英文 讀書會 Royal English Club.

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Hard-working mothers are the most influential of CEOs, May 13, 2012 , By Christy Moore, J.D.

With the arrival of Mother's Day, it might be a good time to tell your mom that she happens to be one of the greatest CEOs in the world. The current trend in the world places more and more value on careers outside the home rather than the “career” inside the home. Both stay-at-home mothers and mothers who work full or part-time may feel that their work inside the home is far less appreciated, far less respected, and of far lesser worth than their work inside the office. But this could not be further from the truth. A mother's job has been deemed as one of the most important jobs in the world. Rather than developing “widgets,” mothers develop human beings. But it is understandable why many mothers feel undervalued. A mother does not receive compensation for her efforts in behalf of her growing organization, defined as the “family.” A mother may not immediately see the fruits of her labors until decades later. A mother does not get paid for working “over-time.” Nor does she get the praise from her co-workers when little Johnny learns to say “sorry,” or when she overcomes the urge to yell at yet another clash between siblings. And a mother's job is not an easy one by far. According to Salary.com Inc., the average mother spends about 96.4 hours per week on jobs to maintain operations in the home. This means that most mothers work about 13 hours per day-which is surprisingly typical. The average mother's work day begins at around 6:30 a.m. and doesn't end until around 7 p.m. at night or later. The typical jobs to maintain the home includes housekeeper, chef, teacher, psychologist, budget and finance manager, laundry machine operator, driver, chief executive officer, etc. At these hours and according to wage rates for these job functions, Salary.com estimated that the average mother's work is worth at least approximately US$120,000 per year.

However, this number does not take into consideration the wage value of differing locations. Nor does this data reflect the various hours, jobs, and burdens of mothers who also work part or full-time. One job that mothers undertake is especially interesting —“chief executive officer,” or CEO. According to some definitions, a business can be described as an activity that utilizes products or services as a means of livelihood or profit. In a way, a mother is the CEO of a developing “business.” Mothers are often in charge of running the entire affairs of the family-which requires managing and organizing the individual family members' events and experiences and helping the family function efficiently and effectively. But more critical than that is the “product” or “service” that these CEO's manage. Rather than developing a short-lived product or service, these mothers develop human beings and in essence shape the future of nations — one child, one citizen, at a time. Although the “profit” is difficult to tangibly assess, especially over a short period of time, the profit that these CEO's help develop is likely the most valuable profit of all-that of a healthy and loving child, a contributing citizen, and a stable nation. For example, can the USA truly measure the worth of an Abraham Lincoln? And even he said, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Truly, as William Ross Wallace eloquently said, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” So next time, your mother or your wife feels a little undervalued, just remind her that she is one of the most influential and greatest CEOs in the world.

Sydney man credited with preventing hundreds of suicides dies, May 15, 2012 ,TWN, AFP

SYDNEY--An Australian man known as the “Angel of The Gap” for his efforts to save scores of would-be suicide victims from throwing themselves from one of Sydney's most scenic look-outs has died aged 86. During the almost 50 years he spent living opposite The Gap — a notorious sandstone cliff overlooking the coast — Don Ritchie regularly coaxed desperate people back from the edge, offering them a cup of tea and a chat. “Sydney's troubled have lost their angel,” said the city's Daily Telegraph newspaper. His daughter Sue Ritchie Bereny said her father, a former Navy seaman who served in World War II and then built a corporate career, had loved to look out from his front room at the ocean but was also very sensitive to troubled souls. He told his daughter he would simply approach people and say: “Is there something I could do to help you?” “And that was all that was often needed to turn people around, and he would say not to underestimate the power of a kind word and a smile,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. Ritchie was officially noted to have saved some 160 lives since he moved into his Watsons Bay house in 1964 — once even tackling a man on the edge of a cliff to prevent him from killing himself. His family believes the real number was much higher. Ritchie was a great mixture of strength and compassion, his daughter said, describing him as “an everyday person who did an extraordinary thing for many people that saved lives, without any want of recognition.” Although modest, Ritchie — who according to reports died peacefully at his home on Sunday — was given a local hero award by the National Australia Day Council last year. “In a situation where most would turn a blind eye, Don has taken action ... With such simple actions Don has saved an extraordinary number of lives,” the council said.

