Europeans look to the new world
New Words
revival n, 在一過程中 ,某個東西開始變得強烈或是行動
a process in which something becomes active or strong again:
a revival of classical art,
Renaissance ,n,文藝復興時期
the Renaissance
SH the period of time in Europe between 14th and 17th centuries, when art, literature, philosophy, and scientific ideas became very important and a lot of new art etc was produced
Renaissance art/furniture/architecture etc
art, furniture etc belonging to the Renaissance period
take place 發生
At roughly the same time
Protestant Reformation 宗教革命
Prot‧es‧tant [See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages] [countable]
RRC a member of a part of the Christian church that separated from the Roman Catholic church in the 16th century
—Protestant adjective
—Protestantism noun [uncountable]
Catholic 教廷
Catholic
RRC connected with the Roman Catholic Church
—Catholic noun [countable]
—Catholicism [See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages] noun [uncountable]
persecute vt,
to treat someone cruelly or unfairly over a period of time, especially because of their religious or political beliefs: 因為宗教信仰不同對某些人特別不友善
The Puritans left England to escape being persecuted.
The Protestants longed for a place...
longed-for [only before noun] 非常想要
a longed-for thing or event is one that you want very much:
the birth of her first longed-for child
worship 做禮拜
the activity of praying or singing in a religious building in order to show respect and love for a god
in worship
They bowed their heads in worship.
worship of
Worship of the old gods still continues in remote areas of the country.
The ceremony must take place in a recognized place of worship.
We were invited to join in their act of worship (=religious ceremony).
internal power struggle 內部鬥爭
preoccupy v, 非常擔憂
past tense and past participle preoccupied, present participle preoccupying, third person singular preoccupies [transitive]
formal if something preoccupies someone, they think or worry about it a lot
leap v,跳躍
jump
a) [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to jump high into the air or to jump in order to land in a different place:
She leapt over the fence.
The smaller animals can easily leap from tree to tree.
b) [transitive] literary to jump over something:
Brenda leaped the gate and ran across the field.
Muslim 清教徒
navigation v, 領航員
when someone sails a ship along a river or other area of water:
Navigation becomes more difficult further up the river.
pass along
astrolabe
Portuguese
caravel
quadrant cn,四分之一圓
1. a quarter of a circle
2 an instrument for measuring angles, used when sailing or looking at the stars
cross-staff
sail with or against the wing 順風或是逆風
The Age of Discovery
desperately adv, 非常,極度
very or very much
desperately want/need
[British English] The crops desperately need rain.
desperately poor/ill/tired etc
[British English] He was desperately ill with a fever.
desperately unhappy/lonely/worried etc
rake
1 [intransitive and transitive]DLG to move a rake across a surface in order to make the soil level, gather dead leaves etc
rake something over/up
She raked the soil over to loosen the weeds.
2 [intransitive always + adverb/preposition] to search a place very carefully for something
rake through/around
I've been raking through my drawers looking for those tickets.
3 [transitive] to point something such as a gun, camera, or strong light, and keep moving across an area [= sweep]: 掃過,搜刮
The searchlight raked the open ground around the prison.
They raked the room with gunfire.
4 [transitive] to push a stick backwards and forwards in a fire in order to remove ashes
5 rake over the past/old coals
to keep talking about something that happened in the past that people would prefer you not to mention
6 rake your fingers (through something)
to pull your fingers through something or across a surface:
Ken raked his fingers through his hair.
rake something ↔ in
phrasal verb
B to earn a lot of money without trying very hard:
Lou's been raking in the dollars since he opened his business.
If someone opened a burger bar, they'd really rake it in.
rake something ↔ up
phrasal verb
1 to talk about something from the past that people would prefer you not to mention [= dredge up]:
[Look up a word starting with D or S for samples of headword or sentence pronunciations on the LDOCE CD-ROM] It upsets Dad when that story is raked up again.
2 also rake something ↔ together to collect things or people together for a purpose, but with difficulty:
They could only rake up $300.
overland adv, 一整座島
across land, not by sea or air:
caravans 箱行車
1 British EnglishDLO a vehicle that a car can pull and in which people can live and sleep when they are on holiday [= trailer American English]
caravan site/park (=area of land where people can park their caravans)
2 British EnglishTTB a covered vehicle that is pulled by a horse, and in which people can live [= wagon American English]
a gipsy caravan
exotic adj, 外來的,舶來的
something that is exotic seems unusual and interesting because it is related to a foreign country - use this to show approval:
exotic birds
exotic places
—exotically [See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages] adverb
plain
stumble v, 絆倒
stumble to hit your foot against something or put your foot down awkwardly while you are walking or running, so that you almost fall [= trip]:
[British English] In her hurry she stumbled and spilled the milk all over the floor.
stumble over/on
[British English] Vic stumbled over the step as he came in.
persuade
expedition cn, 長途且必須詳細規劃的旅行,特別是會危險以及不熟悉的地方
a long and carefully organized journey, especially to a dangerous or unfamiliar place, or the people that make this journey:
an expedition to the North Pole
another Everest expedition
maneuverable adj 很有機動性的
if something, especially a vehicle, is manoeuvrable, it can be moved or turned easily:
a ship which was surprisingly fast and manoeuvrable
—manoeuvrability [See pronunciation table in "How to use dictionary" pages] noun [uncountable]
turn down 拒絕
favorable winds
conceal vt
1 to hide something carefully 小心翼翼的藏起東西
The shadows concealed her as she crept up to the house.
