W12-Evaluation

   

     In order to enhance the learning content more impressively, one of the procedures of our learning project is to have an evaluation in the very last of our course. The content of the evaluation test is based on "good expressions" on our blog, which aims to evaluate if we effectively absorb the pragmatic expressions. We picked up six sentences for each other to check if we understand the meaning or not. 

Nicole's questions: 

1. The numbers back up the surge in spending over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

2. If we just go over the cliff and let those policies stay in effect, we're basically gonna undo the recovery.  (繼續生效)

3. The company has brought that experience to life. (把...實現) 

4. CEO Howard Schultz spills the beans on starbucks' international ambition.  (走漏消息)

5. Others manage to contain their excitement. (抑制)
6. A city to savor (細細品嚐,慢慢享受)

Lilian's questions: 

1. outsmart以智取勝
2. 2. GoldenEye engendered a new regime of gender equality in the office with Miss Moneypenny firing the first warning shot across Bond's bows. 
(開啟了一個新的...時代；發出警告) 
3. This is coming on the heels of some severe flooding that happened less than a week ago.　　(緊跟在...之後) 
4. With improving political relations between Beijing and Taiwan's China-friendly president comes an economic windfall. 
(經濟上的意外收穫)　
5. Others manage to contain their excitement. (抑制)
6. I'm a singer-songwriter(創作歌手)

Reflection: 

     We both found that in order to enhance the retention memory, we need to design the evaluation part as a formative assessment, such as once a month, which prompts us to keep reviewing the good expressions more frequently. 

W12-course modification

Course Modification

1. During the CALL teaching discussion, Lilian and I found out that actually we were not interested in some certain topic such as sport. It would be difficulty for us to write reflection on "one thing I learned today". Therefore, we modified our course design, that is, to write 6 "one thing I learner today" out of 12 articles. In that way, we could only reflect on the articles that we were interested in, and generate more profound thinking.

2. We planned to test vocabulary each week. However, we found out that it would possibly end up knowing the vocabulary by short-term memory. Therefore, we changed our vocabulary test to the end of the program to see whether we really learn vocabulary.

W11- One thing I learned today

Nicole

In this week's reading, I learned some useful expression, such as half-drowning. (險些溺斃) If I would like to describe this kind of situation, I would possible just use "almost drowning". Besides, I was wondering whether I can use "half-" to describe something is almost done, such as "half-falling". In order to prove my hypothesis, I asked one of my native speaker friends to verify it. She said  she would just use "trip"in this situation. The trial-and -error process really increased my impression towards the word"half-drowning".

W11-Bond's Beauties

Nicole:

What makes the Bond beauties evolve from sexy sidekicks(花瓶) to lethal  ladies?

Lilian: 
Let's talk about something about Feminism. How do you think an intellectual sex kitten should be? 

Nicole

The rise of feminism results in the change of female character in James Bond movies. Women was not just a sidekicks anymore, but show their true color in the movie. I think an intellectual sex kitten should be the combination of gorgeous and sexy appearance, both high IQ and EQ, independence. Anne Hathaway will possible be the representative of intellectual sex kitten.

W11-Good Expression

Nicole
1. She didn't mind getting dirty and half-drowning. (險些溺斃)
2. Well, obviously, you know,when I did it in the early 70s we were very politically incorrect, and beautiful actresses in that era always played sex kittens. (政治不正確的[冒犯或歧視某種種族]/性感女郎)
vocabulary
bubbly活潑的
outsmart以智取勝
engender產生

Lilian 
1. She didn't mind getting dirty and half-drowning. (差點溺斃)
2. GoldenEye engendered a new regime of gender equality in the office with Miss Moneypenny firing the first warning shot across Bond's bows. 
(開啟了一個新的...時代；發出警告) 

W9- One thing I learn today

Lilian: 
       On the page 63, the article introduces a variety of specific car names, such as hatchback, sedan, off-road vehicle, or recreation vehicle. I used to name of all vehicles as cars. I didn't know so many specific but professional terms of cars. For me, they are quite practical which we could apply in our daily colloquial conversation or formal writing. 

     What's more, the phrases about " be a slave for" and " slave away" broaden my vocabulary size and expression size when I want to describe something is subject to some other things and someone works extremely hard. I hope I could review more about the vivid expressions to imprint them into my mind. 

W10- Good expression

Lilian 
1.  This is coming on the heels of some severe flooding that happened less than a week ago.　　(緊跟在...之後)               



Nicole

1.The ground already saturated; people just have had enough.
(地面濕透;人們已經受不了了)

2. That's going to be concern number one.讓人憂心的第一點

W10- Listen Up

Questions 
Lilian: 
1. What factors impede you (and me) comprehending the weather forecast in English? 
2. Do you have the habit of checking weather forecast ( no mater in English or Chinese)? 

