20121128

SummARy

今天看到一本書


其實算是教育書吧

在講一個媽媽結婚前沒有出國玩

但是有了家庭之後開始帶著孩子到處玩

的旅行教育

寫的真不錯

其中提到

出發前會和孩子一起做功課

一起評估要出去的地點

回來後會叫孩子寫一份"旅行報告"

話說雖然叫旅行報告

但實際上完全讓孩子自己發揮

孩子也不因為是"作業"而做

而是因為"想做"而做

他發現

孩子把自己當美編、主筆,十分認真積極的去做這份旅行後的報告

而且還隨著時代與科技演進

從紙版變電子




我個人還滿喜歡這個點子的

旅行後的報告

其實的確可以訓練自己把抽象的獲得用自己覺得適合的方式記錄下來

可惜自己之前的旅行沒有督促自己這麼做

希望接下來的旅行可以囉








20121123

USe iT or LOse iT

vocabulary:

  • retail: the activity of selling goods to the public
  • justify: to give or to be a good reason for
    Do real changes take place in the brain with age to justify such grumbling?
  • grumble: to complain about someone or something in an annoying way
    She spent the evening grumbling to me about her job.
  • incident: an event which is either unpleasant or unusual
    how quickly you can react to fast-moving incidents on the road.
  • inevitable: certain to happen and unable to be avoided or prevented
    the inevitable: something that is certain to happen and cannot be prevented
    Eventually the inevitable happened and he had a heart attack.
    the near-inevitable slowing with age also partly explains why soccer players are seen as old om their thirties, while golf professionals are still in their prime at that age.
  • prime: main or most important; of the best quality; the period in your life when you are most active or successful
    The is a dancer in her prime.
  • temporal lobes
    the parts of the brain known as the temporal lobes control new learning.
  • vulnerable: able to be easily hurt, influenced or attacked
    i felt very vulnerable, standing there without any clothes on.
  • juggle: to throw several objects up into the air, and then catch and throw them up repeatedly so that one or more stays in the air, usually in order to entertain people; to succeed in arranging your life so that you have tome to involve yourself in two or more different activities or groups of people
    Working memory is the brain's blackboard, where we juggle from moment to moment the things we have to keep in mind when solving problems, planning tasks and generally organising our day-to-day life.
  • Absent-mindedness: describe someone who often forgets things or does not pay aatention ot what is happening near them because they are thing about other things
    Absent-mindedness occurs at all ages because of imperfections in the working memory system. 
  • creep: to move slowly, quietly and carefully, usually in order to avoid being noticed
    creep up: if the value or amount of something creeps up, it slowly increases.
    Such absent-mindedness tends to creep up on us as we age.
  • chalk: (noun.)a type of soft white rock or a stick of this rock or a similar substance used for writing or drawing.
    chalk: (verb.) to write something with a pieve of chalk
    It occurs because our plans and intentions, which are chalked up on the mental blackboard, are easily wiped out.
  • stray: stray things have moved apart from similar things and are not in their expected place
    stray dog
  • preoccupation: an idea or subject that someone things about most of the time.
    Stress and preoccupation can also cause such absent-mindedness.
  • bleak: depressing
    the news, however, is not all bleak.
  • superior: better
    the mentally active professors in their sixties and early seventies were superior to their contemporaries.
  • contemporary: a person who is of the same age as you
    she didnt mix with her contemporaries, preferring the company of older people.  
  • sprout: to produce leaves or to begin to grow
    he has shown that animals kept in stimulating environments show sprouting and lengthening of the connecting nerve fibres in their brains.
  • beneficial: helpful, useful
    a stay in the country will be beneficial to his health
  • contestant: someone who competes in a contest
  • apparatus: a set of equipment or a structured system
    the divers checked their breathing apparatus.
  • intrigue: to interest someone
    Such findings lead to the intriguing possibility of mental fitness training.
  • faculty: capability
    just as people go bald or grey at different rates, so the same is true for their mental faculties. 

20121113

the GReat woRK MYth



Vocabulary:

