QUESTIONS FOR THE ORAL EXAMINATION

General questions?

1) What is a text?
2) What do we mean by the words coherence and cohesion?
3) Which kind of texts can we have?
4) Which are the main features of a text?
5) Which are the main features of a scientific text?
6) What is a "topic sentence"? (main concept)
7) What are "linkers" or "connectors"? They are grammatical words that signal the logical relationships within a sentence and between sentences and paragraphs.
8) Make an example of linkers for "Addition", "Result", "Time Sequence", "Purpose", "Concession", and so on.
9) How would you define the kind of education you receive at school ? (Excellent, Good, Unsatisfactory, Very bad).
10) What is the cause of your answer? (Inadequate teaching methods, Uninteresting subjects, Too much discipline, Too many students in a single classroom, Other reasons).
11) Do you think the subjects you are studying, or you have studied are - or will be - of some use to understand the world in which you live or to find a job?
12) At the end of the secondary school, are you planning to...a) go to the university? b) look for a job?
13) Should anyone who wants to go to the university be allowed to?

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT LIVING MATTERS

1) What is a building, and a house, and a home?
2) How is shaped a building?
3) What are the basic requirements of a building?
4) What are the principal types of dwellings? They are: the single family deatched house, it stands alone and is not joined to any other dwelling; the semi-detached or duplex house (Usa): it is joined to another house on one side; the terraced house or town house (Usa): it is a part of a line of houses that are still joined together; the block of flats or condominium (Usa): it is a tall modern building that is divided into flats; the cottage, it is a small house in a village or in the countryside. Cottages are usually old buildings; the bungalow: it has only one floor and no upstairs. bungalows are usually modern buildings.
5) In which type of house do you live?
6) Can you list the positive and negative aspects of living there? (more less expensive in construction and maintenance, to buy, to rent, more confortable and peaceful, quote the different for and against, cost and benefits, etc.)
7) Why are terraced houses a product of the Industrial Revolution?
8) Which are the most common types of houses in large cities?
9) What is a mansion? It is a large, beautiful house, especially one owned by a rich or noble family.
10) What is a palace? It is a large, richly-decorated house, especially one which is the home of a king, queen, president or an important person.
11) What are the most common building materials? (wood, stone, brick, concrete, steel, glass, pvc, etc)
12) What can we learn from building styles?
13) What happened in 1666?
14) Do you know who was Sir Christopher Wren?
15) Do you remember who founded the city of London? (43 A.D. by Romans)
16) What is a community?
17) Which elements must work together to create a good community?
18) What do we mean by the term "neighbourhood"?
19) Who is a planner?
20) What are "slums"?
21) What are the causes of the so called "Housing Problem"?
22) What do you think society should do to try to solve the so called "Housing Problem"?
23) Do you know what is a "Garden City" and who planned it? (English Planner Ebenezer Howard promoted the "garden city" in the book Tomorrow: a peaceful path to social reform, in 1898. His plan was a response to the need for improvement in the quality of urban life.)
24) What do we mean by the words: "facilities" and "amenities"? (Structures such as schools, hospitals, museums, concert hall, theatres, auditoriums, gymns, libraries, recreational and cultural centres, sport centers, shopping centres, civic and cultural complexes, etc.)
25) What kind of people have you got as neighbours?
26) What kind of houses can we have in the district where (in which) you live? And in general?
27) Are there any parks in the surroundings where you live?
28) What do you know about computer-aided design equipment? (A computer can help a designer to work much faster than drawing with conventional equipment. This is called Computer-aided design CAD. The designer uses a graphic tablet or a light pen which can draw straight onto the screen. The computer stores the dimensions and can print out the drawings. The computer can be programmed to alter the entire design to accomodate specific changes. With new softwares designers can create high-resolution 3D models, renderings and photo realistic animations.
29) What is a skyscraper? It is a multi-storey building constructed on a steel skeleton, provided with high-speed elevators and combining extraordinary height with ordinary room spaces such as would be used in low buildings. Like Gothic cathedrals of medieval times they are now the architectural wonders of their age, but the reason for their existence is business, not religion. Skyscrapers are recognized as corporate status symbols of power and prestige, and each new one is built even higher, and more architecturally innovative than its predecessor.
30) In which country did skyscrapers develope and why? Skyscrapers were born in the USA towards the end of the nineteenth century and developed afterwards in the first decades of the next century always in America, in cities as Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Chicago. They were new buildings constructed thanks to the new and great development of technological devices. Usually they were erected in places of great industrial or financial importance but with limited room for horizontal expansion.
31) What are the most surprising technological inventions connected with the development of skyscrapers? Certainly one of the most important of all is the elevator, without elevators there would have be no high-rise building. In 1850 H. Waterman invented the first platform elevator and in 1854 G. otis completed his first hydraulic elevator with safety device so that passangers would feel secure. By 1871 passangers elevators were used in office buildings and by 1887 the first electric elevator was in use. The development of the elevator, along with certain innovations in the technology of structure, particularly the steel skeleton, and later the use of glass and new materials made the fortune of the new great buildings.
32) Can you remember the name of some famous skyscrapers? The Empire State Bulding in New York City, Manhattan Island, (380 metres); The Chrysler Building in New York (319 metres); The World Trade Center also called as the Twin Towers in New York, which were attacked by islam terrorists in 2000 and were completely destroyed because of the great fire exploded and the consequent steel structure crash; the Bank of China (369 metres); Millenium Tower London (385 metres); Petronas Towers, Kuala Lumpur (450 metres).
33) What is the Millenium Dome? It is an immense exibition facility planned to be built on Greenwich peninsula along the Thames to hold the exibition being organized to celebrate the year 2000 right on the Greenwich meridain line. This construction measuring 320 metres in diameter and 50 metres in height, will be able to accomodate up to 100,000 visitors daily.
34) We can classify towns following their functions, can you make me some examples? We can have: market town: most market towns began when much of the population were farmers who needed somewhere to sell their products and where they could also buy things they needed, such as tools, seeds and anvils; Administration centre: the function of this settlement is to deal with all the work involved in running a large area, such as a county. There are many offices here such as the County Hall, police headquarters and law courts; holiday resorts: this is a place people visit for holidays. The main function of a resort is to provide a place where people can enjoy themselves and relax; university towns: these are towns where we can find great and prestigious universities that can attract students from all over the world, usually we can find also great and efficient hospitals and scientific research centres; industrial centre: the main function of this type of settlement is the production of goods in factories. Other industrial towns may be based around a coal mine. These settlements are usually not as old as markets towns; port town: a port is a place where goods can be brought into the country or sent to other countries by ship. Nowadays is very important to have a general plan for the development of every town, having a guide to follow to build and project the city we can promote health, safety and welfare of the people of the community. A general plan organizes and coordinates the complex relationships between urban land uses: two basic elements comprise the General Plan, the plan for land and the plan for circulation.
35) How did the romans proved to be skilled engineers and which new techniques and forms did they introduce? The Romans were skilled engineers and city builders, with inventive genius they solved technical problems; they developed water supply and distribution, drainage system and method of heating. The great aqueducts for carrying water over tremendous distances and the underground sewers were example of engineering skill. Then they built highway paved with stones that represented the foundations of modern roads and railways. The Romans also introduced new techniques and forms, such as the dome, the vault and the use of concrete, which allowed them to build bigger more monumental structures. The Greek agora was substituted by the Forum Romanum, a central open space but enclosed and regular, with colonnades of shops, temples and a basilica, a kind of town hall with a low court.
36) What does the Industrial Revolution mean? The industrial revolution started in the nineteenth century with the machine age. Until that time all goods had been made and assembled by hand, and the previous main economy was based on farming, with the invention of the steam engine in 1765 and the constructions of new machinery such as the power loom that was a steam-powered, mechanically-operated version of a regular loom, (a loom is a device that combined threads to make cloth) women replaced most men as weavers in the textile factories and a great industrial development began. The new economy was based on a manufacturing system and on the use of machinery. The size of factories grew and the numbers of workers employed also increased. The industrial system depended upon transportation of raw materials to the factory and finished products to the consumers. The entire process began in Britain and then spread to Belgium, France and Germany. The greatest revolution, however, came with the invention of the steam train in 1804. the railroad penetrated the town with a network of tracks. The new industrial economy brought exploitation of the poor and with poverty came the slums, row upon row of crowded workers houses in the shadow of the factory.
37) What are the main steps or stages in design to get a final product starting from an orginal idea? To get from an initial idea to a finished product there are several design stages. This is often called the design process. As part of this process, a designer uses technical drawings to illustrate and explain ideas. To do this we can make a flow chart which is a summary of the main stages in the design process, that is we can have: 1) The Brief, a document given by the client to the designer containing a set of instructions about what the design will be used for, what it must look like and how much it can cost; 2) The Idea, designers come up with ideas for the design which follow the brief; 3) Research, the designer has to know how the object being designed is to be made; designers often consult with engineers and other experts to discover what they need to know; 4) Sketches, original ideas are often developed as small rough sketches called "thumbnails", you will find that doing pencil sketches of the object helps you work out your ideas; 5) Perspective drawing, designers often do a realistic three-dimensional picture of their design using a three-d cad software that can create a perspective, and a photorealistic model of the final product even with an animation if necessary and it can be modelled through rendering in different materials; 6) The Model, making a model is an easy way of testing that a design works. Designers often make models (called mock-ups) to show clients how the finished product will look; 7) Technical Drawing, convey precise information about an object's size and shape to the person who will make it; 8) The finished article and evaluation, next the article is made. The final stage of the design process is called evaluation, in this stage the designer checks if the product fulfills the brief and if it can be improved.
38) What do we mean by the term "Industrial Design"? The term industrial design was first used in the U.S.A. in 1919 referring to drawings of industrial objects for advertisments. The role of the advertising agency in putting a designer in touch with the client was crucial, and in 1920s agencies extended their function by putting designers in contact with manufacturing companies with the view to not simply provide publicity material but to restyle their products as well. In this period many american companies invested vast sums of money in researching the potential of new materials to give a new raise in sales after the bad and dramatic period of the Great Depression in 1927 which had cause a strong fall in sales. Industrial Design, art and science involved in the creation of machine-made products. It is concerned with aesthetic appearance as well as with functional efficiency. The success of a design is measured by the profit it yields its manufacturer and the service and pleasure it affords its owner. The term industrial design was originated in 1919 by the American industrial designer Joseph Sinel. Initially, industrial designers dealt exclusively with machine-made consumer products. Eventually, however, the scope of the profession enlarged to include the design of capital goods, such as farm machinery, industrial tools, and transportation equipment, and the planning of exhibitions, commercial buildings and packaging.
39) To which field was the research for new material and design applied? Industrial design has applications not only in consumer products but in interior building space, packaging, and transportation. Today industrial design has been applied to practically all consumer products, notably to home appliances, such as air conditioners, irons, and washing machines; office equipment, such as typewriters, dictaphones, and duplicating machines; electronic communications equipment, such as radios, television sets, phonographs, and tape recorders; bathroom and lighting fixtures; furniture; hardware and tableware; automobiles; and photographic equipment. Industrial design is applied also to products involved in distribution, such as trucks and automatic vending machines, and to industrial materials and equipment. Metal is not the only new material employed, new forms of machines processed wood, laminated wood, or aluminium, and all forms of plastic, that is any of various organic compounds produced by polymerization, capable of being molded, extruded, cast into various shapes and films, or drawn into filaments used as textile fibers.
The industrial designer must be concerned not only with product design but with the conditions under which products are sold. In planning retail stores and display areas, for example, the industrial designer works with the architect to increase the revenue-producing interior space and to create arrangements and atmosphere conducive to sales. Industrial designers also work to facilitate the profitable operation of railroad stations, airports, hotels, shopping centers, exhibitions, restaurants, public auditoriums, television stations, and offices.
40) What are the main points to include in a curriculum vitae? The Curriculum Vitae is an outline of a person's educational and professional history, usually prepared for job applications (L, lit.: the course of one's life). A CV is the most flexible and convenient way to make applications. It conveys your personal details in the way that presents you in the best possible light and can be used to make multiple applications to employers in a specific career area. For this reason, many large graduate recruiters will not accept CVs and instead use their own application form. An application form is designed to bring out the essential information and personal qualities that the employer requires and does not allow you to gloss over your weaker points as a CV does. In addition, the time needed to fill out these forms is seen as a reflection of your commitment to the career.
What information should a CV include? Personal details, Normally these would be your name, address, date of birth (although with age discrimination laws now in force this isn't essential), telephone number and email. Education and qualifications, Your degree subject and university, plus A levels and GCSEs or equivalents. Mention grades unless poor!
Work experience, Use action words such as developed, planned and organised.
Even work in a shop, bar or restaurant will involve working in a team, providing a quality service to customers, and dealing tactfully with complaints. Don't mention the routine, non-people tasks (cleaning the tables) unless you are applying for a casual summer job in a restaurant or similar.
Try to relate the skills to the job. A finance job will involve numeracy, analytical and problem solving skills so focus on these whereas for a marketing role you would place a bit more more emphasis on persuading and negotiating skills.
Interests and achievements, Keep this section short and to the point. As you grow older, your employment record will take precedence and interests will typically diminish greatly in length and importance. Don't put many passive, solitary hobbies (reading, watching TV, stamp collecting) or you may be perceived as lacking people skills.
Show a range of interests to avoid coming across as narrow : if everything centres around sport they may wonder if you could hold a conversation with a client who wasn't interested in sport. Hobbies that are a little out of the ordinary can help you to stand out from the crowd: skydiving or mountaineering can show a sense of wanting to stretch yourself and an ability to rely on yourself in demanding situations.
Any interests relevant to the job are worth mentioning: current affairs if you wish to be a journalist; a fantasy share portfolio such as Bullbearings if you want to work in finance.
Any evidence of leadership is important to mention: captain or coach of a sports team, course representative, chair of a student society, scout leader.
Anything showing evidence of employability skills such as teamworking, organising, planning, persuading, negotiating etc.
Skills. The usual ones to mention are languages (good conversational French, basic Spanish), computing (e.g. "good working knowledge of MS Access and Excel, plus basic web page design skills" and driving ("full current clean driving licence").
If you are a mature candidate or have lots of relevant skills to offer, a skills-based CV may work for you
Referees. Normally two referees are sufficient: one academic (perhaps your tutor or a project supervisor) and one from an employer (perhaps your last part-time or summer job). See our page on Choosing and Using Referees for more help with this.

