First time script with an old book

First, you’ll want to do something like this. The key is using a full file path reference.

tell application "Finder" 
set myDisk to name of startup disk as text 
end tell  
tell application "URL Access Scripting"    
download "ftp://somewhere.com/myfile.html" to file (myDisk & ":My Folder:myfile.html")
end tell

This should be relatively easy as well, but you’ll probably want to pick up the OS X-native OSAX called “System” at OSAXen.Com

The OS X terminal is scriptable, but “System” osax will help you achieve the ftp upload more easily, I’d say. But I haven’t worked with it myself, so someone else would need to chime in to give further direction after that.
Hope this helps! Be well.