Il fiume che è tornato ad avere pesci (The river that got its fish back)
QCER B1243 parole
When Julia was a child, nobody swam in the river that crosses her town. The water was warm in the wrong way and it smelled of the paper factory upstream. Her grandmother remembered catching fish there; Julia never saw one.
The factory closed in 2004, but the river did not recover on its own. For years it stayed the same brown colour, and everybody assumed that was simply how it was now.
Then a biology teacher gave his class an unusual homework: take one photograph of the river every week, always from the same bridge, and write down what you see. They did it for three school years. The photographs were nothing special on their own, but together they showed something the eye misses day to day — the plants at the edge were spreading, and the water was slowly getting clearer.
That collection of ordinary photographs is what convinced the regional government to test the water properly. The tests found that the river was clean enough for fish, but that two old concrete steps stopped them coming up from the sea.
Removing those steps cost less than the town spends on Christmas lights. Two years later, a fisherman photographed a trout under the same bridge and sent the picture to the school.
Julia teaches there now. She keeps the photograph on the wall, next to the first one her students took, where the water is brown and there is nothing to see.
Parole che forse non conosci
- upstreama monte
- to recoverriprendersi
- the edgela riva, il bordo
- concretecemento
- trouttrota
Domande
Si risponde con il testo davanti. Non è memoria: è capire.
The river became clean as soon as the factory closed.
False — The factory closed in 2004, but the river did not recover on its own: restò marrone per anni.
What was the students' homework?
One photograph a week from the same bridge — Take one photograph of the river every week, always from the same bridge. Le analisi dell'acqua le fece dopo il governo regionale.
Why did the photographs matter, according to the text?
Together they showed a slow change nobody notices day to day — The photographs were nothing special on their own, but together they showed something the eye misses day to day.
What was actually stopping the fish?
Two old concrete steps — L'acqua era già pulita: two old concrete steps stopped them coming up from the sea.
The students took photographs for ___ school years.
three — They did it for three school years.
Why does the text compare the cost with the Christmas lights?
To show that the solution was cheap for the town — Removing those steps cost less than the town spends on Christmas lights. Il paragone misura il prezzo, non critica la spesa né dice chi ha pagato.