ARCHITECTURAL STYLES THROUGH HISTORY.

Prehistoric architecture was mostly natural and made form the bare minimum requirements. Workability was the focus and aesthetics were almost accidental.
Ancient Greek architecture can be distinguished by the specific elements such as the rectangular buildings and the large columns. The temple was the most common and best-known form of Greek public architecture. Common materials of Greek architecture were wood, used for supports and roof beams; plaster, used for sinks and bathtubs; unbaked brick, used for walls, especially for private homes; limestone and marble, used for columns, walls, and upper portions of temples and public buildings; terracotta, used for roof tiles and ornaments; and metals, especially bronze, used for decorative details.
Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to Byzantium. Early Byzantine architecture was simply a continuation of Roman architecture. Buildings increased in geometric complexity, brick and plaster were used in addition to stone in the decoration of important public structures. Romanesque architecture developed between the 10th and the 12th centuries in Western Europe. Romanesque Architecture It represents architecture of the Middle Ages in Europe. The Romanesque architecture is known by the rounded arches, the very large towers, decorative arcades, walls of massive thickness and the overall symmetry in design.
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late medieval period and began at the Abbey of Saint-Denis. There are certain characteristics that are particularly symbolic of Gothic architecture such as the pointed arches, large individual windows, flamboyant designs and the emphasis on the creation of vertical lines in the design. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities, and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings. The term "Gothic", when applied to architecture, has nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. Gothic symbolized a new synthesis of Humanity, God and nature. While Romanesque churches reflected an atmosphere of darkness and mistery, the new ones became an image of nature, imitating plant forms, ribs, stems or fronds, and growing out of the earth like a tree.
During the Renaissance the architecture shifted somewhat. The perception of infinity had entered architectural consciousness. This was the central theme to Renaissance architecture, which in the eyes of many analysts is still one of the more powerful and influential styles. Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, in which there was a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. The Renaissance style places emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts as they are demonstrated in the architecture of classical antiquity and in particular ancient Roman architecture, of which many examples remained. Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches, hemispherical domes, niches and aedicules replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular profiles of medieval buildings. Developed first in Florence, with Filippo Brunelleschi as one of its innovators. Also Andrea Palladio with his books on the theory of the practice od design, had great influence on the architecture of this period. His design were simple and practical and extended the idea of the building reflecting the elements of the human body: the building should be symmetrical (the left half mirrors the right) around an axis (the spine) from the front, but not from the side; each part should relate to the whole and to every other part. The most important elements are in the middle (head, brain, eyes, etc.); elements on the outside should reflect the structure inside (the skin over bones).
The Baroque Architecture style was dominant at the beginning of the 17th century. Baroque architectural styles always played around with a dramatic use of light, central projections, ornamental decoration, pear domes etc. The finest expression of the Baroque is to be found in ecclesiastical buildings. During the Renaissaince period architecture was essentially static composed of separate and defined elemets according to the laws of proportion. Flat walls expressed simple geometric plans. The Baroque developed from Mannerism into a dynamic and unified architecture. . Important features of Baroque architecture include: long, narrow naves are replaced by broader, occasionally circular forms; dramatic use of light, either strong light-and-shade contrasts, chiaroscuro effects, or uniform lighting by means of several windows, opulent use of ornaments, plaster or stucco, marble or faux finishing); large-scale ceiling frescoes, the interior is often no more than a shell for painting and sculpture (especially in the late Baroque); illusory effects like trompe l'oeil and the blending of painting and architecture.
Neoclassical architecture was an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century, both as a reaction against the Rococo style of anti-tectonic naturalistic ornament, and an outgrowth of some classicizing features of Late Baroque. In its purest form it is a style principally derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and the architecture of Italian Andrea Palladio. Indoors, neoclassicism made a discovery of the genuine Roman interior, inspired by the rediscoveries at Pompeii and Herculaneum, which had started in the late 1740s.
Art Nouveau Style It was particularly popular at the turn of the 20th century. This architectural style is about encompassing artistic and floral motifs in the structure. Art Nouveau combined many influences, especially stylized Japanese Art and Art Nouveau Architecture developed first in Belgium and France, exploiting the new possibilities of casting iron, and then in Barcelona with the works of Antonio Gaudì, whose buildings became a fusion of organic form and structure, like a piece of sculpture. Another great architect was Charles Mackintosh who worked in Glasgow, a town which at the time enjoyed great industry and wealth.
Art Deco Architectural Style was visible during the years, 1925-1939 and it was a popular international art design movement. It refers to a decorative and elegant style of architecture that encompassed many other basic techniques of architecture affecting the decorative arts such as interior design, and industrial design, as well as the visual arts such as fashion, painting, the graphic arts and film. At the time, this style was seen as elegant, glamorous, functional, and modern.
Modern architecture started in the early 1900s and rose to prominence as it sown architectural movement in the 1940s. Modern architecture is a set of building styles with similar characteristics, primarily the simplification of form and the elimination of ornament. The first variants were conceived early in the 20th century. Modern architecture was adopted by many influential architects and architectural educators. The Modern style developed, in their opinion, as a result of social and political revolutions. Others see Modern architecture as primarily driven by technological and engineering developments, and it is true that the availability of new building materials such as iron, steel, and glass drove the invention of new building techniques as part of the Industrial Revolution. This was an important turning point. With World War II the important figures of the Bauhaus fled to the United States, to Chicago, to the Harvard Graduate School of Design, and to Black Mountain College. While Modern architectural design never became a dominant style in single-dwelling residential buildings, in institutional and commercial architecture Modernism became the pre-eminent, and in the schools (for leaders of the profession) the only acceptable, design solution from about 1932 to about 1984. Modern architecture is usually characterized by: an adoption of the principle that the materials and functional requirements determine the result an adoption of the machine aesthetic; a rejection of ornament; a simplification of form and elimination of "unnecessary detail"; an adoption of expressed structure; form follows function. (Gropius said that "less is more", while Sullivan illustrated his belief in the sentence "form ever follows function".)
The Postmodern Architecture Style could be seen in the 1950s and it continues to influence architects even today. There is a use of unusual surfaces and the basics often contradict with the modernist ideas. Postmodernity in architecture is generally thought to be heralded by the return of "wit, ornament and reference" to architecture in response to the formalism of the International Style of modernism. The functional and formalized shapes and spaces of the modernist movement are replaced by unapologetically diverse aesthetics: styles collide, form is adopted for its own sake, and new ways of viewing familiar styles and space abound. Classic examples of modern architecture are SOM's Lever House or Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building, as well as the architecture of Le Corbusier or the Bauhaus movement. Modernist architects regard post-modern buildings as vulgar and cluttered with "gew-gaws". Postmodern architects often regard modern spaces as soulless and bland. The divergence in opinions comes down to a difference in goals: modernism is rooted in minimal and true use of material as well as absence of ornament, while postmodernism is a rejection of strict rules set by the early modernists and seeks exuberance in the use of building techniques, angles, and stylistic references. High-tech or Late Modern is the new multinational style, claiming to have overcome the defects of steel and glass boxes by using up-to-date technology. Drawing on aircraft technology, their exposed structures are light and strong, using heavily insulated wall panels, steel and alluminium frames and mirror glass in neoprene gaskets. High-tech is characterized by light, spacious sheds where all the services (like ventilation ducts, pipes or even stairs) are placed outside the buildings to leave free uninterrupted floor space where layouts for offices, exhibition halls, or factory, can be changed at will with great flexibility.

NOTES:

The Housing Problem

Over half the people in Britain live in their 22 million different kind of dwellings, privately owned or rented. Thanks to the Government policy, tax incentives and social and industrial development the number of people owing their own homes has more than trebled in the last thirty-five years.
A system of mortgage loans from building societies or banks, housing associations and accomodation for elderly and disabled people has largely contributed to improve the housing standard even though there are still block of flats badly designed and built and great differences in the housing market prices mainly due to the economic trend and the urban areas considered.
The housing problem is mainly due to income disparities in our social structure, even though there are other causes as well. The aim of housing production should be that of supplying good dwellings for everyone. An example of poor houses and miserable urban areas is that of slums that create bad living conditions.
Any approach to the housing problem solution requires the establishment both of a good building standard and a careful social urban development, in order to create comfortable and safe communities for every citizen, with different incomes, culture and jobs, to live in, as the English Planner E. Howard has shown us in 1898 with his ideal "garden cities" project.

Sustainable architecture

Sustainable architecture applies techniques of sustainable design to architecture. From the root words sus– (under) + tenere (to hold); to keep in existence; to maintain or prolong. It is related to the concept of "green building" (or "green architecture"). The two terms, however are often used interchangeably to relate to any building designed with environmental goals in mind, often regardless of how they actually function in regard to such goals. Sustainable architecture is framed by the larger discussion of sustainability and the pressing economic and political issues of our world. In the broad context, sustainable architecture, seeks to minimize the negative environmental impact of buildings by enhancing efficiency and moderation in the use of materials, energy, and development space.
The principles of proper design on the basis of the principles of sustainable architecture may be summed up as follows: 1. Controlling the microclimate; 2. Saving energy; 3. Using renewable energy sources; 4. Using sustainable and recyclable materials; 5 Using water properly; 6. Landscaping

