American Rhetoric: Movie Speech from Gandhi - Gandhi Advocates Policy of Nonviolance

American Rhetoric: Movie Speech from Gandhi - Gandhi Advocates Policy of Nonviolance:



Do you all know the AmericanRhetoric site?  What do you think of this little speech!



Thank you for the great International Village on Thursday evening....   yummy!



I hope that you can make it to tomorrow's debate. Telecom - ENA  at 2pm in B312. (Saturday)



"TH believes that Childhood is losing its magic."



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Few tips for your eyes

Few tips for those who like me look at screens all day long
  http://www.businessinsider.com/do-computer-screens-hurt-your-eyes-2015-2

"If you work in front of a computer all day, you're familiar with that irritated, fuzzy, and tired feeling your eyes have by the end of the afternoon. Everything starts to get a little blurry and sometimes your head aches. This cluster of symptoms is known as eye strain or computer vision syndrome, and it's a unique malady of our modern era, one thatmore than 60% of Americans experience.
It doesn't take long to start experiencing eye strain symptoms — just two hours in front of a screen starts to put people at risk, an amount of time that's incredibly easy to hit when you combine computer work, smartphone usage, television, tablets, and other screens. It almost seems inevitable.
Fortunately, there are a few things that experts say you can do to minimize the discomfort and potential damage of staring at a glowing screen all day. Here are four easy-to-implement tips that will make a huge difference:" Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/do-computer-screens-hurt-your-eyes-2015-2?r=US#ixzz3TQwSZjTB

Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration | Talk Video | TED.com

Luis von Ahn: Massive-scale online collaboration | Talk Video | TED.com:



Do you Duolingo?  Maybe you should!



"After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good."









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audioBoom / Articulations for ESL Pronunciation

How to improve your pronunciation and speaking skills in a class with 15 students...

Here's one option....  whadaythink?

see you tomorrow... james





audioBoom / Articulations for ESL Pronunciation: "

Now of course you can use AudioBoom to record yourself saying these sentences....
Give it a try!  You can share a link to your recordings...  Just make a new post on our blog with the links....

Here are the first two texts (that helps!):

Whenever the weather is cold, whenever the weather is hot

we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not!

Around and round the rough and rugged rocks, the ragged rascal ran

or is it this version?

Around and round the rough and rugged rocks the ragged rascal rudely ran.

------
You could also record these tongue twisters:

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck

If a woodchuck could chuck wood?

He would chuck, he would, as much as he could,

And chuck as much as a woodchuck would

If a woodchuck could chuck wood.

Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.

Did Peter Piper pick a peck of pickled peppers?

If Peter Piper Picked a peck of pickled peppers,

Where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?

She sells seashells by the seashore. The shells she sells are surely seashells. So if she sells shells on the seashore, I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

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1st Class S2 -- Why Should I Hire You? - In Photos: 10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered - Forbes

Tomorrow we'll have our first class of Semester Two. I've added the new students to the mailing list so everyone should receive this message.

We'll have to interview the new students tomorrow so here are some questions to think about!
Perhaps we'll also have one of the presentations that was prepared but not yet presented by one of the students who has been in the class since October.

See you tomorrow
james benenson

Why Should I Hire You? - In Photos: 10 Toughest Interview Questions: Answered - Forbes: "10 Toughest Interview Questions"



interviews... interviews...



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Book review : Flying finish and Hot money

The book I read was a set of two novels written by the same author, named Dick Francis.

The first novel I read was entitled Flying Finish. The main character of this story is Henry, an office worker working for a horse transfering company. He was born in a noble family. Between the potential rich and noble fiancée his mother is continuously bringing at home and his office work, he finds his daily life boring. So, one day, he decides to change his job for a less paid but more exciting one : transfering horses by planes between Great-Britain and the other European countries.

During his flights, Henry learns the secrets of these trips : the little trafic of abbortion pills between Great Britain and Italy, where he falls in love with an Italian girl ; the little arrangements of one of his former colleagues in the office he used to work with, and then the reason of his disappearence and of the employee who had the job before him, due to the discovery of a sordid traffic of money.

Following this last discovery, Henry has to fight for his life, which he manages to do. The book finishes strangely on the arrival of Henry in England by piloting an aiplane for the first time, with us not knowing what will happen next.

