The world cannot live by words. Confucius and plato said the best that mortal man can say; and it had probably been said centuries before their time. From Jefferson to Franklin Roosevelt, with Longfellow, Emerson and his Boston set in between, their words have echoed in America and left us the thinly veneered savages we are. Jesus preached very eloquently that as two blacks do not make a white we had better give up punishment and revenge; but our criminal codes are none the less so barbarous that the most merciful of their implements are the electric chair and the guillotine.
Our Bibles, Korans, Vedas, Talmuds and their like are full of the wisest words; but we print them cheek by jowl with the crudest tribal idolatries; and it is on the idolatries that we act and teach our children, using the rest only to pretend we are civilized.
Ignorance, ignorance, ignorance, everywhere; that is what is wrong with us, and defeat our good intentions every time.
What we need is not verbal wisdom; for we are stuffed with it, but knowledge of the world we are livin-in. The uneducated are those who have least to unlearn. When they are all thoroughly schooled our ruin will be complete.
- Oct 20 Sat 2007 10:53
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Words to live by --"A playwright" by George Bernard Shaw
- Oct 20 Sat 2007 10:34
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Words to live by-- "A Newspaper man" by John Kieran
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived... Let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail..." --Thoreau
Every so often I feel the urge to thumb through Thoreau's Walden. I do it to make sure that I am keeping my mental feet on the ground in the general confusion that grips the world today.
Of course, there are other reasons for reading Walden, but an occasional does of Henry David Thoreau's ax-like logic as applied to the problem of living is a tonic that helps me no little in these bewildering days. The lines above have always struck me with extra force. They are some of the first I underscored in my now well-worn copy of Thoreau's masterpiece.
- Oct 16 Tue 2007 22:49
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Words to live by--"Arrival" by Maurice Maeterlinck
"The road is always better than the inn."--Cervantes
These words by the great Spanish writer, Cervantes, mean a way of living. In my younger days I often aimed too hard to reach some goal, finish some job. "When this is done," I'd say, "I shall find satisfaction and reward."
But later I came to realize that each achievement, like each inn, is only a point along the road. The real goodness of living comes with the journey itself, with the striving and desire to keep moving. Now I find that I can look back on my eighty-four years with pleasure and, what is even more important to me, that I can still look to the future with hope and desire. I have learned to take each inn along the way with a traveler's stride --not as a stopping point, but a starting point for some new and better endeavor.
- Oct 15 Mon 2007 19:33
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Words to live by--"Just For Today" By Kenneth L. Holmes
Several years ago I had occasion to help a couple of my friends to make contact with Alcoholics Anonymous. In the process I was exposed to the teaching and philosophy of this movement. Though I am not eligible for membership myself, I have since carried in my billfold a little folder entitled "Just for today", which was issued by the local branch of Alcoholics Anonymous. I believe it holds a message for everybody, everywhere, and everyday. My copy is dog-eared and nearly worn out, but here is what these "Words to Live By" say:
Just for today, I will try to live through this day only and not tackle my whole life problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me if I felt that I had to keep it up for a lifetime.
Just for today, I will be happy. This assumes to be ture what Abraham Lincoln said, that "most folks are as happy as they make up their minds to be."
Just for today, I will try to strengthen my mind. I will study. I will learn something useful. I will not be a mental loafer. I will read something that requires effort, thought and concentration.
Just for today, I will adjust myself to what is, and not try to adjust everything to my own desires. I will take my "luck" as it comes, and fit myself to it.
- Oct 10 Wed 2007 10:22
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EN today: Idioms with 'and'
You need to support your ideas with facts and figures.
By and large, the pupils are well-behaved.
'By and large' 的意思和 'in general' 相似，表示大體上。
不能用'By and by'
I'm sick and tired of studying grammar!
- Oct 10 Wed 2007 10:17
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EN today: Dependent prepositions
You really remind me of someone I used to know.
How can you fire me, after I've devoted my life to this company?
The professor said that, despite the growing environmental crisis, there is hope for the future.
Detective Smith specialises in murder cases.
不是on
- Oct 10 Wed 2007 10:07
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美式英語 抱怨性口語
摘自小笨霖英語筆記本
I am so terrible. I keep skipping my classes. 我很糟糕, 常常在蹺課.
Sick and tired of something 可以視之為一個片語, 所以並沒有 sick (生病) 的意思在裏面! 例如販賣機老是吃錢, 你也可以說 I am sick and tired of this vending machine. 還有一句話也很有趣, I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired. 就是說你對於老是感到厭煩已經感到十分厭煩了, 我想這是很多都市人共同的心聲吧.
That movie was a turn-off.
