Assignment 10 BBC Message Board

Question:

Are there words or phrases having same meaning with following words.

1.but

2.so

3.finally

4.important

5.familiar

Answer:

1.but / however


2.so / therefore

3.finally / at last / in conclusion (depending on context)

4.important / vital / essential

5.familiar / friendly / well known / easy to recognise (depending on context)

Assignment 9 Comments to websites

MIT Open Courseware, OpenCourseWare Consortium

This site is a useful website, because I can find out the courses I interested. For example, if I want to understand physics, I will look for any course about it. What's more. This site provide the lecture notes, video clips, list of assigned textbook, assignments, exams. Complete materials are provided by this site. It would be benifit for anyone who has strong desire to learn well. No matter how old you are, this website always the best choice to build up your understanding on your interestung subjects. However, there aways exists imperfection on anything. For instance, not every course provide above mentioned materials. That is, maybe some course doesn't provide video clips but some does or some provide free textbook downloading but some is not. As a learner, we wish it provide more resourse we can use. Therefore, if a course doesn't have complete resourse, we will feel something bad on this website. Another one is, for someone, this site doesn't provide the course they look for. In another word, this website doesn't appear such a course. For someone, they would also think this website is not useful. So, does it maen this website is bad? Certainly is wrong. Because every lector has its own teaching style, there is no doubt some courses don't provide complete resourse. Furthermore, not every lector is willing to share there material to public, because this all are their work and assets. We have to respect their choice. After all, we are lucky that we can freely use their work. As for some course doesn't appear in the website, I think, we have to understand one thing. This website is founded by school. Those courses appear in the website its knowledge is established well. If you want to understand the latest development, this website is out of possible. You need to use other resourse to help you. In summary, the purpose of this website is to help you understand those subjects is fundamental to respective department. If you want to delve into some field, you should look for other means.

Academic Earth

As for other website like "Academic Earth", its feature is obvious, it only provides video clips. But browsing  these videos online is unsmooth. And the number of course is few. Nevertheless, videos of course are complete. If you want to watch a subject, its searies videos is complete.

TED: Idea worth spreading

This website provides many speeches and contents are good. I appreciate their belief: idea worth spread. I can listen many excellent ideas from speaker. One of benifit using this website is that you can see more further than your current situation. I mean, because we are living in Taiwan, what we encounter only limits in our study, consuming expense even our future work. It is hard to see other things that is more essential  when you are surrounding by convenient enviroment. This websit compensates this point. I really like this website and I really have to remind gratutidue in my mind to thank you those people founding this website. Because of them, we have chance to listen such a great ideas across different time, different place and different language, what's more, out of costing.

Top 100 Speeches

This website provides many speeches. Maybe the biggest difference between it and TED is the time speech happened. I notice that speeches provided by this site most relating to politics. In contrast, TED provides a variety of themes. Besides, TED updates more fast than this website. So, I prefer to use TED if I want to listen speeches. However, if I want to listen older speeches, I would go to this website.

台大演講網

I think NTU really do something good for everyone. They establish this website to help everyone. The best feature is the language we are familiar with. However, the disadvantage of this website is the size of window is limited. I try several speeches and every speeches all confined by small window. But it is worth to see their speeches, you can find out many good speeches.

Assignment 7--Songs from Youtube

21 Guns (Green Day & The Cast Of American Idiot)

Lyrics for "21 Guns"

Do you know what's worth fighting for,

When it's not worth dying for?

Does it take your breath away

And you feel yourself suffocating?

Does the pain weigh out the pride?

And you look for a place to hide?

Did someone break your heart inside?

You're in ruins

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms

Give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky,

You and I

When you're at the end of the road

And you lost all sense of control

And your thoughts have taken their toll

When your mind breaks the spirit of your soul

Your faith walks on broken glass

And the hangover doesn't pass

Nothing's ever built to last

You're in ruins.

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms

Give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky,

You and I

Did you try to live on your own

When you burned down the house and home?

Did you stand too close to the fire?

Like a liar looking for forgiveness from a stone

When it's time to live and let die

And you can't get another try

Something inside this heart has died

You're in ruins.

One, 21 guns

Lay down your arms

Give up the fight

One, 21 guns

Throw up your arms into the sky,

You and I

Assignment 6: Reflection from Steve Job's Talk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA

After listening Job's talk, there are lessons I can thinking again and again. Although he only shares three stories, each one is important to everyone. I feel so pity he only shares three stories. However, I know his purpose is to give those people who are going to graduate from school some suggestions. Therefore he has to choose the most essential ones to them. Frankly speaking, his stories come from his experience, and any thing relating to your experience will impress your audience.

