BBC Learning English

 

Comment:

Actually I was pretty surprised by their efficiency because I have got the response in just thirty minutes. It is very convenient for the English learners while are having any questions. The answer they gave was short but clear. However, I expected to get more explanation before. I have read other messages on the website, and I found out that most of the answers were short. In addition, most of the answers were not provided with references, such as dictionary or corpus. Probably it is because they were asked to answer with limited time. However, to me, I still think the answer will be more convincing if they can provide the references instead of just giving the simple answer to the question.

Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

“Don’t lose faith. I am convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I love what I did.”

“Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your inner voice.”

      
    These are two sentences I love most in the whole speech. I do feel touched after listening to the speech because now I have lots of uncertainties in my life. I used to have dreams in my life, such as being an editor or a teacher. These are the two jobs that I am really interested in. However, now, I am a little bit lost. It is the first time I realize the cruelty of society. I have sent several resumes but no response from the companies that I am truly interested in. What Steve said was encouraging, but it is too difficult to achieve. I do not graduate from any famous university like Standford, and I have no special talent. It is not the world that you pay the efforts and then get the reward in return. Recently, I do feel frustrated and start to consider taking any job I am qualified instead of pursuing my own dream. After all, beggars can’t be choosers. Also, every time when I get the phone call from my parents I feel so stressful. Sometimes I even wish I would vanish while listening to their long, long suggestion. I have no idea why I am so negative after listening such encouraging speech. However, now I just expect nothing but getting my confidence back and moving on with courage.



     Thomas L. Friedman is the author of The World is Flat and Hot, Flat, and Crowded. He advocates on the Green power, which is much discussed recently. In this video, he was interviewed by the reporters from The New York Times. He mentioned about a scalable, clean, emission-free power at a China price. Because now the developing countries like China, Brazil, India are growing. It means that if they follow the pattern of the Western countries like U.S., it would cause lots of pollution. In addition, government also has to go green. The things government should do are setting the standard and getting the price right. Friedman mentioned that set the standard which prevents the pollution of world getting worse and if the price of oil is high, it can stimulate the invention of alternative energy. I think he is a person with full insight. I do recommend his speeches and hope every one can cherish and protect our own environment.

Podcast 568 – Describing Brisk and Slow Business

This dialogue is about the business. The vocabulary is not difficult, even for the beginners. However, I still learn some terms and phrases about business.

1. brisk business -- It means a lot of business.

2. banner (adj.) + sth -- It means somthing better than expected.

3. launch -- to start (a new project, or business)

4. new line of software -- "line" here represents a group of related product

5. keep up with -- able to reach what you have require to do

6. fly off shelves -- sell something very quickly

7. singing a different tune -- having different experiences

8. foot traffic -- number of people coming to store

9. all the rage -- suddenly become very popular.

10. passé -- something is no longer fasionable

11. fickle -- something changable, and changes often

12. sob story -- the story which would get your sympathy

These are the interesting phrases I have learned from the dialogue. I do think it is a good website for self learning becuase the explanation is very clear and detailed. However, for the intermediate and advanced learners, the speaking speed is too slow. 

The Difference between Big & Large

Big: Except descrbing something huge than average size, it also means large in degree, or something important / major.  For instance: "You two are in big trouble." "You took a big chance."

Large: Different from big, large is mostly descrbing soemthing bigger than usual in number and amount. When we emphasize the "quantity" of  things, we would use the word "large."  For instance: "Young kids carry the large amount of crack."

Examples from: http://llrc.eng.ntnu.edu.tw/English/search/default.htm (MICASE)

Nothing Special about Lily~

It is always embarrassing for me to do the self-introduction each time because I am actually a boring person with nothing special to share with others. However, this might be the last time for me to do the self-introduction in school; I will try my best to do it in an interesting way.