Nicole:
What causes difficulties while listening to English weather forecast?


Nicole

          Speed, vocabulary, pronunciation, intonation, sentence structure may be the possible reasons that cause difficulties to learning. Among all of the reasons, speed cause the major difficulty to me. Even it is an easy test, high speed will impede comprehension. Besides, sound assimilation, linking sound, sound deletion will also,be a problem.
        For the second question,  I tend to check Chinese weather forecast only when I have a date with my friends. 

W9- Good Expression

Nicole:

1. The government tries to price them out of reach to limit the number of cars in their small crowded urban country.
(抬高車價,以抵制車輛數目)

2. The government puts a limited number up for bidding.(限量推出供人競標 )

Lilian: 
1. The city-state of Singapore may be well known for its ban on chewing gum and its consequently clean streets, but maintaining environmental standards involves a lot more than just keeping up appearances.  
(禁止; 因此; 做表面工夫) 
2. People are still willing to splurge on beautiful sports car. 
                                          (揮霍金錢) 

W9-Costly Cars

Lilian 
1. When it comes Singapore, what comes to your mind first? 
2. From the content, I know that even though the extremely high price of car, Singaporean are still willing to buy a car. What makes Singaporeans love cars so much?


Nicole

1.If Singapore government limits the amount of vehicle, what will be the possible compensation for the inconvenience.


Nicole

            Singapore is well-know for the ban on chewing gum and clean and tidy street. In Taiwan, there are some talented singers from Singapore. These are all my impression towards Singapore. 
           Despite the high price of car, family makes Singapore people still want to buy car. It's possible that the mass transportation in Singapore is convenient enough to compensate the limit number of car.

W8- Good expression

Lilian: 
1. this dense urban jungle of skyscrapers, homes and offices 
                   (大樓密集的都是叢林) 
2. With the potential price rises and big return, many speculators are speeding in to take advantage. 
    (忙於佔便宜) 

Nicole:
1. Now, here in Hong Kong it is no secret that property prices are high, to say the least. (最起碼,可以說是)

2. Vanessa parked most of the money from her inheritance in real estate. (投資於...)

W8- Hong Kong's most lucrative lots

Questions: 
1. How much do you know about Hong Kong? 

2. In a dense urban jungle, will you buy a parking lot with hundreds of thousands of dollar? Or you would rather to buy a comfortable house? 

3. Will the high property prices of parking lots influence people's interest of buying car?


Nicole:
           Hong Kong is known for shopaholic's paradise, tea restaurant and film. It's all of my impression towards Hong Kong. Besides that, one of my friends who was from Hong Kong said that the percentage of smokers in HK was more than Taiwan, including female.(She is also a smoker, too.)
          I believed that people's buying interest will be influenced by the high property prices. If I can choose, I would rather buy a cozy house instead of a parking lot. However, If I were an inventor, I would probably choose parking lot as my investment.

Lilian: 
         When it comes to Hong Kong, "shopping" and " devouring" come into my mind within a second. In fact, I quite admire how this small "country" (it used to be a country) develop so much attracting delicacy and so many fashionable trends.  Once I have a chance, I would rather to have a trip to Hong Kong. 
      However, form the piece of News, I am quite impressive of the amazing price of parking lot in Hong Kong. In my narrow opinion,  the extremely high price usually belongs to buying a house. Therefore, for me, I would just rather to buy a cozy house.   

W7- Rebuilding the Brain

Question: 1. The news revealed the "magic power" of fish oil, which could remedy dramatic brain injury. Have you ever taken or ingest any vitamins to keep healthy? 



Lilian: 

Honestly speaking, I am a person who cares my body a lot. It's maybe because my aging and I'm worried about my healthy condition more than before. Therefore, I regularly take some vitamins for different functions. I take cranberry vitamin C to take care my gynecology, which is a common part for each woman. Then, every morning, I will take vitamin B complex, which keeps me vital all day. However, I've once heard someone say it's unnatural to ingest so much vitamin every day. Therefore, to take or not take, this is a question for me.  


Nicole:

I used to take vitamin B complex during the period of preparing for the big exam such as General Scholastic Ability Test(學測). However, I started to take it since last month because I found out that after I became a graduate student, I stayed up a lot. It is necessary for me to take some vitamin to boost energy.