The path was concealed by long grass.
a concealed weapon
2 to hide your real feelings or the truth:影藏住感覺或是事實
She tried to conceal the fact that she was pregnant.
conceal something from somebody
[Look up a word starting with D or S for samples of headword or sentence pronunciations on the LDOCE CD-ROM] She was taking drugs and trying to conceal it from me.
—concealment noun [uncountable]
deliberate concealment of his activities
kidnap v 綁架
kidnapping also, past tense and past participle kidnaped, present participle kidnaping American English [transitive]
SCC to take someone somewhere illegally by force, often in order to get money for returning them [↪ ransom]:
Police appealed for witnesses after a woman was kidnapped at gunpoint.
—kidnapper noun [countable]
the hunt for the kidnapper
—kidnapping also kidnap noun [uncountable and countable]
a series of kidnappings
Outline
1 At Renaissance period, about 15~16th, there was a revolution in religion known as Protestant Reformation. The Protestants were forced to find a better place to worship.
2. The European nations gradually resolved the internal power struggle and began to take ambitious leaps into new worlds.
3. Those nations wanted to find a quicker way to Asia, they contacted with Muslims to earn sailing technology like sailing chart and map. After that , they developed their own technologies. The reveal example was the Portuguese cavarel.
4.Spainish wanted to find a way to around the land routes to Asia so that they did not have to pay the middleman.
5. In the 1400s , educated people knew that the world was round. Christopher Columbers still had doubt, so he wanted to prove the fact. At first, he persuaded nations rulers to provided him ships and money but he was all turned down. After 6 years later, Queen Isabella agreed to arranged an expedition for this 41-year-old navigator.
On August 3, 1492, Columber start his voyage with 2 ships named Nina and Pinta and 90 men.
6. After 2 month voyage, they found a new land. But Columbers mistakenly believed that they had reached India , so that he call the native people Indians who were Taino in reality. Columber and his men then enslave some Tainos and brought them to Spain.
On his 3 later voyages, he brought more slaves and gold.
That changed the lives of both groups forever.
2009年3月26日 星期四
2009年1月15日 星期四
Jobs快掛了？？
Apple Chief Temporarily Steps Aside
Casting a pall over one of the world’s most closely watched companies, Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said on Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence because of health concerns.
Mr. Jobs wrote in a letter to Apple employees, released after the markets closed, that he had learned over the last week that his health problems were “more complex” than he originally thought. He said he planned to return to Apple at the end of June and in the meantime would hand day-to-day control of Apple over to Timothy D. Cook, its longtime chief operating officer.
Mr. Jobs, 53, wrote that curiosity about his health continued “to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well.” He said he would maintain the chief executive title and stay involved in major strategic decisions.
Mr. Jobs’s leave of absence is the latest twist in a story that has left the company’s shareholders, analysts and ardent fans exasperated and straining to divine any hidden meanings in the company’s vaguely worded communications.
In his letter, Mr. Jobs offered no new details about the cause of his health problems. In a letter last week that was meant to calm fears about his condition, he said a “hormone imbalance” was robbing his body of proteins and causing him to lose weight. Mr. Jobs recovered from pancreatic cancer after surgery in 2004, but has appeared unusually gaunt at recent appearances.
Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs’s current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but a condition that was preventing his body from absorbing food. Doctors have also advised him to cut down on stress, which may be making the problem worse, these people said.
An Apple spokesman, Steve Dowling, said the company had no comment beyond Mr. Jobs’s letter.
Apple shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading after the release of the letter, losing $6.03, or 7.1 percent, to $79.30. The stock fell 2.71 percent in regular trading amid a broad market slump.
Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company who follows Apple, said the stock market would probably fear the worst.
“It is reasonable to expect, given the history of Steve’s illness, that the market is probably going to assume that he is not going to return to Apple,” Mr. Wolf said.
In June, when Mr. Jobs appeared strikingly thin at a company conference for programmers, an Apple spokeswoman said he was recovering from a “common bug.” Soon afterward, Mr. Jobs acknowledged to The New York Times that he was suffering from digestive difficulties related to an operation he had as part of his cancer treatment.
Then last week, Mr. Jobs sought to calm speculation about his withdrawal from his regular keynote speech at the annual Macworld conference by acknowledging he had a “hormone imbalance.”
“The letter last week pretty much tried to reassure people that his health condition was extremely minor, but obviously it is more serious than first thought,” Ryan Jacob, founder of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns a stake in Apple and is based in Los Angeles, said. “It’s disturbing.”
As news trickles from Apple about Mr. Jobs’s health, some shareholders and analysts have expressed frustration.
