Saturday, April 24, 2010

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.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

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.