Elementare – B1
This is a nice photo of a family, a mother, a father, a little girl and a baby. They’re painting eggs, they’re preparing for Easter. The girls are quite funny in their bunny headbands. The table is full of nicely painted colourful Easter eggs. There are beautiful spring flowers in colourful pots on a shelf behind the family. The walls are decorated with paper bunnies and little flags. We celebrate Easter in spring, in March or in April. It’s a holiday, when people don’t have to work and they can be together with their family. The children get a lot of chocolate. The Easter Bunny hides chocolate figures and small presents in the garden and children can go for an Easter egg hunt. The weather is usually mild at Easter and you can wear light clothes. Families meet and have a meal together, usually something special and delicious. Some families go to church to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Easter is a happy holiday, people like celebrating it.
Intermedio – B2
In the picture there’s a happy, smiling family painting Easter eggs. They’re sitting at a table in a nicely decorated, very colourful room which is full of spring flowers. The girls seem happy to paint the eggs and they look cute in their bunny headbands. It’s a happy family preparing to celebrate Easter, an important Christian holiday. At Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Religious people go to a church service and then they usually go home and have a big Sunday meal together. Families come together, they visit their relatives who live far away and catch up with the news. At Easter people usually eat typical Easter food. In Hungary it’s generally ham and boiled eggs. Before Easter the shops are full of different kinds of ham and tons of chocolate figures. Easter is fun for children as well, but in a different way. They are looking forward to getting a lot of chocolate. Parents usually tell them that it’s the Easter Bunny that brings the chocolate and the gifts they get for Easter, but actually it’s the parents themselves who give the presents. Those who have a garden hide the eggs in little nests in the grass and the kids hunt for the eggs. The more eggs they can find the happier they are. It’s a mystery why children believe that there is a magical Bunny that can bring chocolate to them, but most children believe it anyway.
In my family we celebrate Easter together with my grandparents in the countryside. We travel on Easter Sunday in the early morning. We arrive by mid-morning and help my grandma with the cooking. Lunch is always very delicious and something special. The whole family sits around the table, we laugh a lot and devour my grandma’s cookies and cakes. On Easter Monday me and my cousins go to sprinkle the neighbour girls with perfume and we get boiled eggs and money in exchange. I’m always sorry when the celebration is over and we have to go home.
Avanzato – C1
The picture depicts a happy, idyllic family preparing for one of the greatest celebrations of Christianity, Easter. The family consists of two parents and two children, a rare sight in today’s modern society where families tend to disintegrate and marriages don’t last long. In the past, marriage was a decision made for a lifetime, for better or for worse. Nowadays relationships aren’t so strong, commitment isn’t considered important and divorces are widespread. One-parent or patchwork families are more and more common. Though one could argue that the traditional, two-parent families provide the most favourable environment for raising children, the challenge that those other types of families pose to society is inescapable.
Easter is a national/bank holiday. It is preceded by Good Friday, which has just recently been included among the national/bank holidays in Hungary, so people can spend the day at home and celebrate this feast without having to work. Originally, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who had been crucified and after three days of lying in the tomb He was resurrected and came back to life. What people celebrate though nowadays is really different from the original Easter story. Few people go to church and the holiday is getting more and more commercialized. The shops are laden with seasonal goods to sell, and people flock to the hypermarkets to spend money on items they don’t really need as our consumer society requires them to do. It doesn’t even occur to most people to question whether it’s the right way to celebrate or not. Everybody does what everybody else does, nobody wants to differ from the rest. Easter is the time to feast, so people devour an enormous quantity of food. Family reunions are supposed to be a relaxing and happy time, but in reality they rarely are. Hidden pressures and desperate quarrels can easily spoil what’s supposed to be a peaceful and refreshing event.
Easter is an occasion children benefit from the most. Preparing for Easter is fun, as you can see it in the picture. Painting eggs, decorating the homes with colourful decorations and spring flowers keep those little hands occupied and busy for a long time. And to crown the celebration, the Easter Bunny comes to children and brings them loads of chocolate as a treat. Who cares that it’s difficult to believe that a hairy domestic animal is able to carry and hide sweets in the garden? Chocolate is the best thing in the world and childhood doesn’t last long. Unfortunately, sooner or later every child will be forced to realise that the Easter Bunny, just like Santa Claus, is just a make-believe game, a ruse.
| to prepare | preparare, prepararsi |
| Easter | Pasqua |
| headband | fascia |
| pot | vaso |
| bunny | coniglietto |
| flag | bandiera |
| Easter egg hunt | caccia all’uovo di Pasqua |
| mild | mite, temperato (tempo) |
| delicious | delizioso |
| church | chiesa |
| resurrection | resurrezionee |
| cute | carino |
| Christian | cristiano |
| religious | religioso |
| church service | funzione religiosa |
| relative | parente |
| to catch up with the news | aggiornarsi |
| boiled egg | uovo sodo |
| nest | nido |
| to hunt for | caccia a qualcosa |
| mystery | mistero |
| magical | magico |
| in the countryside | in campagna |
| to devour | divorare |
| to sprinkle | spruzzare |
| in exchange | in cambio |
| to tend to | tendere a fare |
| to disintegrate | disintegrare, disintegrarsi |
| for a lifetime | per tutta la vita |
| for better or for worse | nel bene e nel male |
| commitment | impegno |
| widespread | diffuso |
| patchwork family | nuova famiglia dopo un divorzio |
| inescapable | inevitabile |
| to precede | precedere |
| Good Friday | Venerdi Santo |
| to crucify | crocifiggere |
| tomb | tomba |
| to be resurrected | essere risuscitato |
| to get commercialized | essere commerciale |
| to be laden with | caricato |
| seasonal goods | merce sesonale |
| to flock to | affluire un gran numero |
| consumer society | societá dei consumi |
| to occur | occorrere |
| the rest | il resto |
| to feast | festeggiare |
| family reunion | riunione famigliare |
| desperate | desperato |
| to benefit | beneficiare di, trarre vantaggio da |
| to crown the celebration | incoronare la festa |
| domestic animal | animali domestici |
| make-believe game | giochi di finzione |
| ruse | trucco, stratagemma |