A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission, John J. Nester, declined to comment on Apple’s situation. But he said that in general, while there were no specific requirements for companies to disclose the health of their officers or directors, companies needed to assess whether health problems could have a material impact on results.
For most companies, such information is not crucial because they are not as closely associated with one person. But Apple may be an exception. Since he helped found Apple in 1976, and particularly since he returned in 1997 after a decade-long absence, Mr. Jobs has been inextricably linked to the company and its brand.
Over the last eight years, he has, seemingly single-handedly, powered Apple back to the forefront of the technology industry. Apple has sold 180 million iPod music players, and in the last 18 months, it has sold more than 20 million units of its iPhone.
But Mr. Jobs does not run Apple alone, and now at least one of his deputies will have a moment in the sun. Mr. Cook joined Apple in 1998 from the computer maker Compaq and is responsible for the company’s manufacturing and sales operations.
“I don’t think we know enough about Tim since he has never really been in the limelight,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “What we can say is Apple has a complicated business model with enormous seasonality. But it has been exceptionally well run across a number of dimensions for a number of years. I think a lot of that credit goes to Tim.”
By all accounts, Mr. Cook does not have the long-term vision or showmanship of Mr. Jobs, who appears capable of peering around corners into the future of technology, and can whip crowds into a frenzy merely by taking something new out of his pocket.
That is why analysts and shareholders saw so much portent in Mr. Jobs’s 170-word letter.
“These are times where you reflect about what Steve Jobs means for the company,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “At the end of the day, investors need to come to grips with the reality of a post-Steve Jobs world. This is the most urgent wake-up call they have had.”
Casting a pall over one of the world’s most closely watched companies, Steven P. Jobs, chief executive of Apple, said on Wednesday that he was taking a leave of absence because of health concerns.
Mr. Jobs wrote in a letter to Apple employees, released after the markets closed, that he had learned over the last week that his health problems were “more complex” than he originally thought. He said he planned to return to Apple at the end of June and in the meantime would hand day-to-day control of Apple over to Timothy D. Cook, its longtime chief operating officer.
Mr. Jobs, 53, wrote that curiosity about his health continued “to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well.” He said he would maintain the chief executive title and stay involved in major strategic decisions.
Mr. Jobs’s leave of absence is the latest twist in a story that has left the company’s shareholders, analysts and ardent fans exasperated and straining to divine any hidden meanings in the company’s vaguely worded communications.
In his letter, Mr. Jobs offered no new details about the cause of his health problems. In a letter last week that was meant to calm fears about his condition, he said a “hormone imbalance” was robbing his body of proteins and causing him to lose weight. Mr. Jobs recovered from pancreatic cancer after surgery in 2004, but has appeared unusually gaunt at recent appearances.
Two people who are familiar with Mr. Jobs’s current medical treatment said he was not suffering from a recurrence of cancer, but a condition that was preventing his body from absorbing food. Doctors have also advised him to cut down on stress, which may be making the problem worse, these people said.
An Apple spokesman, Steve Dowling, said the company had no comment beyond Mr. Jobs’s letter.
Apple shares dropped sharply in after-hours trading after the release of the letter, losing $6.03, or 7.1 percent, to $79.30. The stock fell 2.71 percent in regular trading amid a broad market slump.
Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company who follows Apple, said the stock market would probably fear the worst.
“It is reasonable to expect, given the history of Steve’s illness, that the market is probably going to assume that he is not going to return to Apple,” Mr. Wolf said.
In June, when Mr. Jobs appeared strikingly thin at a company conference for programmers, an Apple spokeswoman said he was recovering from a “common bug.” Soon afterward, Mr. Jobs acknowledged to The New York Times that he was suffering from digestive difficulties related to an operation he had as part of his cancer treatment.
Then last week, Mr. Jobs sought to calm speculation about his withdrawal from his regular keynote speech at the annual Macworld conference by acknowledging he had a “hormone imbalance.”
“The letter last week pretty much tried to reassure people that his health condition was extremely minor, but obviously it is more serious than first thought,” Ryan Jacob, founder of the Jacob Internet Fund, which owns a stake in Apple and is based in Los Angeles, said. “It’s disturbing.”
As news trickles from Apple about Mr. Jobs’s health, some shareholders and analysts have expressed frustration.
A spokesman for the Securities and Exchange Commission, John J. Nester, declined to comment on Apple’s situation. But he said that in general, while there were no specific requirements for companies to disclose the health of their officers or directors, companies needed to assess whether health problems could have a material impact on results.
For most companies, such information is not crucial because they are not as closely associated with one person. But Apple may be an exception. Since he helped found Apple in 1976, and particularly since he returned in 1997 after a decade-long absence, Mr. Jobs has been inextricably linked to the company and its brand.
Over the last eight years, he has, seemingly single-handedly, powered Apple back to the forefront of the technology industry. Apple has sold 180 million iPod music players, and in the last 18 months, it has sold more than 20 million units of its iPhone.
But Mr. Jobs does not run Apple alone, and now at least one of his deputies will have a moment in the sun. Mr. Cook joined Apple in 1998 from the computer maker Compaq and is responsible for the company’s manufacturing and sales operations.
