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what is called "present perfect" in English is known as the "passato prossimo" (recent past) in Italian. You might consider it as an action that is "presently perfected"--that is, completed. A very brief explanation is here: http://italian.about.com/od/verbs/a/italian-verbs-present-perfect-tense.htm
If they named the lesson "Recent Past" or even "Presently Perfected", as you suggest, then that would clear up a lot of confusion. When English speakers see the word "Present", it means "now", never "past". I struggled through the lesson by translating sentences in the present tense that they seemed to be in, and then applied the past tense to my answer. Very tricky.