His first story is about " Connecting the dots."
Connecting the dots means connecting the events in your life. If Job never dropped out, it is impossible for him to drop-in to take classes interested him, nor does he create such a well-qualified Mac. " You cannot connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backward. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future." I agree with him. Because I look backward my past, I feel some thing similar to Job's said. If I don't fail in my senior high school entrance exam, I never become a vocational high school student and never become today what I have. At that time, I felt how bad my score was. And now I just think how lucky I am because I can know many good people from my senior high school. Thanks to them so I have unique and precious memory.

His second story is about " Love and loss."
He said when he was fired from the company he starts, he felt so, I think, shameful. Nonetheless, at that time he realized this job was genuine what he love and then he restarted a new company and doing what he love. Eventually, His original company bought his company and he again came back his original company. He said "Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don't lose faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You've got to find what you love. If you haven't found it yet, keep looking. Don't settle." In the past, all what we hear is study hard, study well. Few people can encourage us to seek our interest. Most of us have to face the pressure of study. Nevertheless, in the university, you can hear another voice ask us to discover our passion, our talent even our enthusiasm. Why? Because you find out your interest, it will become a motivation to lead you proceeding like a compass always point the absolute direction. For me, I'm still looking for what I really really interest, although I have some interest on many things such as my major. I'm still looking. Consequently, I go to library to browse different fields as many as possible and participate some speeches held in school. Besides, I just try to take part in student association interests me. What I do is try to understand which one is fascinated with me. Passing three years, I am happy I do such a good action. Even I don't find out, I cherish what I did because it all become part of me.

His final story is about " Death."
If Job didn't be diagonalized as a cancer, nor did he cherish his life. He said " Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma -- which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." This part is the extension of the 2nd story. The 2nd story tells us the importance of our interest and the 3rd story tells us why it is inevitable. Since our time is limited, it is obvious that do what we can do is the first priority to show our value and contribute to this world. Everyone is unique so everyone should show their value in their own way. Never distract by trivia. Don't be deceived by other people's life. For example, many people would like to lead a "lucky" life without doing anything. I think it is very terrible. If I were the one like this, I would take anything as granted and never cherish what I have. In the long run, I would become self-centered and only care about myself. Such a result is definitely what I hate. Besides, you don't show your value  because someone would help you do your part. Therefore, I learn to accept hardship during anything I do. Though it is hard, it turned out to be meaningful to me and I thank what I have experienced. Ponder what you want to be. It may be crucial to everyone.

Finally, Job gave his wish to every student "Stay hungry. Stay foolish." Be hungry for learning. Be humble for understanding. In Chinese, I agree what it means. However, I cannot astonish by its meaning. In contrast, when I see this sentence expressed by English. I was amazed, Since same meaning expressed by different languages shows its power. That is the benefit of learning different languages. What I want to say is, I know the meaning of this sentence. Nonetheless, I just don't have further understanding. From English language, I just attract by its compact expression. And this also corresponds to spirit of this sentence. What it means that appreciate how fascinating this world is and keep a curiosity to learn. And the more you understand , the more you realize how few you know. Never brag how good you are, just think how lucky you are to know the secret of universe.

I have to say how lucky I am to read and listen Job's address. By the same token, I have to thank my teacher tell me such great and inspiring lecture. Finally, I share a book review I read to conclude my reflection.

Sometimes we think maybe living in another world should be happier.
However, the times what we live maybe no worse than others.
one hundred fifty years ago, the sentences Dickens wrote can be describe any uncertainty era:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times;
It was the age of wisdom, It was the age of foolishness;
It was the epoch of incredulity, It was the epoch of belief;
It was the season of Light, It was the season of Darkness;
It was the spring of hope, It was the winter of despair;
We had everything before us, We had nothing before us;
We were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct to the other way.

In fact, any contradiction always exists chance.

Your attitude will decide what kind of life you would  have.
Your choice will change you and other people life.
Your action will make a difference to your world.

Assignment 4: Randal's ESL Cyber Listening Lab

This time, I listen 4 clips from this site and choose different levels respectively and one more for medium level. After listening these clips, I really find out many words I don't really understand and it is certainly help me to practice my listening.


1. Clothing Stytle
   What I have learned from this clip is:

• on the spur of the moment(idiom): without planing or preparation

--> She always makes decisions on the spur of the moment, so you never know what she's planning.

• make sense(idiom): have a clear meaning or a sensible explanation

--> It makes sense to ask teachers to wear a nice shirt and tie to work.


2. College Majors: Getting a University Degree
   What I have learned from this clip is:

• bat around(idiom): consider different choices, including the positive and negative points of each option

--> My daughter batted around a few ideas on where to travel over the holidays until she settled on Hawaii.

• you can say that again (idiom): used when completely agreeing with someone

--> So, you think the teacher is too difficult? You can say that again.