“I don’t think we know enough about Tim since he has never really been in the limelight,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “What we can say is Apple has a complicated business model with enormous seasonality. But it has been exceptionally well run across a number of dimensions for a number of years. I think a lot of that credit goes to Tim.”
By all accounts, Mr. Cook does not have the long-term vision or showmanship of Mr. Jobs, who appears capable of peering around corners into the future of technology, and can whip crowds into a frenzy merely by taking something new out of his pocket.
That is why analysts and shareholders saw so much portent in Mr. Jobs’s 170-word letter.
“These are times where you reflect about what Steve Jobs means for the company,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “At the end of the day, investors need to come to grips with the reality of a post-Steve Jobs world. This is the most urgent wake-up call they have had.”
2008年12月25日 星期四
Gettysburg Address
林肯在南北戰爭後四個月的演說
最有名的一句話
“that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
最有名的一句話
“that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.“
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate—we can not consecrate—we can not hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
2008年12月10日 星期三
Trying to Live With a Recession in the World's Largest Economy
Trying to Live With a Recession in the World's Largest Economy
Millions of Americans cut their spending as they worry about keeping their jobs and their homes. Yet spending helps drive the economy. Transcript of radio broadcast:
08 December 2008
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we turn our attention to the economy.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
An employee loads a TV for a shopper at Circuit City, a major seller of elec-tronics. It sought bankruptcy protection last month and is closing one-fifth of its stores to reorganize.
A lot of people have thought for months that the United States is in a recession. But the economy is not officially in a recession un-til a private research organization says it is. Guess what? Last Monday the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States has been in a recession for the past year.
Economists on the Business Cycle Dating Committee met by con-ference call on Friday, November twenty-eighth. They decided that economic activity reached a high point in December of two thousand seven. It peaked after eight years of expansion.
The United States was last in a recession from March to Novem-ber of two thousand one. Some economists say the current re-cession could last into two thousand ten. But how long, and how bad, it will be is really anyone's guess.
VOICE TWO:
The United States has the world's largest economy. Japan has the second largest. It, too, is in a recession, officially announced on November seventeenth. That was four days after Germany con-firmed a recession in its economy, the largest in Europe.
One way to measure an economy is by the value of goods and services produced within a country -- its gross domestic product. The latest estimate shows that America's G.D.P. fell by half a per-cent between July and September. It also shrank at the end of last year.
But in between it grew. Recessions are commonly defined as at least six months in a row of decrease in G.D.P. The committee does not use this definition. Instead it uses a number of different reports to identify a recession.
Lower prices for new houses in Springfield, Illinois
The economic crisis began with the collapse of property values, the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States. Invest-ments built on high-risk mortgage loans became "toxic." No one wanted to trust banks that owned them. Credit markets froze. Governments around the world have had to intervene aggres-sively to support their financial systems.
VOICE ONE:
Barack Obama has to wait until January twentieth to become president. But he has already moved faster than most newly elected presidents to name his economic team. He wants to get an early start on an economic recovery plan big enough to con-tain the recession. His goal is to save or create two and a half million jobs by January of two thousand eleven.
He wants Congress to have legislation ready for him to sign into law soon after he takes office.
VOICE TWO:
Last Tuesday President-elect Obama met with the nation's gover-nors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He said he wants their help in designing his economic recovery plan.
State and local governments are collecting less tax money as a result of falling property values, rising unemployment and other problems. Most of the fifty states are required to balance their budgets. Most are now facing deficits. So that means they have to cut services or raise taxes, or both.
Last Monday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a "fiscal emergency" in California. He acted under a constitutional amendment passed by state voters in two thousand four. It re-quires California to balance its budget.
The declaration lets the governor call a special meeting of the legislature to pass measures within forty-five days to deal with the budget crisis. He wants a combination of spending cuts and tax increases in the nation's most populous state.
Early estimates show that over the next eighteen months, Cali-fornia's budget deficit could reach twenty-eight billion dollars. That is more than double the current shortfall.
Governor Schwarzenegger warned that without quick action, Cali-fornia could be out of money in February.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
U.S. fuel prices are at their lowest in almost five years
Motorists are happy at the drop in fuel prices. But economically speaking, there is not much else to be happy about.
Stock prices climb one day, then fall the next. Investments and retirement savings have shrunk. The economic downturn has mil-lions of people worried about keeping their jobs and their homes.
Americans have cut back on spending, and not just for things like travel and entertainment, or new cars. Some are limiting medical and dental care to only the services they need most. They may be saving money, but also taking a risk.
VOICE TWO:
One family trying to save money is the Jeffries of Carbondale, Colorado. Sarah Jeffries and her husband, Wayne, have two chil-dren: a son, age five, and a daughter, age two.
Wayne Jeffries is a manager for a construction company. Sarah says other builders in the area are letting workers go because of weak demand. She says her husband's company has projects through the middle of next year. But no one knows what will happen after that.
VOICE ONE:
Fear of losing a job is a big reason why people are looking to save money. Sarah Jeffries says she buys things only when the price has been reduced. She gets all the children’ s clothes from used clothing stores.