  • press: newspapers and magazines
    work gets a terrible press
  • deprive: to take something, especially something necessary or pleasant, away from someone
    you can't function properly when you're deprived of sleep.
  • scapegoat: a person who is blamed for something that someone else has done
    work has become the scapegoat for all out woes.
  • woe: great problems or troubles
    unusually poor harvests have added to the country's woes.
    i'm cold and wet and i havent got enough money for my bus fare home. Woe is me. (said to express how unhappy you are)
  • persuasive
  • as far as something is concerned: if we are discussing or thinking about a particular thing
    As far as work is concerned, we've never had it so good.
    As far as unemployment's concerned, a change of government would be a good idea.
  • maternity: the state of being a mother
    a lot of firms offer longer maternity leave.
  • sabbatical: a period of time when college or university teachers are allowed to stop their usual work in order to study or travel, usually while continuring to be paid
    a third of firms now offer sabbaticals.
  • rhetoric: part of a talk or speech; clever language which sounds good but is not sincere or has meaning
    The rhetoric about longer working hours also needs to be put in perspective.
  • in perspective: an object or person that is in perspective has the correct size and position in comparison with other things in the pictures
    the rhetoric about longer working houes also needs to be put in perspective.
  • despite: without taking any notice of or being influenced by
    Despite all the improvements in work over recent decades, there is still an ingrained attitude that happiness lies outside work.
    He managed to eat a big lunch despite having eaten an enormous breakfast.
  • ingrained: (of beliefs) so firmly held that they are not likely to change.
    the belief that you should own your house is deeply ingrained in British society.
  • alienated: being separated from
    alienation: separation
    He described workers being alienated from the product of their labour.
  • constitute: to form or make something
    what constitutes the alienation of labour?
  • mortify: to cause someone to feel extremely ashamed or embarrassed
    it does not develop his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind.
    he'e mortified by the fact that at 38 he still lives at home with his mother.
  • dubious: feeling doubt or not feeling certain
    work is becoming too important for it to be of dubious quality.
  • poll: a study in which people are asked for their opinions about subject or person
    according to a poll by recruitment consultancy
  • prevalent: happening often
    In truth, they are simply made to feel as if they have a problem because of prevalent attitude.
  • futile: (of actions) having no effect or achieving nothing
    futility
    the shift of work towards the centre of our lives demonstrates the futility of much of the current debates about "work/life balance".
  • stack up: match
    yet the idea that it is being forced upon us without our choice just doesn't stack up.
  • ultimately: finally
    Ultimately, our goal must be to begin seeing work as an intrinsic part of our life.
  • intrinsic: being an essential and basic characteristic of a person or thing
    maths is an intrinsic part of the school curriculum.
  • adjunct: something attached or connected to a larger or more important thing
  • don: a college teacher especially at Oxford or Cambridge University
  • manifesto: a written statement of the beliefs, sims, and policies of an organisation.
    he has the right manifesto for the future of work
  • abolish: to end an activity officially
    abolition
    the abolition of slavery
    that i mean abolishing the distinction between work and leisure.
  • leisure: the time when you are not working
    most people only have limited amount of leisure time.
  • lousy: very bad
    employers keep workers in lousy jobs by granting them some leisure time.
  • strive: to try very hard to do something
    we should strive to be employed in such a way that we dont realize what we are doing is work.
  • downpayment: an amount of money that you pay at the time that you buy something, but which is only a part of the total cost of that thing.
    it is indeed time to abandon the notion of work as a downpayment on life. 
  • sap: to make someone weaker or take away strength or an important quality from someone.
    the ones that continue to stereotype work as intrinsically sapping, demeaning and corrosive.
  • corrosive: a corrosive substance causes damage by chemical reaction.
    the corrosive influence of racism

20121102

HapPINeSS

the article we learned last week :

the latest global analysis of happiness and satisfaction levels shows that the most satisfied people tend to live in latin america, western Europe, and northern america, whereas eastern europeans are the least satisfied.

over the past decade, the study of happiness has become a bona fide discipline. as a result, government policy advisers are getting interested and politicians are using the research as the basis for new strategies.

what above all else has made systematic study possible is data gathered from hundreds of surveys measuring happiness across different cultures, professions, religions, and socio-economic groups.
they can investigate the impact of money and inequality.
we can now show which behaviours are risky as far as happiness goes. We should eventually be able to show what kind of lifestyle suits what kind of person.

while it is tempting to hold up those nations that report the highest levels of happiness as a model for others to follow, this may be unwise.
first, the word "happiness" has no precise equivalent in some languages.
secondly, "satisfaction" is not quite the same thing as "happiness".
thirdly, different cultures value happiness in very different ways.
    in individualistic western countries, happiness is often seen as a reflection of personal achievement. this pressure to be happy could lead people to over-report how happy they feel.
    in the more collectivist nations in Asia, people have a more fatalistic attitude towards happiness. in Asia cultures, the pursuit of happiness is often frowned on, which in turn could lead people to under-report.
How satisfied a person is with their life depends on how successfully they adhere to their particular cultural standard.

One of the most significant observations to come from research findings is that in individualised nations, happiness has no risen with average incomes.
the desire for material goods, which has increased with average income, is a "happy suppressant".

Since nothing about materialism can help you find happiness, governments should discourage it.

the key to making people happier is to shift the emphasis from economic well-being to personal development, and to discourage the pursuit of social status.
paradoxically, by striving too hard to climb the global happiness rankings, governments are in danger of turning the pursuit of happiness into yet another competitive quest for status - just what researchers have shown is a sure path to making people miserable.



20121101

riPPLes

a mess outside 

and also 
a mess inside