Want to quit smoking? Try acupuncture or hypnosis,Tue May 8, 2012

(Reuters) - Acupuncture and hypnosis have been promoted as drug-free ways to help smokers kick the habit, and there is some evidence that they work, according to a research review that looked at 14 international studies. Researchers, whose findings appeared in the American Journal of Medicine, said that there are still plenty of questions, including exactly how effective alternative therapies might be and how they measure up against conventional methods to quit smoking. But the alternatives should still stand as options for smokers determined to break the habit, said researchers led by Mehdi Tahiri of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In general, smokers who want to quit should first try the standard approaches, which include nicotine-replacement therapy, medications and behavioral counseling, Tahiri said. "But some people are not interested in medication," he said, adding that in many cases the standard therapies had not worked. "Then I think we should definitely recommend (acupuncture and hypnosis) as choices. "Researchers found that some studies showed that smokers subjected to acupuncture were more than three times as likely to be tobacco-free six months to a year later. Similarly, across four trials of hypnosis, smokers had a higher success rate with the therapy compared to people who had minimal help. But there were some caveats, researchers said. The success rate was not consistent in all the tests conducted, although the broad trends pointed to the benefits of alternate treatment.
A 2008 study that ran a few sessions of laser acupuncture on 258 smokers found that 55 percent who'd received the treatment quit the habit in six months, compared with four percent who were not given the treatment. But a 2007 study from Taiwan that looked at needle acupuncture around the ear, the area typically targeted for smoking cessation, reported a lower success rate. Only nine percent of those who were given acupuncture had quit after six months compared with six percent who stopped smoking without the treatment. The situation was similar across the hypnosis trials. Two studies showed a significant impact : 20 to 45 percent of hypnosis patients were smoke-free six months to a year later. The other two trials showed smaller effects. Nonetheless, Tahiri said, there was a "trend" toward a benefit across all of the studies of acupuncture and hypnosis. There are still definitely questions, he added, about how many sessions of acupuncture or hypnosis might be necessary, or which specific techniques are best. Other research reviews, though, have concluded that the jury is still out on alternative therapies for quitting smoking. SOURCE: bit.ly/Khhv63,(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Sanjeev Miglani)

ESL Podcast 789 – Taking Care of Pets
When you finished read and listening, please write down your dictation and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 789 – Taking Care of Pets - listen to >> - ESLPOD 789
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 789
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

tricks >>
He lies there >>
feed >>
treat >>
collar >>
leash >>
get fleas or ticks >>
to groom >>
pet rock >>
what’s your point >>


1.請先 進入 Eslpod 請聽完整篇的對話.
2. 在Eslpod 中的對話文章裡 有黑粗體字部份 ，也就是每週 這裡有 綠色 箭頭的字 >> Eslpod會有外國老師 解釋它，請將聽到的解釋 儘量的寫出來
3. 貼上這裡 或以私人訊息傳過來
4. 登入 SKYPE 依照對話文章互相對話練習
5. 於Skype 中互相討論 ，並比較彼此間的聽寫是否正確，意見分享 儘量以英文對話.
6. 造句練習，以熟悉字的使用
7. 針對比較可能不熟悉的字與詞 作記錄 以便雙週或一個月後作重複習 登載個人記錄.

Hi everybody,
Joseph had set up a FB group 2 months ago.
I think it can be the other platform for our member to use.
If you have FB account, Please join us.
Address as below:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/122922191164800/
You can find many new information or message from that.
We also can communicate via this FB group.

Session 1:
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Taipei City May 1 demanding improved workplace safety and better protection of labor rights.

The crowd of laborers, medical personnel, temporary workers, unionists and college students used International Workers’ Day to raise issues including irregular shifts, overwork, stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing prices and unfair tax schemes.

“The use of dispatch workers should be prohibited across all sectors,” said Shih Chao-hsien, president of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, calling the common practice of replacing full-time employees with temporary ones a compromise of labor rights. Taiwan has around 600,000 dispatch workers, sources said.