W7- Good Expression

Lilian
1. But Peter and Marjan Ghassemi shrugged off the horror of their situation to flight.
                                       ( 聳肩，表示不予理會，不在意)
2.He never would have come out of a coma if it hadn't been for the use of omega-3s to allow that natural healing process to occur.  (come out of 甦醒；would have +Vpp..., if had +Vpp... 與過去相反的假設) 

Nicole

1. in my line of work (在我這一行)
2. Bobby's car had careened off a dark and winding road. Paramedics assess the wreckage and Bobby.(蛇行衝出路面/醫護員/評估)
3. Infection set in because the wound was not properly treated.
(開始,發生) 

W6- One thing I learn today

Nicole

       For this week, I was impressed by the meaning of contain in the sentence " Others manage to contain their excitement". Normally I would define contain as including but not restraining. The lack of understanding  of the whole meaning of a word may sometime cause misunderstanding. Besides, I also learn a new way to use the term "face-lift". Before reading the article, I only knew face-life was a kind of plastic surgery. After reading that, I understood it had an extra meaning, that is, to renovate. For example, the airport is undergoing a $96 million face-lift. By learning these expression, ore writing can have more varieties.

Lilian 

     The phrases "economic windfall" makes me recall that one of my English teacher once told me that English usage should be as concise as possible. For the phrase "economic windfall", I used to express the same meaning with economic accident gain. I used to convey my meaning with a more elaborated way. I much appreciate the CNN chapter could provide me more expression in a more concise way. 
     Secondly, the CNN news broaden my horizon about the world. I've never thought of the face-lift of an airplane would cause so much benefit and windfall. No wonder, even me, I still want to try the "special" airplane as a valuable experience. 

W6-Good Expression

Lilian 
1. Flying to and from Taiwan is an ultracompetitive business with countless carriers ti choose from, so airlines are pulling out all the stops to try to attract customers. 
    (用盡方法) 
2. With improving political relations between Beijing and Taiwan's China-friendly president comes an economic windfall.  
 (經濟上的意外收穫)　

Nicole

1. Paula Hancocks takes a look at how airlines and airports are positioning themselves to try to capitalize on Asia's growing tourism business. (找到定位,並從成長中的亞洲旅遊業獲利)

2. Others manage to contain their excitement. (抑制)

W6- Hello Kitty Earns Her Wings

Lilian 

1. When you're taking an airplane for traveling, will you choose such "Hello kitty" airplane but with higher price? 
2. What makes an airline carrier attracting for you? 

Nicole

What's the first priority for you to choose airline carrier?

-----------------------*
Nicole:

For me, the first priority will be safety of the airline carrier. A safe trip abroad is the most crucial thing of all. Moreover, fare of the ticket will be my second consideration  I would rather save money for shopping, tasting delicious food, buying souvenir, instead of taking luxurious airplane. However, if the price of the kitty airplane is reasonable, I would probably try it. 

Lilian 
Just as Nicole mentioned, my prior concern about the airline carrier is also about "safety". A safety flight is prior to everything. I would rather to pay much to get a safe flight. However, for fare part, I am willing to pay higher price than other carrier to purchase a "special" and "commemorable" flight experience. A flight with "Hello Kitty" definitely attracts me a lot. Also, attendants' serving would be taken into consideration for me. 

W5-Good Expression

Nicole:

1. A city to savor(細細品嚐,慢慢享受)
2. I'm a singer-songwriter(創作歌手)
3. Saint-Germain is the bohemian Paris
(波希米亞風格的,不拘於傳統的--->此處翻成文人區)

Lilian: 
1. I'm fascinated with places that remain through time. 
    (我著迷這因為時間洗禮而保存下來的地方。) 
2. Technically it would be illegal, but there are certain places where it's tolerated, but here it's encouraged. 
   (嚴格來說... ) 

W5- A City to Savor

Nicole:

 Have you ever traveled to Paris? 

Lilian: 
1. What's your impression to Paris? 
2. Among so many introductions about Paris in the magazine, what makes you most impressive? 

Answer: 
Lilian: 
1. I haven't been to Paris before, but the impression to Paris in mind is usually romantic, gentlemen, historical and full of coffee savor. Therefore, Paris is usually my top dream destination I want to take a trip to. I am usually imagining that I can take my time to walk by the streets and galleries in Paris and have a fascinating talk with Paris gentlemen. However, one of my friend, she just came back from Paris, she told me that Paris may be not so attracting as I used to imagine and the public security worth lots of attention. Probably, seeing is believing. Next time, I wish I will have an opportunity to make sure the "truth" about Paris. 


