Early May Materials

Hello Students,

This is a photo my wife Jessica took of me while we were at The Quiraing on Isle of Skye in Northern Scotland

On Friday, May 3rd, I attempted to email all of my students the follow materials, but this is when the issues with email between Global English and Intesasanpaolo began. As a result of these email issues, many students never received these materials so I wanted to post them on my website to share. I plan on uploading some older materials I have sent in the past as well, that way this website of mine ( https://medium.com/@adamfitz ) can become an archive of sorts, so students can check the site anytime and have access to any numbers of materials to choose from rather than digging through your email.

Here is my original message below, I will return on June 7th so we can resume classes then. Have a great few weeks!

—

May 3rd, 2019

Hello -

I hope you had a great Easter, Liberation Day and Labour Day. With so many holidays in Italy during the past few weeks, hopefully you were able to enjoy some time to yourself and with your family. Hopefully you were able to rest, relax and recharge a bit.

I’ve included lots of materials here on news, archaeology, science, current events, grammar, an article I wrote, a famous song & more.
Feel free to study what interests you the most.

Here’s an interesting article from CBS about student loans & debt, specifically in America -
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/student-loan-debt-i-had-a-panic-attack-millennials-struggle-under-the-burden-of-student-loan-debt/

I had to share this incredible story from the BBC about a man who fell into an active volcano in Hawaii … and survived!
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-48138640

This is an interesting article involving a new theory about the time space continuum — for anyone interested in science
https://physics-astronomyblog.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-new-theory-on-time-indicates-present.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR3jb_lh98gou0c2XwOHpE-gwYO9PGIw24RjF6AdHd5Pf5InLGLRaSfEWI0

Since so many people were interested in the materials I sent about the Amazon, the ancient structures & archaeology, I have decided to send more materials about an even more fascinating structure in Turkey that has been confounding scientists & historians since its discovery in the 1990s — it’s called Gobekli Tepe — they believe it pre-dates Stonehenge & the Egyptian pyramids

here are a few resources on Gobekli Tepe

quick facts -
https://www.ranker.com/list/facts-about-gobekli-tepe-turkish-archaeological-site/stephanroget?page=2

the Wikipedia page -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

from the Smithsonian -
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665/

Here’s a short video of archaeologist Graham Hancock talking about Gobekli Tepe —
https://youtu.be/6K5NvCiYGEI

Here’s a longer video of Graham Hancock & some others debating about Gobekli Tepe on Joe Rogan’s podcast
https://youtu.be/Nk3xdMkwMsE

One of my students sent me this very interesting article — even though countries like India & China are known for their high populations & high pollution rates, there are also good people doing good things in these countries, such as planting many, many trees
https://www.forbes.com/sites/trevornace/2019/02/28/nasa-says-earth-is-greener-today-than-20-years-ago-thanks-to-china-india/

Another student sent me this interesting article about how French wine can have medical benefits
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190501-frances-fascinating-wine-treatment

Here is another article about climate change, this time from TIME magazine
http://time.com/5575658/bill-mckibben-climate-change-falter/?fbclid=IwAR1r-Hfr-fXv2rncbCqoE3Q6EolITNY4a-xw6tb7FhIt6phq_pAvdLGhI00

Recently a student had some grammar questions for me involving the differences between a clause and a phrase — there are many components to this subject so I wanted to share these resources -

an independent clause can stand on its own
a dependent clause cannot stand on its own
a phrase is two or more words that are usually grouped together

here is my favorite resource on this topic — https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/clause-phrase.asp

here are some others

https://keydifferences.com/difference-between-phrase-and-clause.html
https://www.studyandexam.com/clause-phrase.html

In relation to our topics…

Here is an article I wrote a few years ago about technology, humanity & our world -
https://lapeerareaview.mihomepaper.com/articles/the-view-from-here-242/

As I’m sure I’ve told you, my wife Jessica & I are both vegan — I have been a vegeratian since 2010, a vegan since 2012 — she has been a vegan for even longer. My wife works for a health company so she is constantly researching scientific articles relating to health, diets, nutrients, vitamins, exercise, etc. so I am lucky in the sense that I am very well informed on what I need to survive on a vegan diet — vegans need to be careful to get the appropriate amount of vitamins, specifically B-complex vitamins, but otherwise there are plenty of ways to get the vitamins, nutrients and proteins needed to survive without eating any animal products (although we do eat honey from locally sourced organic farms who treat their bees properly)

