英语趣闻课件

我在前面的文章提到过，我平时喜欢听音乐，因为听音乐能让我放松，从而提高效率。这是我在初中有了人生第一台复读机之后发现的事情，从那以后就开始喜欢边听歌边写作业了。以前从来不觉得这有任何问题，也从来没有问过自己为什么。所以在初中和高中的老师们不让我们在自习期间戴耳机的时候，我特别地不理解。虽然被明令禁止，但我还是由着自己的性子来。这中间被老师抓过几次，但神奇的是从来没有被没收过机器，于是也就不再害怕这项规定了。久而久之，在学校胆子也变得越来越大，导致后来高三的时候经常逃掉英语课去图书馆自习。也许当时的英语老师知道高三的我们又叛逆心理压力又大，也就一直都没有管我。我一直洋洋自得，却不知道不学习英语最终会让我付出代价。 话说回来，高中的时候真的特别不喜欢英语课，因为觉得和初中时候的英语课一比简直弱爆了。初中的英语课都是小班教学，比较注重口语的训练，还经常演情景剧，练对话等等，特别有意思。而高中就是背单词，背词组，记语法，非常无聊。于是高中英语课经常偷懒，作业只做阅读题之前的部分（高中英语老师不检查作业），课上也经常写其它作业，然后到了高三就干脆直接翘课了。现在想起来觉得特别后悔，不仅不尊重老师，也让自己的英语水平停滞不前。可惜的是后面到了大学还是一样地不认真上英语课，蒙混过关。我几乎是靠着初中的那点英语基础混过了高考和四六级，直到考托福的时候终于遇到了挫折。不过也正是因为挫折，开启了我自学的道路。 考托福之前，我并没有去上任何课程，全程自学。第一次考试，只考了80分。要知道那个时候总分120，而如果没上100就得重考。于是我考了第二次，96分，虽然进步了许多，但仍然没有过100分。后来又去考了第三次，这一次终于上了100分，而且还考了个110。每一次考试我都有努力准备，但前两次真的是基础太差，而且可能准备的时间并不够。但每一次都能提高十几分，说明每一次的用心准备都能让自己上升一个level。从这个时候开始，我慢慢地喜欢上了自学，因为我发现自己学习可以自己掌控节奏，不用浪费时间去重复已经掌握的知识，也可以花足够多的时间去学习不太容易理解的内容。 后来自学成了我生活中非常重要的一个环节，不管是读研究生期间还是开始工作之后。它不仅帮我拿到了dream company的offer，还让我接触到了更多感兴趣的领域，打开了新世界的大门。这些等以后有机会了再聊。