The second novel I read was entitled Hot Money. The story begins with the call of a family father, Malcom Pembroke, married five times, to one of his son, named Ian, aged 30. The two men didn't talk to each other since the father slapped Ian. The father's last wife was killed recently, and he now fears that someone might be trying to kill him. This suspicion is confirmed when a car almost manages to crush Malcolm, saved to the last second by his son's reflexes.

So, this one begins to think about how to protect his father, which is quite hard, as his father has an impulsive temper, and begins an investigation on who may be trying to kill Malcolm in the family. Indeed, a lot of the family members need money that Malcolm don't want to give them because he thinks they have to deserve it. Moreover, Malcolm has recently spent a lot of money ; though it is to win more, the other family members are afraid that he will waste their inheritance. To conclude, they also think that Ian, while accompanying his father, will try to influence their father into giving him more money in the inheritance, which makes the investigation more difficult for him. He first entrusts Mr Norman West, an old private detective who was used by Joyce, Ian's mother, to prove that Malcolm was deceiving her, with an investigation. During this time, Ian and his father are getting to know each other more, and his father is beginning to understand why his son is fond of horses.

But the fact that his son keeps him far from his house, to be out of reach of the other family members, is making him homesick, and finally Ian accepts to come back home without warning the other family members. But by the evening, Ian notices something strange : some doors have been moved while neither of him nor his father touched them. Ian, which fears for both of their security, decides to sleep with his father in an hotel. The day after, Ian and Malcolm discover with horror that he was right : the house was destroyed by a bomb.

After the discovery of this bombing, the police, which had suspected so far Malcolm to be the cause of the death of Moira, is now getting serious over the supposed threats to Malcolm's life and begins to investigate on the ruins of the house to get hints over the possible amateur murderer, while Ian puts his father in security in the U.S.A. and begins to talk with the different members of the family, which he is allowed to thanks to a fake clause he invents on his father's will. During the process, he also disturbs their daily life by revealing their inner sufferings.

Then, he tries to attract the killer in a trap : as he thinks that the person that tried to kill Malcolm may have been the one who killed Moira, he entrusts to his mother telling every member of the family that Moira may have left the name of the visitor that killed her on her notepad. Then, he and Malcolm are waiting for the murderer, which reveals to be Serena, the daughter born from Alicia. Afraid of Malcolm's sudden appearance, she accidentally makes the explosives she was carrying explode.

The story ends on Malcom's final decision to give some money to his children and to build his house again, in which he invites the whole family when it is completely repared.

As far as my personnal opinion is concernedon these two stories, I think that the two novels are both built on the same scheme : in both of them, the main character is a person coming from a rich family, jockey amateur with some quality that will help her to solve a case (strong-mindedness, work, caution, …) that is resolved at the end of the book.

I think that the mixing of the mystery and investigation with the passion of the author for horses and the evolution of the relations between the main character and the other character creates something original and interesting and makes the story much more realistic compared to classical criminal novels. We see in the two novels different aspects of horse riding.

The problem is, though, that I found this mixing quite similar between the two stories, which makes me think that I may have read all of the novels of the author by reading one. The main characters in the two novels present common aspects: both of them have a sense of justice, aren't interested in money. I identify myself much more with the main character of the first story, who is quiet and hard-working, than with the main character of the second one.

The passion for horses has also a very particular effect : though at first it adds a surprising element to the story, then the reader accomodates with these details and won't find them interesting anymore, unless he himself is riding horses. I also think that there are too much details of luxury in the second novel, it gives the reader the impression of being a rich snob.

The second novel is much more interesting in terms of suspense than the first one, as one of the characters is continuously under death threat, but the first one is much more rich in action, as there are fights and a big rush in the end for the main chracter to save his own life.

The atmosphere of the two stories are also quite different. While in the first one the main character has a spirit of an adventurer, and meets several people from very different locations, the persons met by the main character of the second story are, for most of all, people of his family or that he has known for a long time.

The rythm of the second story is much more balanced than the first one : there are much more scenes that makes the story progress than in the first one. The time also passes differently in these two stories. While the story of the first novel goes on several years, the story of the second novel only lasts several weeks.

I also found the end of the second novel much more conventional than the end of the first one : in the first novel, the story ends on the arrival of Henry in an airport, and we don't know what happens next, whereas Hot Money has a kind of happy end.

