to the sea, so in winter we can go to ski and in summer we can go to the beach. Actually, I’m passionate about any sports…

On the other hand, from  my mother I have taken the passion for music and for art. She can play the flute and the piano, that she sometimes plays with me. I like listening to any kind of music and I like painting too.

What can I say more? I love travelling and seeing new places. My dream is globe-trotting, but for now I would like to study abroad.

What do you know about Ireland?

Actually I don’t know much about Ireland. I know something about Celtic culture and music. I know that Ireland is now divided into Northern and Southern Ireland, but I don’t know much about Irish war of independence.  I hope I will return home a little less uninformed!

Writing Test Part 2

Why do you need to learn English?

I would like to learn English since it is the world language and it lets you to travel through different countries. Since I love travelling, I know that it is necessary to be able to speak English.

I’m aware that English gives you a lot of opportunities; for example I would like to try to enter a university abroad and I know I should stand a test about my language competences.

Finally I would like to improve my English in order to be able to speak more fluently with my German and American relatives. I need to learn English because it is the main instrument that let you to communicate and to build relationships with people from different parts of the world.

What language skills do you want to practice during your course(listening, reading, writing, pronunciation) do you want to practice during your course?

I would like to practice each language skill during my course. I think that what I should improve more are my listening competences: indeed I don’t have many opportunities to listen to English people speaking. To tell the truth, I sometimes listen to English conferences or interviews on the internet, but I don’t have much free time to spend on it.

Secondly I would like to improve my speaking competences, in order to speak more quickly and fluently. So I would like to improve my pronunciation and intonation.

What do you find particularly difficult in learning English?

In learning English, I find particularly difficult to order correctly each word in the sentence. Indeed the English construction of the sentence and word order is rather different from the Italian ones. So when I write and I can reflect about what I’m writing I manage to order correctly words, but when I must speak, I often make mistakes.

In addition I find rather difficult to chose correct words to translate my concepts, but I think that, in order to acquire ways of expression of a different language,  you have to spend a lot of time in that country.