那部電影真是讓我倒盡胃口.
- Oct 05 Fri 2007 11:26
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en today
The pilot informed the passengers that the plane was about to land.
I have to admit that I'm terrible at maths.
不能用'tell' 是不及物动词，后面不能直接跟宾语。
不能用'warn' 因为 'require' 是不及物动词，后面不能直接跟宾语。
不能用'inform' 是及物动词，需要接宾语(名词或代词)。
- Oct 05 Fri 2007 10:20
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揭開FBI超強閱人術
文／吳凱琳 2007年8月 Cheers雜誌
和陌生人第一次見面時，要如何在一開始談話的幾分鐘內，了解這個人？如何和對方拉近距離？如何找到對方喜愛的話題？如何讓對方願意開口？
這都得依靠細心而入微的觀察力，談到這裡就不能不提最近聲名大噪的喬‧納瓦羅（Joe Navarro）。
他曾經擔任美國聯邦調查局幹員長達25年時間，是反間諜情報小組的身體語言行為分析專家，如今退休後成為美國知名的撲克牌教練。贏得牌局的關鍵就是掌握70—30法則，「其中70％來自於閱人能力，賭博技巧僅佔30％。」
去年年底他出版了《牌桌上的閱人術》（Read'Em and Reap）新書，借重他在擔任探員期間測謊犯罪人士所練就的觀察力，教導玩家如何透過眼神、肢體動作的觀察，看透對方的心思，在牌桌上給予對方致命一擊。
- Oct 04 Thu 2007 13:35
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Terrific, Fabulous, Awesome, Gorgeous
轉錄自小笨霖英語筆記本
The movie is terrific!
這部電影太棒了!
Terrific 在字典裏查到有「恐怖、可怕」的意思, 可是在美國幾乎沒有人用這個字來當作可怕的意思, 基本上, 它就是「太棒了!」的意思. 這個字的等級大概跟 wonderful 差不多. 例如看完電影後別人問你, "Do you like it?" (你喜歡這部電影嗎?) 你就可以回答說, "Yes. That movie was terrific!" (是的, 這部電影太棒了!) 再舉一個例子, 有一次我去美國著名的 Six Flag 遊樂園 (Amusement Park) 搭乘惡名昭彰的自由落體 (Free Fall). 當我們安全降落後, 後面的老美問他兒子, "What did you think?" (你覺得如何?) 那個小鬼就說了, "Terrific!" (太棒了!)
還有另一個單字 fabulous 不論在意思上和用法上跟 terrific 都十分地接近, 都是用來形容「非常棒的」. 例如你看到你的好友今天氣色極佳, 不妨跟他說聲, "You look terrific today!" 或是 "You look fabulous today!" (你今天看來很棒!)
- Oct 04 Thu 2007 11:37
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克林頓在2004年美國民主黨全國代表大會開幕式上的講話
2004年7月26日傍晚，美國民主黨全國代表大會在波士頓正式開幕。大會會場所在地——波士頓富裏特中心一直是NBA老牌勁旅波士頓凱爾特人隊的主場，現在成為了歡樂的海洋，成為了全美民主黨人2004年總統大選的誓師會場，4353名民主黨政要會聚一堂，正式提名克裏和愛德華茲為民主黨總統和副總統候選人，發動“倒布”總攻。當晚最精彩的一幕，是前總統克林頓和夫人希拉蕊的壓軸演講。 克林頓眼光銳利、思維流暢，演講內容環環相扣、一氣呵成,，許多人被深深打動,克林頓的此次登臺，真的是讓人從心眼裏覺得，他天生就是一個“政治人物”。
Bill Clinton's address
at 2004 Democratic National Convention
President Bill Clinton:
Thank you. I am honored to share the podium with my Senator, though I think I should be introducing her. I’m proud of her and so grateful to the people of New York that the best public servant in our family is still on the job and grateful to all of you, especially my friends from Arkansas, for the chance you gave us to serve our country in the White House.
- Oct 04 Thu 2007 11:32
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林肯在葛底斯堡戰場的演說
轉錄自李開發的個人空間
1863年，離今天還不到150年的美國歷史中，卻在一個叫葛底斯堡的不知名的小地方發生了一場戰役。這場戰役因為林肯發表了不到兩分鐘的演說，而成為舉世聞名的地方；更因為被孫中山加以引用和發揮，對中國歷史或說現代史，產生重大影響。這不能不說是個很有趣的事情。
（中文演講詞）
林肯在葛底斯堡戰場的演說
八十七年前，我們的先輩們在這個大陸上創立了一個新國家，它孕育于自由之中，奉行一切人生來平等的原則。