Shredded euro confettiscandalisestown法国：奢侈婚礼撒钞票庆贺引发小镇公愤PARIS （Reuters） - A lavish wedding where newly-weds weresprinkledwith shredded euro-note confetti has provoked outrage ina Frenchtown, a newspaper reported .法国《解放报》报道说，法国南部赛特镇上的一场奢侈婚礼遭到当地居民的谴责，因为婚礼中向新郎新娘抛撒的不是鲜花或彩纸，而是欧元纸币的碎片。Liberation said angry locals in the southern town ofSetescrambled on the ground to scrape up the bits of 5, 10, 20 and50euro notes scattered at the July 8 nuptials. 《解放报》指出，这场抛撒碎纸币的婚礼于7月8日在赛特镇举行，愤怒的当地居民事后匍匐在地上拼凑那些面值为5圆、10圆、20圆和50圆的欧元纸币碎片。 People chucking money away in the street for everyone tosee!said Frederic, a resident quoted by the newspaper. “为了让大家都看见，参加婚礼的人将碎纸币抛洒在街道上！”《解放报》援引当地居民的一段话说。 Around 200 people attended the ceremony, which included afireworkdisplay estimated to have cost 40,000 euros （$51,000）, thepapersaid. The bride was the daughter of a local businessmen whomade hismoney in textiles.大约有200人参加的这场婚礼估计耗资4万欧元。新娘是当地一名纺织业富商的千金。 Townspeople lodged a complaint with police since destroyingbanknotes is a crime in France. Police and a spokesman at the townhallwhere the couple were married declined to comment. 由于在法国损坏纸币属于违法行为，赛特镇的居民已经向警方举报了这场婚礼中的恶劣行径。婚礼发生地的镇政厅发言人和警方拒绝对该事件作出评论。趣闻:大鸡蛋?小鸡蛋?善待母鸡 It might make a larger omelette but a bigger egg isn't necessarily a better one — and it certainly doesn't make the hen that laid it very happy.That is the view of the chairman of the British Free Range Producers' Association, who says that if you want to be kind to hens, you should eat medium, not large or very large, eggs.“It can be painful to the hen to lay a larger egg,” Tom Vesey, who keeps 16,000 hens on 45 acres at Dingestow, Monmouth, told The Times. “There is also the stress, which is a big problem as it takes more out of hens to lay large eggs. It would be kinder to eat smaller eggs. Whenever I go to the Continent people eat medium-sized eggs yet here the housewife seems to be wedded to large eggs.”He also suggests people would do better eating a breakfast of two medium-sized eggs rather than one large one. “I prefer medium eggs,” he said， “They taste better, are less watery and don't run off the plate.”Mr Vesey, who says he is determined to change egg-shopping habits, insists that farmers only produce large eggs because they receive more for them from supermarkets. The average price for 12 free-range eggs paid to a farmer is 77p for medium, ?1 for large and just over ?1 for very large.Mr Vesey has been criticised by industry chiefs for raising the issue in The Grocer but animal welfare experts say his argument is valid. Phil Brooke, of Compassion in World Farming, said: “Selectively breeding hens for high productivity, whether larger eggs or larger numbers of eggs, can cause a range of problems such as osteoporosis, bone breakage and prolapse. We need to breed and feed hensso that they can produce eggs without risk to their health or welfare.” 用一个大鸡蛋做的煎蛋卷也许更大，但大鸡蛋并不一定比小鸡蛋更好——产下大个鸡蛋的母鸡肯定闷闷不乐。英国家禽放养者协会的主席就是这么想的，他说如果你想善待母鸡，那就应该吃中号的鸡蛋，而不是大号甚至特大号鸡蛋。Tom Vesey在蒙茅斯的丁格斯托有一家占地45英亩的养鸡场，共蓄养了16000只母鸡。他告诉《泰晤士报》记者：“对于母鸡来说，产下一个大个的鸡蛋可能会是一件痛苦的事情。母鸡还要面对产蛋的紧张情绪。这也是一个大问题，因为要下大个的蛋，母鸡的付出也更多。还是吃小点的鸡蛋吧，那样更人道。欧洲大陆上的人们都吃中号的鸡蛋，而英国的家庭主妇们似乎对大号的鸡蛋情有独钟。”Vesey先生还说，人们早餐时候吃两个中号鸡蛋而不是一个大鸡蛋实际上更有好处。“我喜欢中号鸡蛋，”他说，“中号鸡蛋味道更好，水分更少，而且不会从盘子中滑出去。”Vesey先生说他决心改变人们买鸡蛋的习惯。他认为，农民生产大个的鸡蛋是为了多赚钱。根据市面上一打鸡蛋的平均价格，每卖出一个中号鸡蛋，农民能获得77便士，而卖出一个大号鸡蛋能赚一英镑，卖出一个特大号鸡蛋的收入则能超过一英镑。 鸡蛋产业领袖批评Vesey先生在《杂货商》杂志中提出鸡蛋个头的问题是小题大作，但动物权利专家认为Vesey先生的观点有道理。世界农场动物福利协会的Phil Brooke说：“无论是为了得到更大的蛋还是更多的蛋，有意促进母鸡生产能力的做法都会造成诸如骨质疏松、骨折和脱臼等一系列问题。我们在养殖母鸡的过程中不应该损害它们的健康或者福利。

成功之我见(第五届全国英语演讲比赛冠军的演讲稿)苹果CEO乔布斯在斯坦福大学的演讲稿 You've got to find what you love,' Jobs says Jobs说，你必须要找到你所爱的东西。 This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005. 这是苹果公司和Pixar动画工作室的CEO Steve Jobs于2005年6月12号在斯坦福大学的毕业典礼上面的演讲稿。 I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That's it. No big deal. Just three stories. 我今天很荣幸能和你们一起参加毕业典礼，斯坦福大学是世界上最好的大学之一。我从来没有从大学中毕业。说实话,今天也许是在我的生命中离大学毕业最近的一天了。今天我想向你们讲述我生活中的三个故事。不是什么大不了的事情,只是三个故事而已。 The first story is about connecting the dots. 第一个故事是关于如何把生命中的点点滴滴串连起来。 I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out? 我在Reed大学读了六个月之后就退学了,但是在十八个月以后——我真正的作出退学决定之前,我还经常去学校。我为什么要退学呢？ It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: "We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?" They said: "Of course." My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college. 故事从我出生的时候讲起。我的亲生母亲是一个年轻的,没有结婚的大学毕业生。她决定让别人收养我, 她十分想让我被大学毕业生收养。所以在我出生的时候，她已经做好了一切的准备工作，能使得我被一个律师和他的妻子所收养。但是她没有料到,当我出生之后, 律师夫妇突然决定他们想要一个女孩。所以我的生养父母（他们还在我亲生父母的观察名单上）突然在半夜接到了一个电话:“我们现在这儿有一个不小心生出来的男婴,你们想要他吗？”他们回答道: “当然！”但是我亲生母亲随后发现，我的养母从来没有上过大学,我的父亲甚至从没有读过高中。她拒绝签这个收养合同。只是在几个月以后,我的父母答应她一定要让我上大学,那个时候她才同意。 And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents' savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn't see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn't interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting. 在十七岁那年,我真的上了大学。但是我很愚蠢的选择了一个几乎和你们斯坦福大学一样贵的学校, 我父母还处于蓝领阶层，他们几乎把所有积蓄都花在了我的学费上面。在六个月后, 我已经看不到其中的价值所在。我不知道我想要在生命中做什么,我也不知道大学能帮助我找到怎样的答案。但是在这里，我几乎花光了我父母这一辈子的所有积蓄。所以我决定要退学,我觉得这是个正确的决定。不能否认,我当时确实非常的害怕, 但是现在回头看看,那的确是我这一生中最棒的一个决定。在我做出退学决定的那一刻, 我终于可以不必去读那些令我提不起丝毫兴趣的课程了。然后我还可以去修那些看起来有点意思的课程。 It wasn't all romantic. I didn't have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends' rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5￠ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example: 接下来的去