Vocabulary :

Flying Finish :

to wince : grimacer

mildly : doucement

a snag :un inconvénient, une difficulté

maudlin : larmoyant

callousness : (psychologique) insensibilité, dureté

to snigger : rire sous cape

Hot Money :

to be as thick as two plaks : to be excessively stupid

rubble : décombres, gravats

to squeak : (homme) glapir

a tree stump : une souche d'arbre

to be catty about : être vache à propos de (se dit uniquement d'une femme)

to sneer : se moquer

Book review: The Glass Key

Book review: The Glass Key

“The Glass Key” is written by Dashiell Hammett, and is said to be the favorite novel that he wrote. The story began with a scene of the death of the Senator’s son, which built a mysterious atmosphere, and made the readers find out the truth. The plot is highly tangled and appealing, which can keep the readers guessing the result all the time.

At first, this novel was a little bit hard to read, because the author seldom gives background information about the characters and situations. The only thing I could do was to figure out the relations among the characters according to their conversations and behavior. As I got familiar with the rhythm of the story, I found that the theme and style of writing were really special in this novel.

Belonging to a hardboiled genre, the book depicted an indifferent, inscrutable tough guy, Ned Beaumont. He can easily infuriate others just by speaking one or two sentences. He even made use of a girl having lost her lover, in order to make a false charge and to get money to pay his gambling debt. He is not nice or gentle at all, but he attracted Janet with his tough and direct temperament. This is really beyond my comprehension. I could not see anything glamorous in Ned’s character. However, when I read an impressive part, that he was beaten daily in a dingy room after he had refused to help his opponent, I changed my point of view. From this part, I found that he was really strong and he had overcome the torture. As a matter of fact, Ned is cruel not only to his enemies, but also to himself. That is why he could not be defeated by his enemy. His adamant strength is unique, and attractive for some females. Of course, at the end he betrayed his friend Paul and went off with a women he did not seem to like very much. We can see the complicated essence of his personality, which reveals human nature.

Speaking of the theme of this novel, I think it can be regarded as a political thriller rather than a crime story. Throughout the book, the main purpose of the characters is not to solve the crime, like the stories of Sherlock Holmes. However, their goal is to assure the boss’s electoral success. We can see the dark and ugly side of politics in this story. For instance, the value of several votes can even be higher than somebody’s life. They only focus on the fight between the political groups, but ignored common sense and the real human nature.

To conclude, I think this book is worth reading. Even though it is not the same with the crime stories that I have read in the past, it has deeper excavation of the essence of politics and human nature.

Book review: The picture of Dorian Gray.

  Hi today I'll be reviewing the book I've read for our English class, it's called "The picture of Dorian Gray" by the Irish writer Oscar Wilde. The plot takes place in London around the 19th century, and it tells us the story of Dorian Gray, a young man that is known for his beauty. Dorian's parents were both dead and after his grandfather passes away he receives a huge heritage.

  He then starts to be socially active between the circle of friends of his grandfather and the London high society, and gets to know Basil, a painter who offers to paint a picture of Dorian, and Lord Henry, a man with strong opinions and a great taste for art. Basil then offers the main character to paint his picture, and as the work is finished both of them find themselves staring at it, and Dorian starts seeing the beauty that others always saw in himself and says that he wished the he could always be young and never lose his beauty.

  One day he goes to a small theater with Lord Henry where they watch "Romeo and Juliet" and he falls in love with the Sibyl Vane, the woman who was playing Juliet and asks the theater manager to go to the backstage to talk to the woman. He starts being a frequent presence in the theater and they both fall in love, Dorian asks her in marriage not long after, but once she falls in love with him her acting starts to lose it's magic, as she says that now she feels that everything that she says while acting are lies. The same night Dorian breaks up with her.

  The next morning he wakes up and feels bad by what he did and decides he will marry her anyway, but as he leaves his place Lord Henry is waiting for him to give the news, Sybil had committed suicide the night before. He then starts to cry but Henry convinces him that none of it was his fault and love is a terrible mistake anyway, later on he notices that the picture of him that was on the wall of the living room had changed, and had acquired a cynical smile, he wasn't sure if that was his imagination or if the picture was actually different and he follows his life as if nothing had happened. As the plot goes on Dorian starts to explore the pleasures of life and start to spend his nights in Opium dens with Lord Henry. The time goes on but his appearance never changes, but on the other hand his picture starts to age and get an evil facial expression, so he decides to hide it away.

  One day Basil comes to him, saying that he has been invited to make an exposition of his work in Paris so he asks for the picture for his exposition. Dorian says that the picture can't be shown in public and they start a discussion and Dorian brings him to the attic where the picture is hidden. Dorian then proceeds to kill his friend blaming him for his hate. The crime is never discovered because Basil was expected to get a train to France the same night and no one is sure if he got it or not.