QUESTIONS AND TOPICS ABOUT OPTICAL MATTERS: THE WORLD OF SIGHT

EYE AND VISION

1) What is the function of the eye?
The eye is the photoreceptive sense organ through which people acquire knowledge of the world around themselves. The human beings, the information provided by their eyes plays a basic role in the interpretation of the environment. In fact, seeing is also understanding and understanding depends on the way light sensitive receptive cells are connected with the central nervous system which is part of the brain. The ability to perceive objects, colours and distances is acquired by experience.
2) What is a microscope?
It is an instrument for magnifying small objects by means of a lens or lenses so as to reveal details invisible to the naked eye. there are several sets of lenses in the microscope. We can have also an electronic microscope, that uses electrons as the light source and has a magnification power of one million which is much higher than a conventional optical microscope that functions with ordinary light.
3) What does the orbit contain?
The orbit, the bony cavity in the skull, contains the eyeball, muscles, lacrimal glands, the blood vessels and nerves. The remaining space within the orbit is filled with a fatty pad that permits smooth and free movements of the globe. The orbit is also designed to protect the eye from injuries.
4) What is the function of the fatty pad? (See 3)
5) What is the orbit composed of?
The orbit is made up of portions of the bones of the skull. These bones form a pyramid whose apex points back into the head. 8portions of the maxilla, zygomatic and palatine bones for the bottom of the orbit; over these the orbit consists of the orbital plate of the frontal bone. Behind the frontal bone, we find the sphenoid bone. It is butterfly shaped forming the front part of the base of the skull and portions of the cranial, orbital and nasal cavities.
6) What is the eye composed of?
The eye is the organ of sight; it is composed of the eyeball and other parts.
7) What is the eyeball composed of?
The eyeball is made up of three different membranes: sclera, choroid and retina.
8) What are the membranes of the eyeball made up of?
The sclera is a layer of dense white tissue; choroid tissue is coloured brown or black and contains bloood vessels; the retina is a thin layer of light sensitive cells.
9) What is the sclera?
It is a layer of dense white tissue; it is also called sclerotic coat.
10) Where does the choroid tissue lie?
Choroid tissue lies beneath more than 2/3 of the sclera.
11) Which are the other parts of the eye?
The other parts of the eye are: the muscles, protective structures and lacrimal apparatus.
12) What do ciliary muscles control?
Ciliary muscles control the shape of the lens. If they contract the lens is stretched and light rays from long distances are focused on the retina. On the contrary, if they relax, light rays are focused on the retina from close distances.
13) What are the protective structures of the eye?
The protective structures are: eyelids, eyelashes, eyebrows, lacrimal ducts, lacrimal glands and blinking.
14) Where does the lacrimal fluid flow and what is its function?
It is produced by the lacrimal glands and then it flows into the nasal cavity through lacrimal canal. It serves to keep the external surface of the eyeball wet.
15) What is the cornea?
The cornea is the transparent anterior portion of the outer coating covering the iris and the pupil.
16) What does the cornea cover?
The cornea covers the iris and the pupil.
17) Is our vision affected by defects of the cornea?
The cornea is the eye's most important refractive surface, it acts like a clear window, so that any scar, defect or irregularity in the cornea has a seriuos effect on vision.
18) What does the cornea consist of?
The cornea consists of nerve fibres which are very sensitive to pain. Such sensitivity is the reason why any corneal disease is always painful.
19) What is the action of tears and what are they made of?
Tears have a protective action on the cornea, an extremely delicate part of the eye and they are made of a saltery watery fluid.
20) What does the cornea absorb fluid from?
About 90% of the thickness of the cornea is made up of the stroma. The stroma is a supporting tissue made up of a series of lamellae superimposed like the layer of an onion. under normal conditions, the cornea tends to absorb liquid especially from the aqueous humor and the blood vessels but, at the same time, a pump expels the fluid as fast as it enters. This is the result of an adequate energy supply. When there is a lack of this energy, the pump stops working or it works slowly and the cornea swells. Death and its consequent decreasing of the bloody temperature is one cause of the failure of this pumping action.
21) Why must the cornea be kept warm in transplant cases?
A corneal transplant requires placing of the dead eye in a warm chamber so that the reserve of metabolic energy it contains, will keep the cornea transparent for 24 hours or more.
22) What is the normal temperature of the cornea?
To expel fluid and resume its previous transparency, the cornea must be kept at about 31° C, which is its normal temperature.
23) What is the retina?
The retina is a thin layer of light sensitive cells; they are classified by shape: rods and cones.
24) What is its funtion?
The retina has the function of receiving light and turning it into chemical energy. Such chemical energy allows the nerves to bring the message from the eye to the higher regions of the brain.
25) What are the cells of the retina called?
They are called rods and cones.
26) What is the field of vision?
It is the area that can be seen by an eye without moving it. The amplitude of the field varies with different colours: "white" is the largest than yellow, blue, red and green.
27) What are the principal defects of sight?
An eye is said to be emmetrope when it works properly. Sometimes it has defects connected with focusing or diseases connected with the lens, the sensibility of receptors or the shape of the cornea. The most common defects are:
- nearsightedness (myopia) is due to the eye's refractive power being too strong or to the eyeball being too long. In both conditions the light rays are focused in front of the retina giving a confused image. Concave corrective lenses are needed to focus on distant objects;
- Farsightdness (hypermetropia) is caused by the eye's refractive power being too weak or by the eyeball being too short. In both conditions light rays are focused behind the retina giving a confused image. Convex corrective lenses are needed to get good focus on close objects;
- Astigmatism means that a person cannot focus on the main meridians at the same time because the cornea doesn't curve correctly.
lenses, affecting the light rays on one of the planes, are required; hard contact lenses are suggested;
- Presbyopia is common in old age. It consists of a reduced ability to focus the eye on near objects because of a gradual loss of elasticity of the cristalline
- Daltonism means colour blindness for some colours.
28) What are the main eye diseases?
Generally speaking, an eye disease occurs when there is something wrong with the sensibility of the receptors, the lens and the cornea. The most common diseases of the eye are:
- black eyes are bruises of the eyelids and the tissue around the eye; it can be cured by applying a cold compress;
- a stye is an inflammated swelling of the edge of the eyelid and it is caused by bacterial infection;
- conjunctivitis is an inflammation of the conjunctiva (the membrane covering the front of th eyeball and the inside of the eyelids). It can be caused by infection or irritation and is due to bacterial or viral infection. It is not a very serious disease in itself but sometimes it can damage the cornea ( the clear part of the eyeball);
- blepharitis is an inflammation of the eyelid margin. It can be "mild" and consists of redness of the eyelid margin or it can be more severe, affecting the follicles of the eyelashes.
- herpes Zoster (shingles) affects the skin of the eyelids and it can be severe when it affects the cornea and the inner eye.
-glaucoma: is due to an increase in ocular tension or to some atrophy of the pupil involving gradual loss of field of vision.
- keratoconous is a developmental anomaly where the central portion of the cornea becomes progressively thinner as a displaced and increasing protrusion.
Beginning in one eye but later affecting both, it usually manifests itself t puberty.
29) What are the main eye disorders?
Their symptoms are: blindness, temporary diminished eyesight, impaired vision. We can have blurred vision, that is a loss of visual acuity resulting in unclear visual details; vision loss: that is the inability to perceive visual stimuli; blind spots: that is apparent dark holes in the visual field in which nothing can be seen.
30) What are the main causes of eye disorders?
They are: aging, the most common cause of decreased vision; cataracts, also common in the elderly; glaucoma, a disease of the eye characterised by increased fluid pressure within the eyeball; complications of diabetes, one of the most common causes of blindness; retinal haemorrhages which can cause more permanent blindness diabetic retinopathy.
31) Which professional should you consult in the event of a loss of visual acuity? Decreased vision is a significant threat to the quality of life. Professional help is always a good idea, but which professional to see is often a dilemma. Opticians, Optometrists, Opthalmologist, are professional people who take care of the human eye. Although they work in the same field, that is to say "Oculistic", their tasks differ. An Optician dispenses glasses and doesn't diagnose eye problems. An Optometrist is a doctor of optometry specialised in evaluating the need for glasses and decides what type of lens will provide the best vision. An optometrist can diagnose and treat many eye defects, although in some countries they can also diagnose and treat other medical problems. An Opthalmologist is a physician specialised in eye disorders and is the appropriate person to consult for diseases of the eye. In any case you must keep in mind that sometimes an eye problem is part of a general health problem, that's why general professional help may be appropriate. (vision correction, I need glasses, I am short-sighted, special glasses, frames, lenses, etc.