The TCTU also urged authorities to better monitor working conditions to avoid work-related injuries. “The Legislature should approve revisions to the Labor Safety and Health Act and the bill protecting workers with occupational injuries as soon as possible,” he added.

Echoing recent online criticism from a Taiwanese nurse on the inhumanely long shifts in hospitals, medical workers also spoke out. “As a result of personnel shortages, many doctors and nurses are required to work up to 120 hours per week, more than twice what is allowed by labor laws,” a protestor said. “This is no way to provide high-quality medical care.”

Housing prices and workers’ pay also came under attack. “While our average wages have remained fixed over the past decade, real estate prices have nearly doubled,” said Peng Yang-kai, spokesman for the Social Housing Promotion Alliance.

In response to the demands, the Council of Labor Affairs said in a news release that it will continue to monitor working conditions and push for a special act to regulate the use of dispatch workers. (THN)

Questions:
1. Do you or someone you know have to work overtime? Share your story.
2. HTC(宏達電) requires its employees to work overtime (especially RD field, no overtime pay). Would you consider to quit your job if it requires you to work from 9AM to 10PM, without overtime pay?
3. The nurses are happy to have 20% increases of their salary ($8000 more a month) in one of the hospitals in Taiwan. If you are one of them, do you think it's fair enough?
4. Do you think you are a more competitive person to others if you work overtime?
5. Please suggestion solutions to the overworking problem.

Session 2:
When Buying a Car, Ladies Are Tougher Customers
You know how ladies don't know anything about cars and need a man to help them through even the simplest purchase? Surprise: this is bullshit.

Actually, a study by LeaseTrader found that women tend to ask more questions and order more inspections than men do. The company looked at 2011 out-of-state lease transfers, in which the car is in a different location than the buyer, so he or she may not be able to check it out in person. Women were more likely than men to pay a third party to inspect the car for them when they had to buy sight unseen — 67.2% of them asked for such an inspection, compared to 54.5% of men. The difference was biggest among buyers between 21 and 30 — just 42.3% of twentysomething men asked for inspections, compared with 78.2% of women. Ladies also asked different questions than men did — they were more likely to ask for specifics about the car's safety, history, and functioning, whereas guys were more likely to ask about performance, looks, and technology. Says LeaseTrader CEO Sergio Stiberman, "That our data illustrates a deepening relationship between women and cars comes as no surprise to us given that the gender gap has narrowed and even reversed in some areas since our marketplace opened nearly 15 years ago."

It's a bit of a cliche that guys care about rims and ladies just want airbags, but the data above don't just show soccer moms asking about the safety of their minivans. They also indicate that women, especially younger women, are better at doing due diligence when they have to buy a car from somewhere far away. Maybe women are more cautious car buyers, or maybe their fear of playing into the car-ignorant lady stereotype makes them especially concerned about crossing all their t's. And maybe some dudes feel they have enough automotive expertise to forgo the third-party inspection — but even for a pretty savvy buyer, it's hard to tell what you're getting if you never test-drive or look under the hood. It would be interesting to see a followup study examining how satisfied male and female buyers feel with their cars after they get them. Do women's extra steps actually pay off? It's not yet clear, but given the choice, I know who I'd feel safer riding with.

Questions:
6. If you were about to buy your first car, what would be your main specifics and preferences?
If you are not interested to buy a car, share your other preferences on something you are about to make a purchase, such as clothing, shampoo, etc.
7. After reading the article, do you still believe ladies need a man's help to buy a car?
8. When going to a food market(菜市場), do you try to knock the price off (殺價), and bargain with the seller? Do you have any tactics to share with your group?

Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring - listen to >> - ESLPOD 788
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 788
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

conservative >>
staid >>
to push the envelope >>
loose cannon >>
pan out >>
fall flat >>
daring >>
reckless >>
sheer >>
conventional >>
it's your call >>
to end up with egg on our face >>


1.請先 進入 Eslpod 請聽完整篇的對話.
2. 在Eslpod 中的對話文章裡 有黑粗體字部份 ，也就是每週 這裡有 綠色 箭頭的字 >> Eslpod會有外國老師 解釋它，請將聽到的解釋 儘量的寫出來
3. 貼上這裡 或以私人訊息傳過來
4. 登入 SKYPE 對話練習，依照對話文章互相演練
5. 於Skype 中互相討論 ，並比較彼此間的聽寫是否正確，意見分享 儘量以英文對話.
6. 造句練習，以熟悉字的使用
7. 針對比較可能不熟悉的字與詞 作記錄 以便雙週或一個月後作重複習 登載個人記錄.

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Students prep on amino acid drips, 2012-05-08,Zheng Jinran ( China Daily)

More than 20 high school students in Hubei province had intravenous infusions of amino acids in their classroom in the hopes of providing extra energy to prepare for the national college entrance examination scheduled for early June. The infusions, which doctors said were neither necessary nor wise, raise concerns about the health of students and the fierce competition in education. Several pictures were uploaded to the Internet showing dozens of infusion bags hanging over the heads of a group of students in a classroom at Hubei Xiaogan No 1 High School on Friday night. The lights were on in the classroom and books were piled up high on the students' desks. Some students were receiving infusions while doing their homework. "The fluid in the infusion bags was amino acids to power up the students. They took such an infusion of their own accord," said an official surnamed Xia from the school, Changjiang Times reported on Sunday. The official also said that it was getting hot, so many students felt uncomfortable, asking for the infusion. But the school clinic did not have enough room for them, making them take the infusion in their classroom. But many doctors said the infusions can do nothing positive and could be harmful. "Infusion of amino acids is not necessary at all for students in good health," said Gao Huiying, chief physician with the Chinese Nutrition Society. "Amino acids serve as the building blocks of proteins, while excessive intake of protein will increase the burden on the kidneys and cause a loss of calcium." Furthermore, intravenous infusion may cause an adverse reaction of the body, such as trembling and sweating.

"What they need is to keep a balanced diet. If they need more energy, they can have extra meals," she said. Chen Ting, a doctor with the People's Liberation Army 455 Hospital in Shanghai, echoed Gao. "Having intravenous infusion in the classroom violates the principle of keeping the environment germ-free. Such an infusion at all is unwise," Chen said. The pictures of the students receiving the infusions became a hot topic online. Many netizens commented that they understood the students' burning desire to make their bodies perfect during exam preparation because their performance at the college entrance examination may decide the rest of their lives. But many others called them crazy and blamed the examination for their behavior. For example, a netizen from Beijing with the name "Mozhisiyu" commented on her micro blog that the country's education system makes them use such extreme ways to prepare for the examination. "I don't think it's inappropriate at all," one of the students in that classroom, a 17-year-old student who would only go by the surname Chi, told China Daily. "Students preparing for the college entrance examination at our school began to take infusions of amino acids years ago and some of them took them more than twice." "Some people's misunderstanding and criticism makes us unhappy and disturbs our preparation.

The examination is coming in a month and it's urgent we need to keep our minds at ease. Please give us more tolerance." "It (infusion) may not have an immediate effect to make us more energetic during the tense preparation, but at least it brings us some kind of psychological comfort that we have more power to move on," she said, while admitting she felt nothing improved after the infusion, and she still felt exhausted. Teachers in the school also supported the students taking an infusion of amino acids. Chi said it was the teachers who fixed iron wires in the classroom to hang the infusion bags. And many parents also asked the school to give extra amino acids for their exhausted children. Chi said her teacher told them that the school had received some subsidies from the central government that made such infusions much cheaper, and they only had to pay 10 yuan ($1.60) per bag if they took it from the school clinic, while it may cost at least 50 yuan outside. The school declined to make any comment when interviewed by China Daily. zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

Life not sweet for Philippines' sugar cane child workers,By Kyung Lah, CNN, May 2, 2012