• help out (phrasal verb): help someone who is in need, especially when they have problems

--> Because my parents are old, I try to help them out whenever I can.

• see the light at the end of the tunnel (idiom): something that gives you hope for the future after a period of difficult problems or challenges

--> College life was difficult, but by my last semester, I felt more relaxed because I could see the light at the end of the tunnel: graduation was just around the corner.

• line up (phrasal verb): arrange

--> I need to line up an appointment with my school advisor by the end of the week.

• sermon (noun): a talk with moral advice about life

--> The minister gave an interesting sermon at church this past week about serving others in need.

3. Leisure Activities
   What I have learned from this clip is:

• catch a movie (verb): watch

--> Let's catch a movie this afternoon after school is over.

• cram (verb): study hard

--> I had to cram all night for the final text in my biology class.

• blast (noun): fun time

--> Thanks for inviting me to the party yesterday. It was a real blast.

4. A University Degree
   What I have learned from this clip is:

• talk it over (phrasal verb): discuss a problem or situation before you make a decision

--> You really need to talk it over with your parents before you decide to transfer to another school.

• live out (phrasal verb): do something you have planned or hoped for

--> Although my grandfather was quite old, he was able to live out his dream of graduating from high school, something he wasn't able to do 60 years ago.

• be doomed (verb): certain to die or be destroyed

--> My sister's plan to go to college was doomed from the beginning because she had terrible grades in high school, and she hadn't saved any money for tuition.

• enroll in (verb): go to or attend

--> More and more students are enrolling in computer science because they see a future in that field.

Reflection for today presentation

Today the presentation I do is not good. Although I know the result would be bad, it is frustrated to face such a situation. After all, the content I prepare spents me lots of time and efforts. The content is OK, because all data come from the reference. However, the most consuming time task is its layout. Because I take it as my junior project, I try to devise any thing that appears unappropriate as if  I have a meeting presentation with my professor. Most people would agree that the most bothering thing is its layout when you write a proposal or report even paper.

As for the content, I ponder how should I do to give other people the best content. Therefore, I try to give the examples that is meaningful. For example, I mention the syntax "site" to search for certain website. The example I give is the MIT open course website. I know some group would parpare this topic so I prepare this example. Moreover, some group has to prepare the topic of English magazine. I want to give them a direction to find the possible websites. Consequently, I use the syntax "related" to introduce other website similar to one of English magazine "studio classroom". In addition, I also hope that my presentation would link the previous weeks teacher taught. That is, dictionary and concordance. Because Internate has many great websites teacher has not yet mentioned, I think it is good to indicate other websites during my presentation. Also, I wish to mention other hottest topic recently appaered on TV like last time teacher asked us the meaning of "cloud computing". All in all, I think content is good for other people but maybe we don't explain clearly.

After preparing this topic, I really think we have to make good use of Internate. Since we born in such an era, it is important to adjust to live with this enviroment. One of obvious and maybe profound product is Internate. If we are not familiar with this product, appropriately saying, a "tool", how should we to survive in such a competetive situation.  Shouldn't we? Besides, as an engineering oriented people, it is critical to fimiliar with your tool. For we are toward to be proficiency in our field, it is inevitable to have some tools to assist us. For instance, if a person majors computer science, learning C language is unvoidable. As for other fields, if you are an engineering gratuate, you have high possibility to be asked to use Matlab or Mathematica mathmatical simulation software to accompy with your experiment. Hence, not only do we have knowledge about our field, but also we have to understand related tool. If we want to build a house, structure and material is necessary. Nevertheless, its appearance is also vital. Likewise, knowledge just like material and bases on these knowledges we can design desirable structure. However, If we have a great tool, we can make this archetecture more impressive. In the same way, if we can learn with a tool, it is no suprise our learning performance would improve, and this will become an important ability.

Since technology advances rapidly, it means we have to update ourselves to catch up the current trend or we would be fired in such a competetive enviroment. Consequently, it is obvious that self-learning is inevitable. If you want to keep your job, renewing your knowledgre is a must. Where are we starting? Maybe making good use of Internate is the most workable solution.

Assignment 3: The difference between "big" and "large"

After checking several sentances showed in the concordancer, I think there is a specific rule to use "big" and "large".

-->When we want to describe an abstract concept or about people, we usually use "big" to describe its degree. In other words, this word refers to its influence.
following are the sentances founded in the concordancer:

->a big difference between two things
->a big farewell party
->a big idea
->a big guy
->a big organsization
->a big success

-->When we want to describe a physical object its magnitude, we usually use "large" to state its situation. That is, this word refers to its appearence.
following are the sentances founded in the concordancer:
->a large aircraft
->a large amount of money
->a large bouquet
->a large size
->a large gap between the footpath and road