32) What are lenses usually made of and what kind of lenses can we have? Manufactured lenses are usally made of glass, but we can they can also be made by transparent plastic. Lenses are classified by the curvature of the two optical surfaces. (A lens is an optical device with perfect or approximate axial symmetry which transmits and refracts light, converging or diverging the beam.) Lenses, made of solid pieces of glass, must be highly polished and blank lenses are then worked into the desired shape, the shape is obtained by a wheel rotating at high speed and containing a special grinding device which doesn't damage the glass. We can have concave, biconcave, convex, biconvex, and convex concave lenses.
33) What kind of lenses and glasses must we use to correct the different kind of refractive errors of the eye?
Eyeglass lenses correct refractive errors by focusing light directly on the retina. The type of lens depends on the type and severity of the refractive error.
The strength of a lens (i.e., its refractive power) is measured in optical units called diopters. This measurement indicates how much refractive power the lens must have to focus images directly on the retina. The higher the diopter, the stronger the lens.
The type of refractive error determines the lens's shape. A concave (minus) lens is used to correct myopia (nearsightedness). In myopia, light rays fall in front of the retina rather than on it. Because a concave lens is thin in the center and thicker on the edges, it diverges (spreads out) light rays so that the eye's lens focuses them directly on the retina.
A convex (plus) lens is used to correct hyperopia (farsightedness). In hyperopia, light rays fall behind the retina. The lens is thickest in the center and thinnest on the outer edges. The convex lens converges (concentrates) light rays so that the eye's lens focuses them on the retina.
To correct astigmatism, which is caused by distortions in the shape of the lens or cornea, a cylinder lens is frequently used. The cylinder lens has two refractive powers on one lens. One power is placed over the entire lens and the other is oriented in one direction. This corrects the scattered pattern in which light enters the eye and creates one focal point on the retina.
Multifocal Lenses
People that have more than one refractive error may require two pairs of eyeglasses or glasses with multifocal lenses. Multifocal lenses contain two or more vision-correcting prescriptions.
Bifocals are the most common type of multifocal lenses. The lens is split in two sections; the upper part is for distance vision and the lower part for near vision. They are usually prescribed for people over the age of 40 whose focusing ability has declined due to presbyopia.
Trifocals have a third section used for middle distance vision (i.e., objects within arm?s reach, such as a computer screen).
Progressive lenses are sometimes referred to as "no-line" bifocals because there is no noticeable line dividing the different prescriptions. There is a continuous change in magnification from the distance, or upper, portion of the lens, to the near, or lower, portion of the lens. They therefore provide a smoother transition between distance and near vision that some feel is closer to natural vision than other multifocal lenses. However, not everyone adapts well to them.
34) What are the most common material employed to manufacture glasses frames? The choice of frames usually depends on personal preference, fashion, comfort, and cost. Frames are made from metals, plastic, nylon, and other synthetics. Each material has its advantages. Pure titanium, for example, is lightweight, strong, and durable and frames made from titanium are very light, long lasting, and hypoallergenic. They are also expensive. A titanium alloy called Flexon, or the "memory metal," has recently been developed. Flexon frames return to their original shape after being damaged or bent. This metal is very light and resists corrosion.
35) What is the funcion of contact lenses and what kind of contact lenses can we find on the market? Eyeglasses and contact lenses correct the action of the defective part of the eye. Contact lenses are thin round disks made of plastic, placed on the surface of the eye. They require more care than glasses as they need to be cleaned and stored in a special fluid when not being worn, what's more some people can't wear them at all. Two types of contact lenses are available on the market, hard and soft. With regard to hard ones, they can be scleral (covering the visible part of the eye) and corneal (covering the central part of the eye). Corneal lenses are more commonly used than the scleral type, but scleral lenses are worn especially for sporting activites. On the other hand soft lenses are more comfortable, easier to manage and can be worn for many hours on end without any problems. They are however more expensive than hard contact lenses.
36) What is a measurements lensmeter? It is an optical instrument that allows the measurement of the lens power. As a matter of fact one of the most important functions in the handling opthalmic lenses, from production to the final inspection of the completed prescription, is the measurement of lens power.
37) What is the function of an Ophthalmic instruments, such as the Condor Compact? It is an instrument that permits performing simple and efficient fundus camera examinations of the eye and of the retina, through it you can take pictures of the fundus, you can zoom to see better images of the eye fundus, and you can save images of it on a computer connected to the instrument.
38) Nowadays, what do opticians complain about? Opticians have been complaining that non professional sales points are taking the sunglasses business away from the optical trade. An opticians to understand the trend of the selling market must be kept informed, attending fashion shows, reading newspapers and magazines, and watching commercial on tv. The media leads the demand and people look for the kind of glasses the see advertised or worn by others. This is especially true for the young. By keeping informed, one can enter the ypoung customer's mind.
39) What must you do if you want to find a job? To apply for it, read the work advertisments in the newspsapers or on the web, write a curriculum vitae and send it to specialized optical shops or firms.
40) What are the main points to include in a curriculum vitae? The Curriculum Vitae is an outline of a person's educational and professional history, usually prepared for job applications (L, lit.: the course of one's life). A CV is the most flexible and convenient way to make applications. It conveys your personal details in the way that presents you in the best possible light and can be used to make multiple applications to employers in a specific career area. For this reason, many large graduate recruiters will not accept CVs and instead use their own application form. An application form is designed to bring out the essential information and personal qualities that the employer requires and does not allow you to gloss over your weaker points as a CV does. In addition, the time needed to fill out these forms is seen as a reflection of your commitment to the career.
What information should a CV include?
Personal details
Normally these would be your name, address, date of birth (although with age discrimination laws now in force this isn't essential), telephone number and email.
Education and qualifications
Your degree subject and university, plus A levels and GCSEs or equivalents. Mention grades unless poor!
Work experience
Use action words such as developed, planned and organised.
Even work in a shop, bar or restaurant will involve working in a team, providing a quality service to customers, and dealing tactfully with complaints. Don't mention the routine, non-people tasks (cleaning the tables) unless you are applying for a casual summer job in a restaurant or similar.
Try to relate the skills to the job. A finance job will involve numeracy, analytical and problem solving skills so focus on these whereas for a marketing role you would place a bit more more emphasis on persuading and negotiating skills.
Interests and achievements
Keep this section short and to the point. As you grow older, your employment record will take precedence and interests will typically diminish greatly in length and importance.
Bullets can be used to separate interests into different types: sporting, creative etc.
Don't use the old boring cliches here: "socialising with friends".
Don't put many passive, solitary hobbies (reading, watching TV, stamp collecting) or you may be perceived as lacking people skills.
Show a range of interests to avoid coming across as narrow : if everything centres around sport they may wonder if you could hold a conversation with a client who wasn't interested in sport.
Hobbies that are a little out of the ordinary can help you to stand out from the crowd: skydiving or mountaineering can show a sense of wanting to stretch yourself and an ability to rely on yourself in demanding situations
Any interests relevant to the job are worth mentioning: current affairs if you wish to be a journalist; a fantasy share portfolio such as Bullbearings if you want to work in finance.
Any evidence of leadership is important to mention: captain or coach of a sports team, course representative, chair of a student society, scout leader.
Anything showing evidence of employability skills such as teamworking, organising, planning, persuading, negotiating etc.
Skills
The usual ones to mention are languages (good conversational French, basic Spanish), computing (e.g. "good working knowledge of MS Access and Excel, plus basic web page design skills" and driving ("full current clean driving licence").
If you are a mature candidate or have lots of relevant skills to offer, a skills-based CV may work for you
Referees
Normally two referees are sufficient: one academic (perhaps your tutor or a project supervisor) and one from an employer (perhaps your last part-time or summer job). See our page on Choosing and Using Referees for more help with this.