Q:What'sthedifferencebetweenamonkeyandaflea?A:Amonkeycanhavefleas,butafleacan'thavemonkeys.猴子会和跳蚤有什么不同呢？你可能会直接的想到它们俩是一大一小。但除此之外呢，那就是猴子身上可以长跳蚤，而跳蚤身上却不能有猴子。这个答案很有意思吧？

1.SIT at your desk. Make clockwise (顺时针的) circles with your right foot. While doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand. Your foot will change direction (方向).2. 2008年世界奇闻趣事World keeps humour in 2008 despite economic woes Whether smashing plates in San Diego to relieve frustration or drinking "Bailout Bitter" beer in Canada sold as a "bitter ale for bitter times", people the world over kept a sense of humour in 2008 despite financial woes. Some of the year's top off-beat tales included a Canada brewery that created a special tough times bitter and "Sarah's Smash Shack" in California, which charges patrons $10 for 15 minutes of pleasure pulverising dinnerware against a wall. "It was the best $50 we've spent in the last two years," said insurance broker Adam DeWitt, who smashed plates in San Diego with his wife after his home mortgage loan was rejected. A glance back at 2008 shows a world full of wonderful, weird and whacky stories both before and after the financial upheaval. In May, a Wall Street restaurant boasted it was selling the costliest burger in New York, with the $175 patty made of Kobe beef, black truffles and seared foie gras. "Wall Street has good days and bad days," said Heather Tierney at her Wall Street Burger Shoppe. "We wanted to have something special if you really have a good day on Wall Street." One bank in Kazakhstan offered a diamond-encrusted credit card for well-heeled clients with incomes over $300,000. A jeweller in Tokyo kept busy selling 13-piece tableware sets made of gold for $1 million -- aimed at newly rich Chinese customers. Yet there was no need for any plates at all in Bihar, one of India's poorest states where authorities encouraged people to eat rats to fight rising food prices and save grain stocks. They praised rat meat a healthy alternative to rice. "Bailout" was crowned as the US word of the year, and the financial crisis also had implications in Russia where vodka consumption fell sharply and the National Alcohol Association lobby group in Moscow said vodka stockpiles were six times higher than usual. A Polish man got the shock of his life when he visited a brothel and spotted his wife among the establishment's employees, making some extra money on the side. After 14 years, the couple are divorcing. 2008年经济低迷，但不管是在圣地亚哥摔盘泄愤，还是在加拿大喝一种“艰难时期的苦青啤”（也称“援助苦酒”），世界各地人们的幽默感丝毫未减。 本年度经典的苦中作乐事件有：加拿大一家酿酒厂制出一种特殊的“艰难时期苦啤酒”。在美国加州的“莎拉摔盘小屋”，顾客只需花费10美元就可以体验痛摔餐具15分钟的快乐。 保险经纪人亚当•德威特说：“这是我近两年花的最值的50美元。”在申请住房抵押贷款遭拒后，他与妻子同往圣地亚哥摔盘子。 回首2008年，不管是在经济危机之前还是之后，整个世界充斥着奇妙、神秘和怪诞的事件。 今年5月份，一家位于华尔街的餐馆宣称他们出售全纽约最贵的汉堡，里面夹的肉饼用神户牛肉、黑松露和烧鹅肝制成，售价175美元。 这家“华尔街汉堡店”的老板希瑟•特尼说：“华尔街时晴时雨，如果你真的在华尔街过得不错，我们想奉上些特别的东西。” 哈萨克斯坦一家银行为收入超过30万美元的富豪客户提供镶有钻石的信用卡。东京一家珠宝店则忙于出售一套价值100万美元的13件套黄金餐具，目标顾客群为中国新贵。 而在印度最贫困的省邦之一比哈尔邦，人们可不需要摔盘泄愤，当地政府鼓励人们吃鼠肉以应对粮价攀高并节约粮食库存。官方宣称鼠肉是可以替代大米的健康食品。 “救援”获选美国年度词汇，俄罗斯伏特加酒的销量受经济危机影响骤减，莫斯科全国酒业协会游说集团称伏特加库存量较平时高出六倍。 一位波兰男子去妓院寻欢却意外发现妻子在那里赚外快。事后这对牵手14年的夫妻离婚。