Grammar exercises about the present perfect (and other verb tenses)

I've done some exercises to practise a bit the present perfect tense and I've also done a test which includes all the verb tenses. This last one was the most difficult, but I've learned new things.

3 experiences I've already had and 1 I want to live in the future

One very big experience in my life has been when I moved with my parents from my native country Germany to Spain. It was a very difficult time for me because I had to leave my friends there. I have to admit that my friends have always been very important for me. And I also have to admit that I was very immature. I was 12 years old and people may think it's normal to be quite immature at that age. But thinking now about my past and my acts in that time I opine I didn't understand a lot of things which other boys and girls at the same age understood. But this experience also helped me see that the whole world is not only the place where you live. It may sound absurd, but you really notice that the world has so many places and everyone is completely different from the other one. And it helped me form my own opinion for things, to see things from different points of view and to decide what is what I want in the future.

Another experience which has changed me definitely is one from last year. It's a bit private and I don't want to explain the details of what happened, but I try to tell it in a general way. I trusted too much a person who actually only was my friend for his/her own motives and to reach his/her own objectives. I lived in a kind of illusion and I didn't mind really what that person was doing with me. And the worst thing is that what happened in that time didn't just affect me but also my friends. I needed a lot of time to understand everything and to realize that I had to change. And to trust just in the people who are really worth it.

And to return a bit to the first topic, my third and last important experience has been the summer 2010. It was the first time I could go back to where I come from. And it was the first time I could finally see my family and my friends after two long years. It was a very moving moment and it made me very happy to see the reactions of the people when I returned. My best friend from Germany didn't really believe it was really me who talked to him (I didn't tell I would come, I like surprises) and when he realized that it was real he smiled in a way I will never forget. It was just so refreshing to be with the people I lived with for 12 years. And to see that their life continued and some things have changed. But that the essential things, like our relationship, haven't been affected.

One experience I want to live in future is to travel around the world. It's a typical thing a lot of people say when you ask for a dream they want to make come true one day. But if so many people say this, there will be some good reasons for it, don't you think? For me, despite all the difficulties and bad moments I passed, it has been interesting to come here to Spain and to see how the people are here and how the culture is here. It made me grow up. It made me gain richness. Richness of a kind you count count in coins or bills. Richness in a cultural way, gaining more knowledge. Knowledge for the whole life or to say it another way: experience. And there's one country I'm especially interested to go to. I've always been a big fan of video games and anime (animated cartoons of Japan). Playing and watching them and informing yourself about them, you get a picture of the place where all this comes from. And I want to see how Japan really is, the land where the sun rises. Also, it's so different from our occidental world, but even though it's a very developed country.


So, now you've done a little tour through me and my life. I hope you liked it and it could be expedient for you, in any way.

Italy: a nation unable to unleash its talent

I found an opinion article on the American news CNN written by Marco Vicenzino (and international affairs commentator and conference speaker) about the actual political situation of Italy related to the global economy and the crisis of the Euro in the European Union. 

Here's the link: http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/10/opinion/italy-berlusconi-marco-vicenzino/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

In some ways I agree with his opinion. For example, he says that Berlusconi's credibility is damaged because of the past and he cannot recover it now, even now that he is about to resign.

Another of his basic ideas is that Italy is generally a very conservative country: it's becoming a nation of pensioners, ruled by pensioners for the sake of pensioners. Even when we look at the national football team we'll see that almost all the players are around 40 years old. So Italian people don't like changes. With this point of view it makes more sense that the Italian population chooses such an irresponsible person like Berlusconi another time. And it's also a fact that the famous Italian mafia still exists and a lot of people are still pressured by them.

To resume, Italy should and has to change a lot of things in their politics to not end up like Greece or Ireland. In fact, the European Union should try to act as a union and change something in the organization to solve the big problems it has.

5 words I've learnt + translation (German):

spoil - Ausbeute

tutelage - Vormundschaft

struggle - kämpfen

to revoke - widerrufen

to emerge - auftauchen

Corpse Bride

"Corpse Bride" is a stop motion film (the scenes of the film are taken picture by picture, when we see all the pictures quickly in a row the seem to be one single animation) directed by Tim Burton and Mike Johnson.
The protagonist is Victor Van Dort who is forced by his parents to marry Victoria Everglot. The two don't know each other, although they seem to have some feelings when they meet for first time. At the wedding Victor is not able to pronounce well his vows and everything ends in a disaster. Later, Victor wants to practice his wedding vows in a forest and when he finally says them well and puts the ring on a piece of wood that seems like a hand, Emily appears. Emily is a dead girl who was killed by a man before her wedding and since then she is looking for someone who wants to marry her. She takes Victor into her world, the world of the dead people. To return into his own world, Victor says to Emily that he wants to present her to his parents...
I think it's a very funny film and I also like Tim Burton's style very much. I've seen the film once in Spanish and I have to admit that watching it in the original language is much better. Because of the appearence and the song parts someone could think it's a film for kids but that's absolutely not true. I fully recommend this film to everybody.

This is my favourite song. It's "You Give Love A Bad Name" of Bon Jovi. 