Notes:

I have been suffering from myopia for some time and I started to feel tired of wearing glasses. I want to change my outlook and I would like to get rid of my glasses. I heard that wearing orthokeratology lens correct myopia. My mother is against it since she is afraid I could hurt my eyes while wearing lenses during the night. Can orthokeratology lens correct my myopia?
Hello! Orthokeratology lenses are one of the possibilities to reduce the wearing of your eye glasses. But, as I know their results in serious decreasing of myopia degrees in adults have been disappointing. As I know the procedure appears to retard a little the progression of myopia in children with early myopia. It also works the best up to 4,00 diopters of myopia and I know it is very safe. The development of effective methods for preventing and correcting myopia in pilots is one of the most important problems of aeronautic ophthalmology. The majority of Russian and foreign aeronautic ophthalmologists agree that contact correction is the principal method for repair of occupational vision of myopic pilots. Experiments with soft contact lenses with 38 and 70% humor content were carried out. The methodology was based on comprehensive examinations of the vision status and status of the organ of vision under common conditions on the Earth and during simulation of unfavorable flight factors. The results indicate that contact lenses are a safe means for correcting myopia in pilots. This is confirmed by the absence of unfavorable changes in the main visual functions and in the status of the anterior segment of the eye, by a constant level of visual working capacity, and by the absence of negative subjective sensations.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS FOR ITALIAN HOSPITALITY AND CULINARY ARTS COLLEGES

1) What do you know about the Victorian Period and its innovations?
The Victorian era represented the height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and technological progress in the United Kingdom where the theories of Jeremy Bentham, Carl Mark and Charles Darwin were spreading about. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost global power of the time. During the reign of Queen Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are still being felt today. Since the latter part of the eighteenth century the process of industrialisation had built a firm foundation for nineteenth century growth and expansion. At the heart of this was the successful development and application of steam technology. Like the steamship, the railway predates the Victorian era. By 1845 2441 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being carried. The building of the railway network was the major achievement of the Victorian period, changing for ever both social patterns and the landscape of Britain. Other useful inventions of this period were the Telephone, the Radio, the Refrigerator, the Toilet, the Camera, the Sewing Machine, the Stamps and the Vacuum Cleaner. There were also significant improvements for food preservation and the first “canned food” like dried soups and chemicals appeared. (Pasteur’s theories).

2) What was a typical Victorian Menu?
During Victorian times the diet of most people began to improve: the invention of steam ship and of refrigeration meant that meat, fish and fruit could be imported! People could begin to eat shellfish, poultry, game, cheeses but also exotic fruit (peaches, pineapples, etc.). The cooks were especially prized for their dessert-making skills-puddings, cakes,…
The Victorian period was an epoch of compromise: progress and poverty; corruption and moralism. For the Victorian Upper-classes the woman planned lunch and evening meals (the largest one). She had a cook that did the work for her. They ate 5-6 courses when they were alone; 12-13 when there were guests. “Supper” was the Victorian mid-night snack. The Afternoon tea served to show off the lady’s finest silver, china and linen. A typical Victorian Menu was composed by Soup, Roast Turkey with dressing or Roast Pork with potatoes or Chicken Fricassee served with rice, Two vegetable side dishes, Citrus ice, Jam, jellies and sweet pickles, and to end Cake and preserved fruit with Coffee, hot punch and water.
Wine was served at the end of each course. Madeira and sherry after. Breakfast could be done with scones, fruits, omelettes, bacon and more.

3) What must be the foundamental skills of a good Food and Beverage Manager?
Food and beverage managers plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of restaurants, bars, cafeterias and other businesses that operate serving food and beverage. These kind of professional workers may be employed by restaurants, bars, hotels and resorts etc. Food and beverage managers still require great customer skills but apply management skills ensuring the labour and financial goals of the organization are maintained. The most important and foundamental professional skills and competence that a good Food and Beverage Manager should have are: a deep operational knowledge of technical methods and processes of production, service, costs control and revenues; conflict resolution skills, ability to work under pressure and good steel nerves, ability to multi-task operations, good organizational skills, leadership skills, good knowledge of two or three foreign languages, qualities of flexibility and adaptability. In addition to all that he/she must have also strong human qualities and must be a good communicator, a quick decision maker, a motivating staff promoter, a skillful organizer and an expert coordinator.