Nicole:

I also haven't been to Paris so far. My impression towards Paris comes from movie, multi-media, my friends' traveling experience, which is just like Lilian mentioned above. After I read the article, I was impressed by the picture of Paris' coffee shop. It's different from the coffee shop in Taiwan. In Taiwan, seldom people sit outside, except for some smokers. Most people sit inside to enjoy the atmosphere. One possible reason may be that Taiwanese has fewer smokers than Paris?

W4- One thing I learned today

Lilian: 
      From the article this week, I'm still impressive by lots of good but unusual expressions for me. For example, the verb "burst" means increase dramatically; however, I'm just used to using the second expression while I want to describe the similar situation. Besides the good expression mentioned before, I much appreciate the chapter introduces many vocabulary which we can use to describe the flavor of coffee, such as acerbic, sharp, tangy, winy, nutty, fruity, or caramelly or so on. What's more, it also shows us the proper nouns of coffee' names, such as espresso, or mocha. I think when I'm traveling in an exotic country, I can feel free to order a cup of coffee in English, instead of using my finger to point on the menu.      

Nicole:

    I had investigated SWOT analysis of Starbucks in Marketing class when I was in college. Before the investigation, I was really curious why Starbucks is successful. Here is the swot analysis of Starbucks  I found on the Internet. By the result below,we can understand every thing has two sides. The most important thing is trying to deal with the potential treats and weakness.

W4- Coffee Kingpin

Nicole:

1. What makes Starbucks successful worldwide?

Lilian: 

1. Do you like to drink coffee? If you do, do especially drink coffee  of Starbucks? Why? 

Answer: 
Lilian: 
      Actually, I am not used to drinking coffee to freshen myself no matter in the morning and at night. However, I pretty appreciate the warm light and friendly waiters and waitress there. The policy of Starbucks allows us to stay at the coffee shop for a long time, which quite suitable for friends to chat and discuss. Moreover, the peripheral merchandises of the Starbucks, such as thermoses or Mug cups, with their particular mark also fascinate me a lot. Even though I don't drink coffee, I'm still willing to buy one or two items of their peripheral products. In my opinion, it's also the reason why Starbucks is worldwide now. 

Nicole:

I am fond of drinking coffee. I like the smell and the taste of it, but recently I try to control myself not to drink to much of it because I am afraid I will have osteoporosis when I am gradually older. However, when I would like to catch up with my friends, Starbucks will always be a good place to choose. I enjoy the atmosphere and the music there, which makes me feel relaxing. Besides, I appreciate the clerks in Starbucks are so warm and passionate. These may also be the reason for the success of Starbucks. 

W4- Good expression

Nicole:

1. Schultz credits his working-class roots for inspiring the company's emphasis on social responsibility in building ethical sourcing and providing health insurance for part-time employers. (attribute... for)

2. He has never shield away from strong opinions (避免)

3. CEO Howard Schultz spills the beans on starbucks' international ambition.  (走漏消息)

Lilian: 

1.  Howard Schultz has burst Starbucks from only four stores in the United States to more than 17,000 worldwide.  (激增)
2. I was scarred at a young age with understanding what it was like to watch my parents...  (受創傷...)
3. The company has brought that experience to life. (把...實現) 

W3- One thing I learned today

Lilian 
    While I was first listening to the CD-ROM, which was playing the conversation between reporters and President Obama, I was overwhelmed by the fluent but quick speaking speed and professional terms. Even though, I could catch some points from the gesture and intonation, I still turned out to rewind and repeat again. The totally different genre listening and reading, news, takes my time and effort to comprehend the content, but, I feel quite satisfied to learn some new terms, such as sacred cow (不可以侵犯的人事物), sticking point (癥結點), which could make my writing more authentic and rich.

W3- Good Expression

Lilian:
1. If we just go over the cliff and let those policies stay in effect, we're basically gonna undo the recovery.  (繼續生效)
2. This is an unprecedented scenario that Congress has basically put a gun to its own head. (史無前例的，威脅)
3. a long and rocky road 漫長又崎嶇的路

W3- Avoiding The Fiscal Cliff

1. Generally speaking, news is a totally different genre while reading English. What's your main difficulty while reading news? 

Lilian: 

        It's a true that reading news is reading a different genre. While I am reading news, I am usually confused about some particular terminologies which are used in expertise domain, such as political, economics or others. Those terms may be common in my daily reading but with a nuance in meaning in News reading. Besides, reading news usually needs some professional knowledge about the news which would impede my comprehension if I don't have enough background. 


Nicole

Week 2 -China Chooses

1.  Actually, the movie is about political news. It could also be categorized into "world new". What category of news do you prefer to pay attention to (ex, society, entertainment, sports, world...)? 