  He then decides to change, that he would no longer sin and that he would not break the hearth of his actual lover, some time later he goes to check if the picture had acquired a better aspect only to found that now it was looking even worse, then he stabs the picture, but as he does it the picture goes back to it's natural form, the picture of a young and beautiful man, but he is the person who was stabbed, and lies dead on the ground looking exactly like his picture.

 I really enjoyed the book, and if you're looking for a good fictional novel this is a good option, the only negative point of it is that since it was written around one hundred years ago some of the language and expressions used on it are no longer currently used, so it can be a bit hard to understand it sometimes, but apart of that it's a good read, I'll leave you guys a small quote of it:

"When one is in love, one always begins by deceiving one's self, and one always ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance."
- The picture of Dorian Gray

Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team | Talk Video | TED.com

After today's exercise... comments?  have a good vacation!

james



Tom Wujec: Build a tower, build a team | Talk Video | TED.com:



"Tom Wujec presents some surprisingly deep research into the "marshmallow problem" — a simple team-building exercise that involves dry spaghetti, one yard of tape and a marshmallow. Who can build the tallest tower with these ingredients? And why does a surprising group always beat the average?"













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Book review- about Sherlock

As the time passes, our English class of the first semester comes to an end. In the class we talked a lot, and some video and presentation, it’s very interesting for me because it’s the first time I go out of China and using all English to communicate. And we are all given a book written in English to read, I read some English sentences and paragraphs in English but never a book because I’m a little afraid about the difficulty. But as reading is a homework, it’s a little easier for me to follow. There is <Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes> in my kindle but I never read it… So this time I just try it and I felt it worth a lot!

This book is one of the most famous detective books in the world, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. When I was in high school, I have read all this series in Chinese edition. When I read it, I couldn’t get out! So this time I chose it as a English reading because I believe even if sometimes I couldn’t all understand, it doesn’t matter. This book contains some short stories, I had finish two of them. And I want to comment one, it’s called <The Final Problem>. This story is mainly about the combat between Sherlock and Professor Moriarty. There is a sentence in one film which is about detective said: “If Sherlock is the light of the era, then Moriarty is the shadow”. We know that when there is the light, there is always the shadow. Sherlock and Moriarty is the opposition, so whether the detection of Sherlock or the crime of Moriarty, they should came to an end. So these two genius guys finally finish their mission in the combat beside the Reichenbach Waterfall. Originally, Conan Doyle wanted to finish this story because he though this book took him to much time and energy, but many readers didn’t agree, and then Conan had to continue his writing…… Which impressed me a lot is the scenes created by Conan. As you read the book, you just go into one after another scenes, it’s just like that you are Watson who is accompany with Sherlock, and it’s just like a movie! I think this is why this book is so popular although it’s written a hundred years ago!

And there are a lot of TV series created base on the book, which impresses me most is the <Sherlock> producted BBC. It’s extremely wonderful, I highly recommend you to see it, it worth the time! These days I follow the American TV series which is called <Elementary>, it’s interesting. Also these two series is totally different from the origin, they have their feature which energize the book…

A few cool words maybe ancient I found while reading it:

despatch: an important official message

soothing: producint feelings of comfort

knuckles: a joint of finger

bail: money paid to free a prisoner

antagonist: one who opposes another

strove: to try very hard to do

sunken: curving towards the inside

trodden: to press with one’s feet

snarled: to say in an angry way

The 10 best Super Bowl XLIX commercials, according to Ad Meter | Super Bowl XLIX Ad Meter

The 10 best Super Bowl XLIX commercials, according to Ad Meter | Super Bowl XLIX Ad Meter:



Here are this year's best!

Which one do you prefer?



Tomorrow we'll have Benjamin's tak, and perhaps a second one!



see you there!

james



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Watch the 10 highest-rated Super Bowl commercials in Ad Meter history | Super Bowl XLIX Ad Meter

Watch the 10 highest-rated Super Bowl commercials in Ad Meter history | Super Bowl XLIX Ad Meter: "We’ve already reviewed all 26 Ad Meter-winning Super Bowl commercials. Now it’s time to focus on the cream of the crop. The 10 highest-rated spots in the history of the competition are similar in one way: Every last one is funny. (Or at least attempting to be funny.)

"



Which do you prefer???



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