(CNN) -- Barefoot and covered in dirt and sweat, 14-year-old Dante Campilan pulls weeds from orderly rows of sugar cane. Wearing an oversized red cap to protect him from the scorching Philippine sun, Dante is doing work that should be reserved for men, not children.
Earning 150 pesos ($3.50) for a seven-hour day, Dante has been a child laborer in the Philippine region of Mindanao since he was seven years old. He says he does it to help his parents, but he is just one of many children who are part of an illegal economic system of child labor. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.4 million child workers are in the Philippines. Many of them, according to the ILO, are in rural areas working in fields and mines. The organization estimates 60% work in hazardous conditions. Alongside Dante is 13-year-old Alvic James, who dropped out of school when he was in the first grade. Back then, he explained, his family didn't have enough money to eat. Alvic says he wants to learn to read and write but because he is needed in the fields he has no time to go to school. When the boys turn 15 or 16, they'll move on to the more hazardous job of cutting sugar cane. That's currently the job of 16-year-old Elmar Paran, who hasn't been to school since he was a young child, sentencing him to a future in the fields. The use of child laborers in the sugar fields of Northern Mindanao is so common that landowner Angeles Penda shrugs it off as a way of life. "The parents beg us to include their children to work," she said. Much of the sugar produced in the fields here ends up in coffee shops, on kitchen tables and on store shelves across the world.

"We do not deny that child labor exists in our industry," said Edith Villanueva, the president and COO of the Sugar Industry Foundation. "It's a practice among families who are paid piecemeal for their work. They like to employ their children because there's more income for the families."
Villanueva said that paying workers more so they're not tempted to use their children has not worked in the past. She cites the strong cultural ties of families working together in the fields as one of the main problems. "If you don't change their attitude and their values, then you don't change their way of life. There's a long-term solution and it's really education. We feel children should want to go to school, they should be kept in school, and aware of the rights of the children, the rights of the child to go to school and the right of the child to play," she said. The child labor problem is so overt and widespread in this region that Villanueva says the Sugar Industry Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation are paying to build a four-room high school that is set to open later this month. The Coca-Cola company is one of the largest buyers of sugar in the world and the sugar factories fed by the fields of Northern Mindanao call Coca-Cola one of their main customers. In a statement to CNN, Coca-Cola said it "does not support, encourage or endorse any form of child labor in our operations throughout our global bottling system or in our supplier network."The company says it conducts continuous assessments of its operations to ensure strong policies and practices are in place to help avoid child labor. In September 2010, the Coca-Cola Foundation says it joined a coalition of the local government, the ILO and private industry to remove children from sugarcane fields with the hope of eradicating child labor in the Bukidnon region. The Philippines government has also pledged to reduce child labor by 75% by 2015. By then Dante will be 17-years-old. It's more likely that he will have graduated to cutting sugar cane than high school.

只要一百元起即可暢遊北海岸 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%A5%BD%E8%A1%8C-%E7%99%BE%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E6%9A%A2%E9%81%8A%E5%8C%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8-213000257.html
http://www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/user/Article.aspx?Lang=1&SNo=04004562..

台灣好行 百元起暢遊北海岸
.-字
+字
.作者： 黃如萍╱台北報導 | 中時電子報 – 2012年5月4日 上午5:30.. .



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中國時報【黃如萍╱台北報導】

到淺水灣喝咖啡、野柳地質公園看女王頭或到金山逛朱銘美術館，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線開跑，不必再自行開車，只要一百元即可暢遊北海岸。還有結合美術館、溫泉泡湯券、火車票、船票或下午茶等六種套票，一日遊只要一九九元起。

交通部觀光局北海岸及觀音山國家風景區管理處長陳美秀表示，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線全線十二個景點，淺水灣、白沙灣、朱銘美術館、鄧麗君長眠的筠園、可遠眺雙燭嶼的獅頭山公園等景點，民眾一券在手，可盡情漫遊濱海公路。

歡慶皇冠北海岸線開行，北觀處也祭出五七折的一九九元優惠套票，台灣好行巴士票加朱銘美術館門票，還有北海岸紀念品，限量一千組！

北觀處並同步推出一九九元至六三三元等不同組合的六種超值套票，讓旅遊變得更輕鬆、簡單，預期今年將可吸引廿萬人搭乘，觀光產值可達台幣兩億元。民眾可上皇冠北海岸線官網、或在雄獅旅行社火車站、忠孝旗艦、板橋、市府轉運站等四家門市購買套票。
...
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Facebook 馬上按讚 加入Yahoo!奇摩新聞粉絲團

只要一百元起即可暢遊北海岸 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%A5%BD%E8%A1%8C-%E7%99%BE%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E6%9A%A2%E9%81%8A%E5%8C%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8-213000257.html

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台灣好行 百元起暢遊北海岸
.-字
+字
.作者： 黃如萍╱台北報導 | 中時電子報 – 2012年5月4日 上午5:30.. .