She says the family does not eat at restaurants as much as they used to. Sarah also says she looks for money-saving coupons to use at the grocery store because of high food prices. And she makes an extra effort not to waste any food. One or two times a week the Jeffries have what they call “picnic night."
That is, the kids call it picnic night. To the parents, it provides a way to use foods left over from meals earlier in the week. But Sarah serves the leftovers on plates on a blanket on the floor, and says the children love it.
VOICE TWO:
Saving money is also a goal this holiday season at the Jeffries’ house. Sarah says the family used to spend about one thousand five hundred dollars on Christmas gifts and decorations each year. But this year, she says they will spend between seven and eight hundred dollars.
One way they are cutting back is by reducing the number of gifts they buy. Sarah and Wayne generally exchange Christmas gifts with each other and with her parents and brother who live in the area. This year, the adults have all decided not to buy each other gifts. Instead, they are each putting fifty dollars toward a Nin-tendo Wii video-game system that they plan to share.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Personal spending is a big part of the American economy. It rep-resents about seventy percent of the gross domestic product.
For many businesses, anywhere from twenty-five to forty percent of their sales all year normally come during the winter holiday season.
The shopping season traditionally begins on the day after Thanksgiving. The day is called “Black Friday." The name comes from the tradition of recording profits in black ink and losses in red. Black Friday is when stores hope to return to the black for the year.
VOICE TWO:
Many stores now open before sunrise and offer extra special deals for early shoppers on Black Friday. The National Retail Federation found that almost one-fourth of shoppers this year arrived at stores by five o'clock in the morning.
Black Friday used to be the biggest shopping day of the year. And it still may be the day when the largest number of shoppers visit stores. An estimated seventy-four million people visited stores and Web sites on Black Friday this year. But Black Friday is no longer necessarily the day when shoppers spend the most money.
VOICE ONE:
With the economy down, shoppers are thinking carefully before making holiday purchases and looking for the best values. Black Friday this year was better than expected. But stores were offer-ing big price reductions -- sacrificing profits, and possibly risking their futures.
VOICE TWO:
Americans are better known for spending money than for saving it. But now, some are trying to save by reducing the debt they owe on credit cards. Others are trying to avoid taking on new debt. Still others have had their credit limits reduced as a result of the financial crisis.
The Coinstar company reports that almost one-fourth of Ameri-cans say they are paying for purchases with cash more often than they did a year ago. Using cash, they say, helps them manage their money better and reduce credit card debt.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Recently we asked some shoppers at the big Potomac Mills Mall, south of Washington, D.C., how the economy is affecting their lives. Erica Scott lives in Culpeper, Virginia:
ERICA SCOTT: "We have our own business. So, we’re feeling it there.Calls are slowing down. So, we’re just trying to cut back wherever we can. We’ve had to let a few employees go. We do a lot of contracts with the Virginia Department of Transportation and they’ve cut back on their contracts, so we’ve had to cut back. We’re eating out less, cutting more coupons out, shopping for cheaper gas, going to outlet malls instead of normal malls ... "
VOICE TWO:
Some shoppers are waiting to see how the economy does under the new administration. Dennis Aanderud of Spotsylvania, Vir-ginia, put it this way:
DENNIS AANDERUD: “My wife would like to get a large-screen TV, and maybe a car. We’re just going to wait and see which way things are going. Things are in a very volatile situation right now and I think people are just waiting to look and see what Presi-dent-elect Obama does.”
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our pro-grams are all available -- free of charge -- at voaspecialeng-lish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
intervene aggressively
intervene
to become involved in an argument, fight, or other difficult situation in order to change what happens
intervene in
▪ The police don't usually like to intervene in disputes between husbands and wives.
▪ The army will have to intervene to prevent further fighting.
aggressively
1 behaving in an angry, threatening way, as if you want to fight or attack someone:
▪ Jim's voice became aggressive.
▪ Teachers apparently expect a certain amount of aggressive behaviour from boys.
2 very determined to succeed or get what you want:
▪ A successful businessman has to be aggressive.
▪ an aggressive marketing campaign
legislation
a law or set of laws:
▪ This is a very important piece of legislation (=law).
legislation on
▪ the legislation on abortion
legislation to do something
▪ new legislation to protect children
introduce/bring in legislation
▪ The government has promised to bring in new legislation to combat this problem.
deficits
the difference between the amount of something that you have and the higher amount that you need ➔ shortfall:
▪ the country's widening budget deficit
▪ the US's foreign trade deficit
trade deficit also trade gap [countable]
PE the amount by which the value of what a country buys from abroad is more than the value of what it sells
fiscal
relating to money, taxes, debts etc that are owned and managed by the gov-ernment:
▪ a fiscal crisis
fiscal policy/measure
▪ sound (=good) fiscal policy
▪ a fiscal matter
constitutional amendment
constitutional
officially allowed or limited by the system of rules of a country or organiza-tion:
▪ Legal experts say that the bill may not be constitutional.
▪ a constitutional right to privacy
▪ We have a constitutional right to keep weapons for self-defense.