4) Do you know some typical lombard wines? Can you tell something about them?
The winemaking tradition of Lombardy dates back to its settlement by Greek colonist from Athens along the Po river. The climate of Lombardy is varied due to the diverse terrain of the region but is generally considered a "cool" continental climate and it is very favorable to grapes cultivation. The region is known particularly for its sparkling wines made in Oltrepò Pavese and in the Franciacorta; the importance of this last area is given by the exceptional quality of its wines, mainly the whites of the classic method "Champenoise": a taste fine and delicate, as well as the flavour make of it a superb sparkling wine, present on the tables of the most celebrated restaurants. Lombardia also produces still red, white and rosé wines made from a variety of local and international grapes including Nebbiolo wines in the Valtellina region, Trebbiano di Lugana white wines produced with the Chiaretto style rosé along the shores of Lake Garda. The wine region currently has 15 Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), 3 Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and 13 Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) designations. The main cities of the region are Milan, Bergamo and Brescia. In this last town province you can find Franciacorta and Botticino areas, or the Garda zone where important and famous wines are produced.

5) What do you know about ethnic and fusion cuisine?
Ethnic is the adjective form of "ethnos" which can be defined as the people of the same race or nationality who share a distinctive culture. An "ethnic restaurant" or "ethnic food" is a lazy way of saying "food from another country I'm not used to eating." Eventually, if you like the food/restaurant enough and begin to eat it regularly, it sheds the “ethnic” label and you just call it the type of food/restaurant that it is. I never understood why people can’t just call it what it is from the get go. Every dish is ethnic. The so-called "ethnic" restaurants may seem a logical outgrowth of the waves of immigration to the United States and Europe from India, China, South America and Asia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and the result of faster and faster travel possibilities and world wide globalization. The food served in ethnic restaurants often constitutes a distinct cuisine. In all cultures and contexts, there are some foods that are almost exclusively eaten in restaurants and others that never are. (For example, one would have to read a great many U.S. restaurant menus before finding those two staples of the American diet, peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and popcorn.) If we consider Indian restaurants in the United Kingdom, we find that by the 1990s, they employed more people (roughly 70,000) than the shipbuilding and steel industries combined. At Ethnique cuisines, we bring you dishes from different ethnicities all over the world. Fusion cuisine combines elements of various culinary traditions while not fitting specifically into any. The term generally refers to the innovations in many contemporary restaurant cuisines since the 1970s. Fusion cuisine blends the culinary traditions of two or more nations to create innovative and sometimes quite interesting dishes. It tends to be more common in culturally diverse and metropolitan areas, where there is a wider audience for such food.

6) How could be composed a typical Lombard Menu?
Lombardy is characterized by a high-quality tourist offer, consisting of lakes, rivers, mountains, cities of art, oenogastronomy, sport and leisure. An area that stretches from the Alps to the Oltrepò and includes the great lakes, large hilly areas and a plain that has been used for agriculture since ancient times can't help but be an inexhaustible supply of delicious specialities for gourmets. Therefore, it is not by chance that this region has over 250 traditional specialities including cheeses, cold meats, vegetables, cakes and biscuits, without counting the DOC wines which are the pride of whole areas. There are also many delicious dishes, typical of a culinary tradition that has improved over time, and that today boasts dishes that are famous the whole world over, from "cotoletta alla milanese" (veal cutlets in breadcrumbs) to saffron risotto, from "pizzoccheri della Valtellina" (buckwheat pasta with cheese and vegetables) to "mostarda di frutta cremonese" (fruit pickles from Cremona); from pumpkin tortelli from Mantua to "casonsèi bergamaschi" (a type of homemade pasta), to sweet things such as "torrone cremonese" (nougat from Cremona) to "torta sbrisolona" (a nutty, biscuit type cake) from Mantua, a delight for all those who have a sweet tooth. Therefore a typical menu could be: Rosettes of bresaola (cured raw beef), Risotto at the Milanese, Agnolotti with Bitto cheese and porcini mushroom sauce, Perch with sage, Veal chops in sauce, Potato croquettes, stewed peas, Stuffed apples. In this region we can also have a wide selection of wines such as Valcalepio white wine; Franciacorta red ; Lugana white or San Colombano red ; Oltrepo Pavese and sweet Muscat.

7) What do you know about Fast Food and Takeaway restaurants?
Fast food also known as Quick Service Restaurant or QSR within the industry itself, is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with low quality preparation, preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a packaged form for take-out/take-away. The term "fast food" was recognized in a dictionary by Merriam–Webster in 1951. Precooked foods such as french fries or pizza typically must be used within a few hours, or they become dried out and unpalatable. The restaurant must balance availability with the expected numbers of customers, to avoid discarding unused expired product. Similarly, the food itself is often intended to be consumed quickly, using strong contrasts such dry corn chips with greasy or wet toppings that will combine into a gooey mess if stored for later consumption. Outlets may be stands or kiosks, which may provide no shelter or seating, or fast food restaurants (also known as quick service restaurants). Franchise operations which are part of restaurant chains have standardized foodstuffs shipped to each restaurant from central locations. The capital requirements involved in opening up a fast food restaurant are relatively low. Restaurants with much higher sit-in ratios, where customers tend to sit and have their orders brought to them in a seemingly more upscale atmosphere, may be known in some areas as fast casual restaurants.
In areas which had access to coastal or tidal waters, 'fast food' would frequently include local shellfish or seafood, such as oysters or, as in London, eels. Often this seafood would be cooked directly on the quay or close by. The development of trawler fishing in the mid nineteenth century would lead to the development of a British favourite fish and chips partly due to such activities. British fast food had considerable regional variation. Sometimes the regionality of dish became part of the culture of its respective area. The content of fast food pies has varied, with poultry (such as chickens) or wildfowl commonly being used. After World War II, turkey has been used more frequently in fast food. A particularly British form of fast food is the sandwich, popularised by John Montagu, the fourth Earl of Sandwich in 1762 when he wrapped dried meat in bread so as not to interrupt his work or his gambling (accounts vary).

8) What do you know about August Escoffier and why is he so world wide known?
Georges Auguste Escoffier (28 October 1846 – 12 February 1935) was a French chef, restaurateur and culinary writer who popularized and updated traditional French cooking methods. He is a legendary figure among chefs and gourmets, and was one of the most important leaders in the development of modern French cuisine. Much of Escoffier's technique was based on that of Antoine Carême, one of the codifiers of French haute cuisine, but Escoffier's achievement was to simplify and modernize Carême's elaborate and ornate style. Referred to by the French press as roi des cuisiniers et cuisinier des rois ("king of chefs and chef of kings"), Escoffier was France's pre-eminent chef in the early part of the 20th century.
Escoffier's greatest innovations were in menu planning. For hundreds of years, doinners had been served in the style called à la francaise, with a large number of different dishes set out on the table at once. Service à la Russe is the practice we know today of serving dishes consequently rather than simultaneously. Alongside the recipes he recorded and invented, another of Escoffier's contributions to cooking was to elevate it to the status of a respected profession by introducing organized discipline to his kitchens. He organized his kitchens by the brigade de cuisine system, with each section run by a chef de partie. Escoffier's reorganization into parties, each dependent on the pothers, made the work in the kitchen co-ordinated and well controlled. Escoffier published Le Guide Culinaire, which is still used as a major reference work, both in the form of a cookbook and a textbook on cooking. Escoffier's recipes, techniques and approaches to kitchen management remain highly influential today, and have been adopted by chefs and restaurants not only in France, but also throughout the world.

9) What do you know about Pellegrino Artusi and why is he so world wide known?
Pellegrino Artusi (1820–1911) was the author of the famous Italian cookbook "The Science of Cooking and the Art of Eating Well. Artusi was born in Forlimpopoli, a town near Forlì, and made his fortune as a silk merchant, but after retiring devoted himself to fine dining. In 1891, at age 71, he completed his famous cookbook, but could not find a publisher. So he used his own money to self-publish, selling a thousand copies of the first edition in four years. Soon, however, the cookbook caught on, and before Artusi died in Florence in 1911, more than 200,000 copies had been sold. Filled with amusing anecdotes as well as recipes, the book is a perennial best seller in Italy, and has been translated in Spanish, Dutch, German and English. In 1904 Artusi published a practical manual for the kitchen, with over 3,000 recipes and 150 tables, simply entitled "Here is your cookbook" with the anonymous participation and influence of the baroness Giulia Turco. Writing only two decades after the unification of Italy, Artusi was the first to include recipes from all the different regions of Italy in a single cookbook. He is often credited with establishing a truly national Italian cuisine for the first time. Still today his main literary work counts a great number of editions and widespread diffusion. It collects 790 receipts, from broth to liqueurs, passing through soups, hors-d'ouvres (or well beginners), second dishes and cakes. The approach is a didactic one, the receipts are followed by the author's reflections and anecdotes, as he writes in az witty style. The kitchen science and the art of well eating was a real boundary line in the gastronomic culture of the age.