.
.

中國時報【黃如萍╱台北報導】

到淺水灣喝咖啡、野柳地質公園看女王頭或到金山逛朱銘美術館，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線開跑，不必再自行開車，只要一百元即可暢遊北海岸。還有結合美術館、溫泉泡湯券、火車票、船票或下午茶等六種套票，一日遊只要一九九元起。

交通部觀光局北海岸及觀音山國家風景區管理處長陳美秀表示，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線全線十二個景點，淺水灣、白沙灣、朱銘美術館、鄧麗君長眠的筠園、可遠眺雙燭嶼的獅頭山公園等景點，民眾一券在手，可盡情漫遊濱海公路。

歡慶皇冠北海岸線開行，北觀處也祭出五七折的一九九元優惠套票，台灣好行巴士票加朱銘美術館門票，還有北海岸紀念品，限量一千組！

北觀處並同步推出一九九元至六三三元等不同組合的六種超值套票，讓旅遊變得更輕鬆、簡單，預期今年將可吸引廿萬人搭乘，觀光產值可達台幣兩億元。民眾可上皇冠北海岸線官網、或在雄獅旅行社火車站、忠孝旗艦、板橋、市府轉運站等四家門市購買套票。
...
.
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(5/10)(Thu.)Technology stems from humanity（Host:Penny）
Session 1 : How Steve Jobs Changed Our Lives, Around The World
by: admin Steve Jobs in 2007 (acaben)
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
http://worldcrunch.com/how-steve-jobs-changed-our-lives-around-world/3892


Le Monde remembers the Apple founder, as a corporate executive who was always more than a businessman.
His gift was to see the ways that the latest technology could enter into ordinary lives.

PARIS - Flowers in the night, candles –a few tears, too… in front of electronic stores!
Has the world we’re living in become so consumer-oriented that only capitalist heroes manage to bring us to tears?
No. Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, was indeed much more than a brilliant CEO.

The Apple co-founder has changed the world.
His work has transformed the lives of millions of people across the planet in a much more tangible way than many heads of state ever will.
His death has triggered a frenzy of reactions, from official and anonymous sources alike,
that go beyond even the honors usually reserved for globetrotting rock stars.

It even reached China, where an estimated 35 million mourning microblogging messages could be read by noon on Thursday on Sina Weibo,
China’s equivalent of Twitter.
The American entrepreneur’s genius consisted in being able to manipulate technology in order to implant it in everyday life.
While many post-war computer manufacturers had launched into a race for power, performance and technical prowess,
the Silicon Valley man’s sole ambition was to create simple and useful products.
Granted, the computer mouse was not invented by Apple;
but the company was the first to come up with the idea of producing a personal computer -- the Macintosh -- with a mouse.
That was back in 1984.
A myth in the making MP3 players were likewise not invented by Apple, nor were online music stores,
but the 2001 launching of the iPod and the iTunes digital media store managed to capture generations of customers that record music companies thought were lost forever.
Mobile broadband, touch screens, online services – all had already existed for years,
but the Californian brand is the one that succeeded in providing the average man with the whole package,
with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008 and the iPad in 2010.
Steve Jobs fashioned landmark products that have made industrial history, the way other great inventions have over the centuries.
His success is all the more symbolic that it is coincides with the mythology of Silicon Valley. He was a 21-year-old college dropout when he created Apple in 1976, together with his friend, Steve Wozniak.
Every step of his original career contributed to make him one of the most outstanding chairman of all time,
including his legendary comeback in 1997 to return as CEO of “his” company, 12 years after having been sacked by shareholders.
So even before he became a worldwide superstar, he was already a worldwide super-manager. He used everything globalization could offer him.
The Taiwanese company Foxconn, the world's largest maker of electronic components, f
amous for manufacturing iPhone and iPad’s components on Chinese territory, is a key to this success.
Foxconn –and even Apple—employees know this for a fact. Jobs’ occasionally unrealistic demands, it must be said,
have sparked some fits of social unrest.
But ultimately, Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of our era’s greatest inventors;
and as such, we pause today to pay our respects before this most modern sort of global royalty.
Read the original story in French
Photo - acaben
All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with Le Monde
October 6th, 2011 - 16:10