▪ a constitutional monarchy (=a country ruled by a king or queen whose power is limited by a constitution)
amendment
[uncountable and countable] a small change, improvement, or addition that is made to a law or document, or the process of doing this:
▪ constitutional amendments
amendment to
▪ Cramer introduced an amendment to the Civil Rights Act.
dental care
relating to your teeth
dental treatment/care
▪ Dental care was free in the 60s.
dental disease/problems/decay etc
gross domestic product( GDP) 國內生產總值
sacrificing
1 [uncountable and countable] when you decide not to have something valu-able, in order to get something that is more important:
▪ The minister stressed the need for economic sacrifice.
▪ The workforce were willing to make sacrifices in order to preserve jobs.
▪ She brought three children up single-handedly, often at great personal sac-rifice.
2RR
a) [uncountable and countable] the act of offering something to a god, espe-cially in the past, by killing an animal or person in a religious ceremony ➔ sac-rificial:
▪ They made sacrifices to ensure a good harvest.
b) [countable] an animal, person, or object offered to a god in sacrifice ➔ sacrificial
sacrifice to
▪ In those days, an animal was offered as a sacrifice to God.
▪ a human sacrifice (=a person killed as a sacrifice)
3 literary the final/supreme/ultimate sacrifice the act of dying while you are fighting for a principle or in order to help other people:
▪ Captain Oates made the ultimate sacrifice in a bid to save his colleagues.
debt
1 [countable] a sum of money that a person or organization owes
debt of
▪ This over-ambitious strategy has saddled them with debts of $3,000,000.
pay (off)/repay/clear/settle etc a debt
▪ He had enough money to pay off his outstanding debts.
▪ Romania is paying more and more to Western banks simply to service the debt (=pay it).
run up/amass debts
▪ students who run up huge debts
cut back
to reduce the amount, size, cost etc of something
cut back on
▪ Several major hospitals are cutting back on staff at the moment.
cut something ↔ back
▪ Education spending cannot be cut back any further.
▪ Richer countries must do more to cut back carbon emissions.
➔ cutback
2 cut something ↔ backDLG to remove the top part of a plant in order to help it to grow:
▪ Cut back the shoots in spring to encourage bushier growth.
3 to eat, drink, or use less of something, especially in order to improve your health
cut back on
▪ Try to cut back on foods containing wheat and dairy products .
volatile
1 a volatile situation is likely to change suddenly and without warning oppo-site stable:
▪ an increasingly volatile political situation
▪ the highly volatile stock and bond markets
2 someone who is volatile can suddenly become angry or violent
3HC technical a volatile liquid or substance changes easily into a gas opposite stable
Millions of Americans cut their spending as they worry about keeping their jobs and their homes. Yet spending helps drive the economy. Transcript of radio broadcast:
08 December 2008
VOICE TWO:
And I'm Barbara Klein. This week on our program, we turn our attention to the economy.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
An employee loads a TV for a shopper at Circuit City, a major seller of elec-tronics. It sought bankruptcy protection last month and is closing one-fifth of its stores to reorganize.
A lot of people have thought for months that the United States is in a recession. But the economy is not officially in a recession un-til a private research organization says it is. Guess what? Last Monday the National Bureau of Economic Research announced that the United States has been in a recession for the past year.
Economists on the Business Cycle Dating Committee met by con-ference call on Friday, November twenty-eighth. They decided that economic activity reached a high point in December of two thousand seven. It peaked after eight years of expansion.
The United States was last in a recession from March to Novem-ber of two thousand one. Some economists say the current re-cession could last into two thousand ten. But how long, and how bad, it will be is really anyone's guess.
VOICE TWO:
The United States has the world's largest economy. Japan has the second largest. It, too, is in a recession, officially announced on November seventeenth. That was four days after Germany con-firmed a recession in its economy, the largest in Europe.
One way to measure an economy is by the value of goods and services produced within a country -- its gross domestic product. The latest estimate shows that America's G.D.P. fell by half a per-cent between July and September. It also shrank at the end of last year.
But in between it grew. Recessions are commonly defined as at least six months in a row of decrease in G.D.P. The committee does not use this definition. Instead it uses a number of different reports to identify a recession.
Lower prices for new houses in Springfield, Illinois
The economic crisis began with the collapse of property values, the bursting of the housing bubble in the United States. Invest-ments built on high-risk mortgage loans became "toxic." No one wanted to trust banks that owned them. Credit markets froze. Governments around the world have had to intervene aggres-sively to support their financial systems.
VOICE ONE:
Barack Obama has to wait until January twentieth to become president. But he has already moved faster than most newly elected presidents to name his economic team. He wants to get an early start on an economic recovery plan big enough to con-tain the recession. His goal is to save or create two and a half million jobs by January of two thousand eleven.
He wants Congress to have legislation ready for him to sign into law soon after he takes office.
VOICE TWO:
Last Tuesday President-elect Obama met with the nation's gover-nors in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He said he wants their help in designing his economic recovery plan.
State and local governments are collecting less tax money as a result of falling property values, rising unemployment and other problems. Most of the fifty states are required to balance their budgets. Most are now facing deficits. So that means they have to cut services or raise taxes, or both.