10) What is a kitchen brigade and where can we find it?
Late in the 19 th Century, the ingenious chef Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846-1935) created the modern brigade system while working in London at the Savoy Hotel, even though evidence of brigade-style culinary arrangements can be found in late medieval French and English sources. For getting the utmost efficiency, he organized the kitchen as a strict hierarchical ladder of authorities and functions. This structured team system delegates responsibilities to different individuals that specialize in certain tasks.
At the top of this ladder we find the Head Chef (Chef de cuisine) who coordinates and supervises the kitchen activities, establishes the standards, works out the prices on the menu and so on. He also directs the trainees on work experience. The size of the kitchen brigade usually depends on the type of restaurant and the food that is served. Due to the high costs involved in employing a large staff, many food establishments now expect much more flexibility from a smaller kitchen brigade. Another factor in kitchen staff reduction is the dramatic impact that technology and standardisation have had on the industry process. In any case luxury hotels and first-class restaurants around the globe still employ large brigades because they must provide efficiency and personalised service which are necessary for the standards of their clientele.

11) What are the main roles of a head chef and the duties of an under chef?
The Kitchen chef (Chef de cuisine) is responsible for overall management of kitchen. He supervise staff, create menus and new recipes with the assistance of the restaurant manager, make purchases of raw food items, train apprentices and maintain a sanitary and hygienic environment for the preparation of food. He must have the ability to organise duties and solve any problems that may arise in kitchen daily operations. He is not just a cook, but he is a head cook, which implies a higher level of prestige. Depending on the skill, training and perserverance, a chef can climb the ranks and gain more prestige and responsability. many famous chefs have planned their own progress and worked in some of the most notorious restaurants under some of the most renowned chefs in the world until they, too, became skilled and well-known.
The Head chef is assisted by an under chef (sous-chef de cuisine), who supervises how the food is prepared, portioned and arranged according to the head chef's directions. The Deputy kitchen chef receives orders directly from the chef de cuisine for the management of the kitchen and often represents the chef de cuisine when he or she is not present.Subordinate are the section chefs (chefs de partie); each one is in charge of the preparation of particular food and dishes. All this staff makes up the kitchen brigade, of course the number of the section chefs depends on the size and the class of the restaurant as well as the number of assistants.

12) What does the acronym HACCP mean and what it is used for?
HACCP is the acronym of Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point which is a systematic preventive approach to food safety and pharmaceutical safety that addresses physical, chemical, and biological hazards as a means of prevention rather than finished product inspection. HACCP is used in the food industry to identify potential food safety hazards, so that key actions, known as Critical Control Points (CCPs) can be taken to reduce or eliminate the risk of the hazards being realized. The system is used at all stages of food production and preparation processes including packaging, distribution, etc. A critical control point means a point, step or procedure in a food process at which a control measure can be applied, and at which control is essential, to prevent, reduce or eliminate and identified food hazard. This method was applied for the first time in the USA in 1971 by the NASA when the Pillsbury firm accepted to make the food for astronauts and wanted to produce it being very careful with the maximun precautions, in order to assure the safety of the food and the astronauts themselves. This method is nowadays applied everywhere since customer health safety is extremely important, and therefore proper hygiene in the food and beverage industry must be treated with the utmost respect and attention.

13) What are the seven steps to develop a HACCP plan?
In order to develop a good and healthily prevention system in the food processing industry an accurate HACCP plan must be elaborated and written; this document delineates all the procedures to be followed during food preparation in every kitchen. Once the plan has been prepared, it is necessary to validate and verify that the plan works after it is implemented. there are seven principles which are used to develop and implement a HACCP plan. These seven parts are: 1. Analyse Hazards. Everyone who works in the catering industry must be aware of the hazards associated with food and drinks. Hazards can be biological (i.e. microbe), chemical (i.e. pesticides) or physical (i.e. metal fragment) 2. Identify Critical Control Point. These are the stages, or points, in the food production process where hazards should be controlled or eliminated. 3.Establish Preventive Measures with critical limits for each control point. This should be for any cooked food. (i.e. determining the minimun cooking temperature). 4. Establish Procedures. To monitor the critical control points. This could include deciding how cooking time and temperature should be supervised and who is responsible. 5. Establish Corrective Actions. To be taken when monitoring which shows that a critical limit has not been met. 6. Establish Procedures. To verify the system is working properly. 7. Establish an Effective System. In order to record information to document HACCP system.

14) Can you classify what are the main types of restaurants, with their food, clients and price range?
Restaurants are classified on the kind of food, type of clients and price range. Therefore wowadays we can have all the different range of food establishments, since in the 20th Century with the development of commerce, business, technolgy and a huge immigration flow, we can have a large variety of offers, of dishes, of menus and of culinary different traditions. We can have: Fast-Food Restaurants, Coffe Shops and Self-Service Restaurants, here the price range is inexpensive and the customers are mainly clerks, students, teachers, families and so on, the food is often pre-cooked or prepared in advance, here you can find soups, pasta, metas, vegetables, desserts, or pizza, hamburgers, french fries, soft drinks, sandwiches, hot and cold drinks, ice cream, snack items, and so on. Then we can have Hotel Restaurant in which the food, the price and the clients are based on the hotel category, or Ethnic Restaurant where you can find international food such as Chinese, Mexican, Brazilian, Indian, all different kinds of clients and the price range varies from inexpensive to average, finally we can have Speciality Restaurant and Gourmet Restaurant, here you can find speciality cuisine or top quality and elaborate dishes, you can also find all types of clients, from families to VIPs, business clients, celebrities, conference delegates, wealthy people etc. and also the prices varies, from average to expensive and very expensive.

15) What is the origin of the term “Menu”, what are the main types of menus and what features should a good menu have?
The word menu, like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in origin. It ultimately derives from Latin minutus, something made small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or résumé of any kind. So originally menus were just list of food that could be raw or cooked, then in 19th Century individual menus were introduced and the food was divide into courses. Nowadays in restaurants, a menu is a printed brochure or public display on a poster or chalkboard that shows the list of options for a diner to select. A menu may be a la carte -in which guests choose from a list of options - or table d'hôte or carte du jour, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served, then nowadays we can have coffee shop menus. In the 2000s, many fast food restaurants switched to digital menus which are displayed on flat-screen LCD televisions. Depending on the restaurant, the menu may display a list of wines and their prices, or this information may be available in a separate brochure called the wine list. Some restaurants may also have separate menus for beer, liquor, and mixed drinks, and for desserts. A good menu should be planned considering a lot of different steps, such as: analyse the potential customer, location of the establishment, the price and cost of food, the staff skill and size, availability of food and reliability of suppliers, time of the year, festivity days, time of the day, number and sequences of courses, nutritional value, last but not least the language. The numbers of courses and the number of dishes may vary depending on the size and type of restaurant, but you must always remember that a menu often influences the customer, so when designing menus, chefs and restaurateurs have to try to appeal to certain marketr segments and they must also create the right atmosphere of the restaurant with decor, furniture and uniforms.

16) What do you know about the Victorian Period and its innovations?
The Victorian era represented the height of the Industrial Revolution, a period of significant social, economic, and technological progress in the United Kingdom where the theories of Jeremy Bentham, Carl Mark and Charles Darwin were spreading about. Victoria's reign was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire; during this period it reached its zenith, becoming the foremost global power of the time. During the reign of Queen Victoria Britain emerged as the most powerful trading nation in the world, provoking a social and economic revolution whose effects are still being felt today. Since the latter part of the eighteenth century the process of industrialisation had built a firm foundation for nineteenth century growth and expansion. At the heart of this was the successful development and application of steam technology. Like the steamship, the railway predates the Victorian era. By 1845 2441 miles of railway were open and 30 million passengers were being carried. The building of the railway network was the major achievement of the Victorian period, changing for ever both social patterns and the landscape of Britain. Other useful inventions of this period were the Telephone, the Radio, the Refrigerator, the Toilet, the Camera, the Sewing Machine, the Stamps and the Vacuum Cleaner. There were also significant improvements for food preservation and the first “canned food” like dried soups and chemicals appeared. (Pasteur’s theories).