Lilian: Actually, I am used to reading the entertainment sectors first, then I move to the sports sectors and then I usually go back to the front page to check the latest issue of a day. To be honest, as a women, it's really attractive to me to get familiar the private life of some actors or actress. Out of curiosity, I have the nature to pursuit others' gossip.    

Nicole:To be honest, I also check entertainment news first whenever I read newspaper or online news. Just like Lilian said, I am also curious what the lives of celebrities would be. After that I will turn to social news. 



2. What's the possible problems that backroom wheeling and dealing may cause?

Lilian: Maybe for the people in China, all they care about is the leaders' talents and influence. They are not used to paying attention to the democratic issues. It's all about different culture and custom. 

Nicole: Probably by this kind of the politic system, politician in China may lose opportunities to hear opinions from other parties because all the important politician are decided by the senior.

Week 2- One thing I learned today

Lilian:     
   The global issue is usually like an abracadabra for.  When talking about the political issues of global world, I seldom have resonance to response. The topic this week still made me have the same feeling. However, because of the preparation, I have a deeper understanding about the process of generating leaders in China. What'e more, I appreciate the good expression sharing with Nicole. It's because most of time, I  suffer having no ideas to convey my expression in English and the good expression solve my questions. For example, if I want to express "這東西的價格每個地方不太一樣", the verb "不太一樣" could be used as "vary".  Also, the verb "finalize" is also useful for me when I am talking some decision or projects have already stepped into the last stage. 

Nicole:
This article provided us how the communist party selects its new leaders, which was something I didn't know before. Besides, some vocabulary expressions are quite useful, and I think I will use these words when I am writing.  

Week 2- Good expression:

Lilian: 1. Let's break it down how the selection works. 
2. The size of this group can vary. 
3. A lot of backroom wheeling and dealing involving senior members of China's Communist Party will determine... 

Nicole:
1.decision-making body(團體,組織)
2. Ivan finally determined who will be his replacement when he retires.
3.The merger was finalized in backroom deal.

One thing I learned today: Week 1

Lilian:   

       I feel excited to learn a new phrase " get a glimpse of...". It's because I used to simply use "take a look at..." while I try to express the same situations above.   Besides, the three pieces of news gave me a deeper ideas about different genres, such as new, compared to prose.

Nicole:
      I appreciated the interface of CNN interactive disc, which provided both visual and audio input that strengthened my impression on these three pieces of news. Moreover, I learned some useful expressions such as Hobbit-mania. This suffix means that be crazy about something, so I can create abundant of new words such as baseball-mania, chocolate-mania depending on the context.　 

Week 1- Good expression:

Lilian:

1. And now thousands of fans are swarming  the streets hoping to get a glimpse of the movie's stars. 

2. The numbers back up the surge in spending over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. 

3. That's a broad indication that business are spending more, contrary to worries about business tightening their belt as we approach the fiscal cliff. 

Nicole:

1.The much-anticipated movie is premiering in the New Zealand capital, Wellington, and it's generating no small measure of 
Hobbit-mania

2. provocative act

3.Consumer confidence climbed to a four-year high this month.

Week 1: Global Watch

1. Are you interested in fantastic movies, such as " The Hobbit" ? Share your experience about movie watching. 

Lilian: Actually, the fantastic movies won't captivate me a lot, even though "The Hobbit" or "Avatar" are so popular with most of audiences. I prefer to see the movies such as "comedy", "romantic movies" or "action movies".  

Nicole: I have the same feeling with Lilian! I prefer romance, drama, action movie, comedy, and musical dance film.

Click here: main film genres

2. During the economic downturn, how do you do to tighten your own belt? Share your experience about your expenditure? 

Lilian: I usually give a budget about meal eating to myself. I force myself to spend 150 NT dollars each day for my meals. Actually, it's not easy to tighten my belt since it's attractive for women to do shopping each season.

Nicole: Cut expenditure and raise revenue.
cut expenditure: I try not to spend too much money on daily meal because I am also on a diet(I hope so!) Actually, I used to be an impulsive buyer on shoes;however, now I tend to think twice before making decision. Just to consider whether I really need it or not.


 raise revenue: I teach English in cram school and tutoring job.


3. what features do you think a much-anticipated movie should have?

Lilian: I would rather care about the plots or movie casts. The casts here don't mean famous movie star. I focus on the actors' performing skills (演技).


Nicole: I also regard plot and performing skill are the first priority! Sometime when I watch foreign movie, even though I can not recognize the actor or actress, I am still fascinated by the movie.That's because these two elements catch my eyes!