Last Monday, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a "fiscal emergency" in California. He acted under a constitutional amendment passed by state voters in two thousand four. It re-quires California to balance its budget.
The declaration lets the governor call a special meeting of the legislature to pass measures within forty-five days to deal with the budget crisis. He wants a combination of spending cuts and tax increases in the nation's most populous state.
Early estimates show that over the next eighteen months, Cali-fornia's budget deficit could reach twenty-eight billion dollars. That is more than double the current shortfall.
Governor Schwarzenegger warned that without quick action, Cali-fornia could be out of money in February.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
U.S. fuel prices are at their lowest in almost five years
Motorists are happy at the drop in fuel prices. But economically speaking, there is not much else to be happy about.
Stock prices climb one day, then fall the next. Investments and retirement savings have shrunk. The economic downturn has mil-lions of people worried about keeping their jobs and their homes.
Americans have cut back on spending, and not just for things like travel and entertainment, or new cars. Some are limiting medical and dental care to only the services they need most. They may be saving money, but also taking a risk.
VOICE TWO:
One family trying to save money is the Jeffries of Carbondale, Colorado. Sarah Jeffries and her husband, Wayne, have two chil-dren: a son, age five, and a daughter, age two.
Wayne Jeffries is a manager for a construction company. Sarah says other builders in the area are letting workers go because of weak demand. She says her husband's company has projects through the middle of next year. But no one knows what will happen after that.
VOICE ONE:
Fear of losing a job is a big reason why people are looking to save money. Sarah Jeffries says she buys things only when the price has been reduced. She gets all the children’ s clothes from used clothing stores.
She says the family does not eat at restaurants as much as they used to. Sarah also says she looks for money-saving coupons to use at the grocery store because of high food prices. And she makes an extra effort not to waste any food. One or two times a week the Jeffries have what they call “picnic night."
That is, the kids call it picnic night. To the parents, it provides a way to use foods left over from meals earlier in the week. But Sarah serves the leftovers on plates on a blanket on the floor, and says the children love it.
VOICE TWO:
Saving money is also a goal this holiday season at the Jeffries’ house. Sarah says the family used to spend about one thousand five hundred dollars on Christmas gifts and decorations each year. But this year, she says they will spend between seven and eight hundred dollars.
One way they are cutting back is by reducing the number of gifts they buy. Sarah and Wayne generally exchange Christmas gifts with each other and with her parents and brother who live in the area. This year, the adults have all decided not to buy each other gifts. Instead, they are each putting fifty dollars toward a Nin-tendo Wii video-game system that they plan to share.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Personal spending is a big part of the American economy. It rep-resents about seventy percent of the gross domestic product.
For many businesses, anywhere from twenty-five to forty percent of their sales all year normally come during the winter holiday season.
The shopping season traditionally begins on the day after Thanksgiving. The day is called “Black Friday." The name comes from the tradition of recording profits in black ink and losses in red. Black Friday is when stores hope to return to the black for the year.
VOICE TWO:
Many stores now open before sunrise and offer extra special deals for early shoppers on Black Friday. The National Retail Federation found that almost one-fourth of shoppers this year arrived at stores by five o'clock in the morning.
Black Friday used to be the biggest shopping day of the year. And it still may be the day when the largest number of shoppers visit stores. An estimated seventy-four million people visited stores and Web sites on Black Friday this year. But Black Friday is no longer necessarily the day when shoppers spend the most money.
VOICE ONE:
With the economy down, shoppers are thinking carefully before making holiday purchases and looking for the best values. Black Friday this year was better than expected. But stores were offer-ing big price reductions -- sacrificing profits, and possibly risking their futures.
VOICE TWO:
Americans are better known for spending money than for saving it. But now, some are trying to save by reducing the debt they owe on credit cards. Others are trying to avoid taking on new debt. Still others have had their credit limits reduced as a result of the financial crisis.
The Coinstar company reports that almost one-fourth of Ameri-cans say they are paying for purchases with cash more often than they did a year ago. Using cash, they say, helps them manage their money better and reduce credit card debt.
(MUSIC)
VOICE ONE:
Recently we asked some shoppers at the big Potomac Mills Mall, south of Washington, D.C., how the economy is affecting their lives. Erica Scott lives in Culpeper, Virginia:
ERICA SCOTT: "We have our own business. So, we’re feeling it there.Calls are slowing down. So, we’re just trying to cut back wherever we can. We’ve had to let a few employees go. We do a lot of contracts with the Virginia Department of Transportation and they’ve cut back on their contracts, so we’ve had to cut back. We’re eating out less, cutting more coupons out, shopping for cheaper gas, going to outlet malls instead of normal malls ... "
VOICE TWO:
Some shoppers are waiting to see how the economy does under the new administration. Dennis Aanderud of Spotsylvania, Vir-ginia, put it this way:
DENNIS AANDERUD: “My wife would like to get a large-screen TV, and maybe a car. We’re just going to wait and see which way things are going. Things are in a very volatile situation right now and I think people are just waiting to look and see what Presi-dent-elect Obama does.”