Here are the lyrics of the song, on the left in English, on the right in German:

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame, darling / Schuss durch das Herz und du bist schuldig, Schatz

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

An angel's smile is what you sell / Ein Engelslächeln ist, was du verkaufst

You promise me heaven then put me through hell / Du versprichst mir den Himmel, dann führst du mich durch die Hölle

Chains of love, got a hold on me / Ketten der Liebe haben mich gefangen

When passion's a prison you can't break free / Wenn Leidenschaft ein Gefängnis ist, aus dem du nicht ausbrechen kannst

You're a loaded gun... yeah / Du bist eine geladene Waffe... yeah

There's nowhere to run / Es gibt keinen Ort um hinzurennen

No one can save me, the damage is done / Niemand kann mich retten, der Schaden ist angetan

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame / Schuss durch das Herz und du bist schuldig

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

I play my part and you play your game / Ich spiele meine Rolle und du spielst dein Spiel

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You paint your smile on your lips / Du malst dein Lächeln auf deine Lippen

Blood red nails on your fingertips / Blutrote Nägel an deinen Fingerspitzen

A school boys dream, you act so shy / Ein Traum eines Schuljungen, du tust so schüchtern

Your very first kiss was your first kiss goodbye / Dein allererster Kuss war dein erster Abschiedskuss

You're a loaded gun / Du bist eine geladene Waffe

There's nowhere to run / Es gibt keinen Ort um hinzurennen

No one can save me, the damage is done / Niemand kann mich retten, der Schaden ist angetan

Shot through the heart, and you're to blame / Schuss durch das Herz und du bist schuldig

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

I play my part and you play your game / Ich spiele meine Rolle und du spielst dein Spiel

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You give love... / Du gibst Liebe...

Shot through the heart and you're to blame / Schuss durch das Herz und du bist schuldig

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

I play my part and you play your game / Ich spiele meine Rolle und du spielst dein Spiel

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

Shot through the heart and you're to blame / Schuss durch das Herz und du bist schuldig

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

I play my part and you play your game / Ich spiele meine Rolle und du spielst dein Spiel

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You give love... / Du gibst Liebe...

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You give love... / Du gibst Liebe...

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

You give love... / Du gibst Liebe...

You give love a bad name / Du gibst Liebe einen schlechten Namen

Multiple Intelligences

This is my result of the Multiple Intelligences test. Honestly, I'm not very surprised of this result and I suppose this is just logical if I am "myself smart", a person with intrapersonal intelligence. I know myself very well, I know my strenghts and my weaknesses, my good and bad characteristics and what I have to improve. Also, I'm a very logical person. I like to see things like a puzzle with a solution which you can find thinking logically. I don't have any problems with finding solutions for myself for mathematical or other logical problems, when I'm motivated. I like to learn new languages and express myself in different ways when I talk in a language I really dominate. And I really like to write, about myself, about things I see, I think or simply things that happen in the world (but I have to admit that I often don't like to show my writings to other people). Something I can't explain as the other types is my kinaesthetic intelligence. It's not that much (like linguistic) but it's more than I expected, because I have problems in handling things physically. Maybe it's linked with my intrapersonal intelligence, I know myself and my body well, I'm psychically and physically balanced. I like to visualize things and I don't have problems to do it, but it's difficult for me to represent or explain them. I have difficulties for interacting with other persons, sometimes I can't place myself into another person and sometimes I'm too good to others and they take advantage of me. I like music and I respect people who have a talent for making music or recognize it but I'm not very good at these things. Also, I'm a city-human, which is reflected by my result of the naturalistic intelligence. I'm interested in things like our nature (how it works, why are things like they are) and actual themes which are related to the nature like pollution but often I feel like I'm living in my own world and then I don't think in the global way, considerating myself a part of the whole nature.
According to the chart of possible jobs in relationship with my test result the three best jobs for me are researcher, writer and lawyer. These are actually three jobs I can really imagine as my prospective careers. I like to ask for explanations and research for myself, try to find out why are things how they are. How I said earlier, I like to write. Also, I would like to be a lawyer, in my case more a defense attorney than a prosecutor. This is because I often try to defense persons, look for explanations why a person did or didn't do a thing.
How can you use this info to choose your future career?
Simply by thinking seriously about the possible careers the chart proposes. All this information helps me to find out which are my strenghts for possible jobs.
How can you contribute to society with your career?
To answer this question I considerate the 3 jobs I named earlier as my career. As a researcher I could find useful information for the society, maybe the things I find out could help to create new medicine or find solutions for social problems. As a writer I could entertain people or inform them (teach them in some way), two things I consider very important. Finally, as a attorney I could fight for the law and the right of my clients, helping to discover the truth and decide in a righteous way about the destiny of people.

An Animal In Me

An animal I like very much is the koala. It's a very relaxed animal, they sleep 20 hours a day! Also, they're herbivorous', so they don't have to hunt other animal or fight. We could say they're very pacific animals, just like me. They spend most time in their life sleeping to gain energy. Energy for eating. I can't say I actually sleep and eat all the time, but it's a lifestyle I wouldn't consider bad. If reincarnation exists, I'd like to be born as a koala. It would be a kind of recompense for having worked so hard as a human. They don't have a very long life (female koalas live around 15 years, male koalas around 10 years), but during the time the live, they live well. When people see pictures of koalas like the one in this post, their hearts start to melt down. Yours one, too, right?