This is an interesting TED Talk a young vegan man gave — he explores the topic by proposing every argument against being vegan -
https://youtu.be/byTxzzztRBU

For anyone interested in veganism, travel, health, recipes, beauty products, organic foods, or other topics — my wife Jessica has a website & she writes about many different things, all relating to living a healthy, happy life (or at least trying to!)
https://jemalen.com

In other news, my band Shady Groves from Detroit finally relesed another new song “Pocket Knives” for anyone interested
https://soundcloud.com/shady-groves/pocket-knives

You can watch the collage-style home footage inspired music video made my younger sister Elaine here:
https://youtu.be/x_ckO6B3pig
(the video also features clips of another new & unreleased song of ours called “Afraid of Love”)

Here are the lyrics to “Pocket Knives” — another song I wrote with my best friend, band co-founder & co-writer Dylan Caron
Dylan sings the first verse, I sing the second verse & we sing the choruses together — hopefully you enjoy :)

Pocket Knives

Written by Dylan Caron & Adam Fitzgerald

Lyrics:

We carved our names into porches with dull pocket knives
She’s giving hugs, giving handshakes, just to feel a little bit nice Went by the book, went by the pages, by the lettering
Written by hand just for you, I hope it helps you feel a little bit of something

What if we told you the truth
We never knew where we were going
What if the world that we knew was just in our imagination

You ran away, ran round the corner cause you told a lie
You got a cigarette burn and you spilled some wine that night
All those lies you told, they come crying out your eyes
You know I never cared, so we’ll go and burn, into the skies

What if we told you the truth
We never knew where we were going
What if the world that we knew was just in our imagination

If you’ve already listened to “Pocket Knives” or would prefer some more mainstream music, I’ve included a song here by The Smiths

One of my favorite bands is a band called The Smiths from Manchester, England, UK — they were mainly famous during the 1980s — their singer Morrissey and their guitarist Johnny Marr are kind of legendary in the world of indie music. I’ve actually started reading books by each of them, which is very interesting. One of my favorite songs, maybe ever, is called “How Soon Is Now” by The Smiths — a gold-mine of “cutting-edge” recording techniques that really showcase Johnny Marr’s unique signature guitar sound & the power of Morrissey’s poetic lyrics (sung in his signature dramatic croon)

here’s the song -
https://youtu.be/4PIi1LWkfDE

here’s a link to the lyrics -
https://genius.com/The-smiths-how-soon-is-now-lyrics

It’s funny because when I was young, I always thought the lyric was “ I am the sun, I am the air” — which I thought was kind of cool and exotic and magnificent and weird — I thought “who is this guy proclaiming he is the elements?” I was aware Morrissey was known for being a dramatic egotist (because he is truly dramatic & sometimes ridiculous) but I ended up being wrong about the lyrics. He’s actually saying “I am the son and heir” meaning he inherited his “shyness” and “nothing in particular” — another fun fact, Morrissey & Marr have been vegan since the 80s — way before it was cool — the name of The Smith’s album that this “How Soon Is Now” song appeared on is called “Meat Is Murder”

Even if you hear lyrics to a song and get them wrong, sometimes that’s more fun in a way. It’s fun to interpret lyrics the way you want, that’s the joy of poetry — it can be whatever you want it to be in many ways.

Because sometimes our current events news articles can be a bit depression (especially the articles on climate change) I wanted to leave you with this quote from the brilliant Noam Chomsky about optimism — hopefully this leaves you feeling inspired & optimistic :)

“Optimism is a strategy for making a better future. Because unless you believe that the future can be better, you are unlikely to step up and take responsibility for making it so.”
— Noam Chomsky

Hopefully these resources are interesting and helpful for you! Feel free to contact me anytime if you have any comments, questions or concerns. I look forward to catching up with you again soon.

Have a great weekend!

Best regards,

Adam Fitzgerald