Nationality:  Italian
Hobbies:   Reading and learning violin
Talents:  Singing
Whom do you most admire?
Politicians, because what they do is very difficult—trying to understand what people want and then translating that into facts
Do you help with chores at home?  No
Do you use Internet?  I use it for research for school projects, and to visit chat rooms and read comics3 online.
Where would you most want to travel?   To Ireland or Norway
What comes to mind when you think of the United States?   Computers
...and France?  Paris
...and China?  Long history
What do you talk about with friends?  Books

Meeting Marta
Marta is a lucky girl, for the simple fact that she lives in the beautiful Tuscan4 hill country5 outside of Florence, Italy. She lives in an old, Italian colonial villa6. No matter that she says it is a little uncomfortable because it is so old, or that she has to share a room—a messy7 one with posters of rock groups covering the walls—with her sister, there is nothing like a Tuscan villa.
    On weekends, Marta goes into Florence with her friends. Florence is the home of Michelangelo's famous sculpture of David, the breathtaking Boboli Gardens8, and the world-famous Duomo9 not to mention the Uffizi Gallery10. Marta and her friends bypass all of this and head to the local record stores to find the latest CDs. Then for cool clothes, they head to il mercato, Florence's famous outdoor market.
    Like many girls her age, Marta is one person with her friends: “very outgoing, funny,” and another to her teachers at school: “a mature11 and responsible girl who behaves like an angel, and is a very good student and always interested in learning new things”.
    Marta loves reading crime novels. As she reads Sherlock Holmes12, Marta enjoys trying to figure out “who done it.” Marta also likes to contemplate13  “why.” In fact, Marta's one ambition is to become a criminal psychologist14.
    Marta has been exposed to15 a lot of culture. This is partly due to the fact that she lives in Europe, where children study several languages in school, and meet people from other cultures all of the time, as a matter of course16.

What I most want the world to know
    I would like the Americans to know that I very much like the Internet.
    I would like the Swiss to know that I love their chocolate.
    I would like the French to know that I very much like their language.
    I would like the Spanish to know that I love their coasts and cities.
    I would like the English to know that I would like to study in their colleges.
    I would like the Canadians to know that I like their life-style.
    I would like the Japanese to know that I really like their cartoons.
    I would like the Indians to know that I love their traditional cooking.
    I would like the chinese to know I like the Great Wall.

If I could be...
    I would like to become a criminal psychologist because it interests me to know how the criminal mind functions17. For example, I want to know what they think they will gain through committing18 a murder, how they organize it, and what type of people they are? This passion for criminal psychology19 has come to me after reading mysteries, because when reading these books, you discover various personalities and how to reason out20 the crime.

Did you know?

★Italy was once the center of the Roman Empire, one of the world's largest empires ever. At its height in the 200s, the Roman Empire stretched from England in the North to Libya and Egypt in the South and to Turkey and beyond in the west.  
★意大利曾是罗马帝国的中心，罗马帝国一度为世界上最庞大的帝国之一。在其公元2世纪的鼎盛时期，罗马帝国的疆域从北边的英格兰延伸到南部的利比亚和埃及，再到土耳其，西部则延伸至更远的地方。

★Vatican City, home of the Pope21  and center of the Roman Catholic22  religion, is an independent sovereign entity23  with its own police force, postage stamps, and mint.
★梵蒂冈既是罗马教皇所在地又是罗马天主教中心。它是一个独立的君主制国家，有自己的警力、邮票和货币。

★The first pizza was made by a baker in Naples, Italy named Raffeale Esposito. His creation was so popular that he was requested to make a pizza for King Umberto and Queen Margherita of Italy in 1889. This pizza had only tomato sauce, cheese, and basil, and was named the Margherita pizza.
★第一个披萨是由意大利那不勒斯的面包师拉斐尔。伊斯波思多制作的。他烤的披萨大受欢迎，1889年连国王乌姆托与王后玛格丽塔也要他为其做披萨。这种披萨的原料只有番茄酱、奶酪与罗勒，取名为"玛格丽塔披萨"。

1. snapshot  n. 快照；缩影
2. Florence n. 佛罗伦萨（意大利城市）
3. comic n. 连环画
4. Tuscan n. 托斯卡尼（意大利一省）但丁、达·芬奇、米开朗奇罗都出生于此。城市佛罗伦萨、比萨也位于该省。
5. hill country 丘陵
6. villa n. 乡间住宅
7. messy adj. 凌乱的，杂乱的
8. Boboli Gardens 波波利花园群是佛罗伦萨最珍贵非凡的公园，极具文艺复兴风格。
9. duomo  n. 大教堂
10. 本句意为：佛罗伦萨是文艺之都，这里有米开朗基罗著名的《大卫》雕塑，令世人惊叹的波波利花园，举世闻名的大教堂，更不用说还有乌菲兹美术馆。
11. mature adj. 成熟的
12. Sherlock Holmes 福尔摩斯探案系列
13. contemplate  v. 思考
14. psychologist  n. 心理学家
15. be exposed to 接受；遭受
16. as a matter of course 自然而然地
17. function  v. 起作用
18. commit  v. 犯（罪）；干（坏事）
19. criminal psychology 犯罪心理学
20. reason out 推论出
21. pope  n. 罗马教皇
22. catholic  adj. 天主教的
23. sovereign entity 主权实体，即独立的主权国家 sovereign adj. 君主的，独立自主的  entity n. 实体