(MUSIC)
VOICE TWO:
Our program was written by Nancy Steinbach and produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Barbara Klein.
VOICE ONE:
And I'm Steve Ember. Transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our pro-grams are all available -- free of charge -- at voaspecialeng-lish.com. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.
intervene aggressively
intervene
to become involved in an argument, fight, or other difficult situation in order to change what happens
intervene in
▪ The police don't usually like to intervene in disputes between husbands and wives.
▪ The army will have to intervene to prevent further fighting.
aggressively
1 behaving in an angry, threatening way, as if you want to fight or attack someone:
▪ Jim's voice became aggressive.
▪ Teachers apparently expect a certain amount of aggressive behaviour from boys.
2 very determined to succeed or get what you want:
▪ A successful businessman has to be aggressive.
▪ an aggressive marketing campaign
legislation
a law or set of laws:
▪ This is a very important piece of legislation (=law).
legislation on
▪ the legislation on abortion
legislation to do something
▪ new legislation to protect children
introduce/bring in legislation
▪ The government has promised to bring in new legislation to combat this problem.
deficits
the difference between the amount of something that you have and the higher amount that you need ➔ shortfall:
▪ the country's widening budget deficit
▪ the US's foreign trade deficit
trade deficit also trade gap [countable]
PE the amount by which the value of what a country buys from abroad is more than the value of what it sells
fiscal
relating to money, taxes, debts etc that are owned and managed by the gov-ernment:
▪ a fiscal crisis
fiscal policy/measure
▪ sound (=good) fiscal policy
▪ a fiscal matter
constitutional amendment
constitutional
officially allowed or limited by the system of rules of a country or organiza-tion:
▪ Legal experts say that the bill may not be constitutional.
▪ a constitutional right to privacy
▪ We have a constitutional right to keep weapons for self-defense.
▪ a constitutional monarchy (=a country ruled by a king or queen whose power is limited by a constitution)
amendment
[uncountable and countable] a small change, improvement, or addition that is made to a law or document, or the process of doing this:
▪ constitutional amendments
amendment to
▪ Cramer introduced an amendment to the Civil Rights Act.
dental care
relating to your teeth
dental treatment/care
▪ Dental care was free in the 60s.
dental disease/problems/decay etc
gross domestic product( GDP) 國內生產總值
sacrificing
1 [uncountable and countable] when you decide not to have something valu-able, in order to get something that is more important:
▪ The minister stressed the need for economic sacrifice.
▪ The workforce were willing to make sacrifices in order to preserve jobs.
▪ She brought three children up single-handedly, often at great personal sac-rifice.
2RR
a) [uncountable and countable] the act of offering something to a god, espe-cially in the past, by killing an animal or person in a religious ceremony ➔ sac-rificial:
▪ They made sacrifices to ensure a good harvest.
b) [countable] an animal, person, or object offered to a god in sacrifice ➔ sacrificial
sacrifice to
▪ In those days, an animal was offered as a sacrifice to God.
▪ a human sacrifice (=a person killed as a sacrifice)
3 literary the final/supreme/ultimate sacrifice the act of dying while you are fighting for a principle or in order to help other people:
▪ Captain Oates made the ultimate sacrifice in a bid to save his colleagues.
debt
1 [countable] a sum of money that a person or organization owes
debt of
▪ This over-ambitious strategy has saddled them with debts of $3,000,000.
pay (off)/repay/clear/settle etc a debt
▪ He had enough money to pay off his outstanding debts.
▪ Romania is paying more and more to Western banks simply to service the debt (=pay it).
run up/amass debts
▪ students who run up huge debts
cut back
to reduce the amount, size, cost etc of something
cut back on
▪ Several major hospitals are cutting back on staff at the moment.
cut something ↔ back
▪ Education spending cannot be cut back any further.
▪ Richer countries must do more to cut back carbon emissions.
➔ cutback
2 cut something ↔ backDLG to remove the top part of a plant in order to help it to grow:
▪ Cut back the shoots in spring to encourage bushier growth.
3 to eat, drink, or use less of something, especially in order to improve your health
cut back on
▪ Try to cut back on foods containing wheat and dairy products .
volatile
1 a volatile situation is likely to change suddenly and without warning oppo-site stable:
▪ an increasingly volatile political situation
▪ the highly volatile stock and bond markets
2 someone who is volatile can suddenly become angry or violent
3HC technical a volatile liquid or substance changes easily into a gas opposite stable
2008年11月13日 星期四
我一定要跟大家推薦這個站
ｖｏａ
現在網路資源實在太多了 為了配合老師所說的廣讀
跟大家推薦VOA這個站點
理由是裡面有著各式各樣的新聞資訊
重點還幫大家分類好了
大家可以依照裡面的分類為自己的字彙分類
第二點
他幾乎每篇文章都有朗讀 而且有mp3可以下載 可以當作隨身電子書 非常好用
第三點
說實在的 他的文章並不是很難
而且充滿學術性 不會用到像CNN或是NYT那些會出現的艱澀單字
更不會有Friends那樣太過俗俚的詞
朋友們一起加油吧!
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