17) What was a typical Victorian Menu?
During Victorian times the diet of most people began to improve: the invention of steam ship and of refrigeration meant that meat, fish and fruit could be imported! People could begin to eat shellfish, poultry, game, cheeses but also exotic fruit (peaches, pineapples, etc.). The cooks were especially prized for their dessert-making skills-puddings, cakes,…
The Victorian period was an epoch of compromise: progress and poverty; corruption and moralism. For the Victorian Upper-classes the woman planned lunch and evening meals (the largest one). She had a cook that did the work for her. They ate 5-6 courses when they were alone; 12-13 when there were guests. “Supper” was the Victorian mid-night snack. The Afternoon tea served to show off the lady’s finest silver, china and linen. A typical Victorian Menu was composed by Soup, Roast Turkey with dressing or Roast Pork with potatoes or Chicken Fricassee served with rice, Two vegetable side dishes, Citrus ice, Jam, jellies and sweet pickles, and to end Cake and preserved fruit with Coffee, hot punch and water. Wine was served at the end of each course. Madeira and sherry after. Breakfast could be done with scones, fruits, omelettes, bacon and more.

18) What must be the foundamental skills of a good Food and Beverage Manager?
Food and beverage managers plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of restaurants, bars, cafeterias and other businesses that operate serving food and beverage. These kind of professional workers may be employed by restaurants, bars, hotels and resorts etc. Food and beverage managers still require great customer skills but apply management skills ensuring the labour and financial goals of the organization are maintained. The most important and foundamental professional skills and competence that a good Food and Beverage Manager should have are: a deep operational knowledge of technical methods and processes of production, service, costs control and revenues; conflict resolution skills, ability to work under pressure and good steel nerves, ability to multi-task operations, good organizational skills, leadership skills, good knowledge of two or three foreign languages, qualities of flexibility and adaptability. In addition to all that he/she must have also strong human qualities and must be a good communicator, a quick decision maker, a motivating staff promoter, a skillful organizer and an expert coordinator. He must also recruite and train the staff, so he must be able to educate students or new staff ensuring that they are ready to meet the high demands of the hospitality industry.

19) Can you explain what is a function and what are the main steps you must follow to organize it well?
A function can be described as the service of food and drink at a specific time and place, for a given number of people at a known price. We can have social functions, such as weddings, anniversaries, dinner dances, seminars; then we can have Business functions, such as conferences, meetings, working lunches, working dinners or finally we can have Social and Business functions such as corporate entertaining. Sometimes these functions are also called banquets, even if this term is used to describe a large formal occasion. The variety of functions events ranges from simply providing bar facilities in a conference reception area before or during the meeting, to the more formal occasion catering for up to one or two thousand people. Function catering is found in the commercial and public sector of the Hospitality Industry. Policy decisions are determined by a number of features concerning type of catering. A caterer usually gets information of the function in advance. This includes: number of guests; price per couvert; menu requirements; drink required; type of menu. This information allows the manager to assess the resource requirements, for example: staffing, linen, food and drink, equipment. As a consequence the manager can assess the profit margins to be achieved. Marketing considerations must also be taken into account, in fact the function manager should be aware of the competing companies working in the same area and he should have information of other establishments in order to differentiate the offer. The relationship between price and value for money is an important aspect of pricing. Value for money refers not only to the food but to many other factors such as the atmosphere, décor and the level of service and so on. The function manager must plan every aspect, such as the timing of the function, the room layouts, the staff organization, the choice of menu (vegetarian or allergy requirements), types of service, flowers and centrepieces, cloakroom requirements, techinal requirements and so on.

20) What do you know about "function catering" and more precisely about organizing Buffets and Banquets?
The terms "buffets" and "banquets" can be summed up with the term "Function catering". This refers to the request for the supply of food and beverage to people celebrating special events, such as wedding receptions, cocktail parties, business congresses and meetings, stag parties, hen parties and so on. The type of meal chosen largely depends on the degree of formality required, even if the success of a good banquet or buffet mainly relies on the impeccable organization and attention to every detail (floral table pieces, decorations, elegant clothing, china, silverware, glassware). Nowadays in large establishments, provided with banqueting suites or banqueting halls, there is a permanent staff exclusively in charge of the organization of function catering. The trend is certainly towards buffets rather than endless formal sit down meals and this function is ideal for large number of guests. The customers either help themselves or are served by waiters standing behind the buffet table. What's more clients prefer to devote less time to eating and leave more time to entertainment. Light and balanced menus, three courses instead of five, are therefore naturally preceded by an aperitif and a buffet. The arrangement of a buffet must be so to highlight all the different food items, and before anything else it has to attract the guests' attention fo its beauty. The cold buffet can be considered, without any doubt, a new and modern form of catering, it replaces the large meals of the past and allows the tasting of many food specialities. The food items in a cold buffet can be endless, we can have assorted hot appetisers (savoury patties, or small pizzas, etc), sea food (cold lobster, shrimp cocktails, scampi mousse), fresh water and sea fish, cold beef, veal and pork, mixed salads, desserts, patisserie, fruts, etc. As for the drinks, the service starts with the aperitifs then the white wine is served, both dry and sweet, and high quality red wines, followed by sparkling wines or champagne, then ending with coffee, whiskey or any other suitable cocktail. Among function catering we can have: cocktail buffet, brunch, slunch, the buffet lunch that can also offers hot dishes, the country buffet that can offer country products and the dinner buffet that offers also hot dishes. (pizzas, scones, turnovers, puff, pies, quiches, or cream guns, fresh fruit tatelettes, donuts, cream beignet, etc).

HOW PEOPLE RELAX

Going to pubs is a very popular leisure-time activity. In a recent survey seven out of ten adults said they went to pubs, one third of them once a week or more often.
Types of pubs vary considerably from quiet rural establishments with traditional games, such as skittles and dominoes, to city pubs where different sorts of entertainment such as drama and live music can often be found. The opening hours of pubs, which were previously strictly controlled, have been relaxed and many pubs now serve food as well as drink. Some pubs have become more welcoming to families with younger children than in the past, although children under fourteen are still not allowed in the bar.
British drinking habits have changed, with lager and continental beers now more popular than traditional forms of British beer. In cities, wine bars have appeared in competition with pubs. Although, in general, people in Britain now drink more than they used to, new types of drinks such as alcohol-free beer and wine have appeared and there has been a general move to educate people more about the dangers of drinking too much.


USING LEISURE TIME

Percentages Men Women

Out and about
Seaside 7 8
Country 3 3
Parks 3 4
Visiting historic buildings 8 8
Going to museums and art galleries 3 3
Going to fairs and amusement arcades 1 2
In the evenings
Going to the cinema 7 8
Going to the theatre, opera and ballet 4 5
Playing amateur music and drama 3 3
Going to evening classes 1 2
Going out for a meal 41 40
Going out for a drink 64 46
Dancing 10 12
At home
Listening to records and tapes 65 62
Gardening 50 39
Sewing and knitting 2 48
House repairs and DIY 51 24
Reading books 50 61


SPARE TIME

British people now have more free time and holidays than they did twenty years ago. The average number of working hours has fallen, and by the mid-1980s almost all full-time manual employees were entitled to four weeks holidays including Christmas and Easter.
The increasing number of pensioners and the number of unemployed, particularly the young, means that large sections of the population have found themselves with more leisure time. Typical popular pastimes in the UK include listening to pop music, going to pubs, playing and watching sport, going on holidays, doing outdoor activities and watching TV.
The number of people playing sports has risen, partly due to the availability of more sporting facilites such as local leisure centres. As more people become aware of the necessity
for exercise, it is estimated that one third of the adult population regularly takes part in outdoor sport and about a quarter in indoor sport.
Among the most popular sporting activities are walking, swimming, snooker and darts; fishing is the most popular country sport.
Football, cricket, horse racing and motor sports are all popular spectator sports. Many magazines are published which relate to popular and minority sports and interests.
Multi-screen cinemas have become more common and the number of people going to the cinema increased in the mid-1980s, having fallen by more than a half between 1971 and 1984. This was despite a large increase in the popularity of home videos: Britain has one of the highest rates of home video owenership in the world.
Pubs are an important part of British social life (more than restaurants) and more money is spent on drinking than on any other form of leisure activity. Holidays are the next major leisure cost, followed by television, radio, musical instruments, and eating out.
If they have enough money, people travel more (the increase in private cars is an influence) and take more holidays. The numbers going abroad increased from 7 million in the early 1970s to 17 million in the mid-80s, with Spain still the most popular foreign destination.

Comprehension

Use the information of the texts to answer the questions.

1 What free time and holidays do people in Britain have?
2 Why has sport become more popular?
3 How has cinema-going changed in recent years? What has helped to cause these
changes?
4 What are the most popular leisure activities in Britain?
5 Which are the most popular destinations for British people going abroad on holiday?

Discussion Work in pairs.

1 Do people have more spare time than they used to in your country? When are the major public holidays?
2 What leisure activities do you prefer? How much time and money do you spend on them?