More readings:
http://nccc.cool3c.com/article/50244


Session 1 Questions :
1、Have you ever used smart phone?
Do you think how did it changed your lives?
If you don't have any smart phone , why don't you want ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of smart phone...........

3、Please watch this TED speaking video...this is Steve Jobs's speaking ..... and share your dream live for us ..........
How to live before you die.....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc[/youtube]


Session 2 :Facebook used to foil suicides
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/27/2003531399

More readings:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/04/05/2003529508



Session 2 Questions :
1、Have you ever used Facebook ? What kind of things do you always post on FB?
If you don't want to use , why ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of Facebook.......

3、 Compare the people of this photo....What kind of live do you like ? Why ?






Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar - listen to >> - ESLPOD 786
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 786
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

burbs >>
on tap >>
well drinks >>
couple of shots >>
welcome any excuse to let my hair down >>
thorough impression >>
company >>

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Children may be solution to kicking alcohol addiction, April 29, 2012, TWN, The China Post news staff

Many families have been broken and loved ones killed or maimed in tragic road accidents in Taiwan, and the culprits are often motorists who hit the bottle, hit the road and hit something else. Last year, 419 people were killed and close to 200 were seriously injured in road accidents caused by drivers operating vehicles while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and other substances. It was the cause of up to 30 percent of fatal car crashes in northern Taiwan. In the first nine months of 2012, DUI was blamed for 32 percent of the fatal road accidents in the northeastern county of Yilan. The “best-remembered” case last year involved a female firefighter. The then-27-year-old Lai Wen-li was hit by a drunk driver during a traffic callout when she was trying to help a person injured in an earlier crash. Lai had to have her leg amputated. In recognition of her courage and dedication to her job as a lifesaver, the Legislature named an amendment to the criminal code after her, calling it the “Lai Wen-li Clause.” The amendment raises the penalty for drivers under the influence of drugs, anesthetics, alcohol or similar substances to two years of imprisonment, detention, or a fine of NT$200,000 (US$6,625). In a stern statement before the passage of the amendment, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said he would direct the country's prosecutors to seek the maximum penalties for offenders in order to deter drunk driving. “Don't drink if you want to drive,” he warned. The public's memory is short. And many of those who drink simply would not need Tseng's admonition. National Police Agency statistics show that in the first three months of 2012, a total of 88,034 drunk drivers were caught.

It appears that severe punishments, or simply their threat, are not working. DUI is here to stay. The government may try other methods, such as raising the cost of alcohol retail licenses, tripling the tax on both locally brewed and imported spirits, wines, and even beers, or deploying more road blocks manned by police officers equipped with breathalyzer kits. But one doubts these measures would work beyond the immediate aftermath of another appalling DUI accident. It appears that the problem has so far resisted solutions because a cultural aspect to it has been overlooked. Drinking, especially the drinking of hard alcohol, is deeply ingrained and even encouraged in the Chinese culture. Think of state banquets. During his Beijing visit in 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon downed a shot of the notorious Maotai, a fiery, sorghum-based sprit to the thunderous applause of his Chinese hosts. The story is still remembered by many. At the Chinese dinner table, drinking is encouraged, especially in households presided over by an elderly pair of grandparents. The grandfather and the mother would not normally eat their staple food, noodle for northerners and rice for southerners, until round after round of hard spirits, often the over-50-percent alcohol Kaoliang. And they encourage youngsters to drink early. First, they let them sample such drinks with the tip of a chopstick, and then they egg them on for more. Treating a guest to a dinner, especially if he or she is a foreigner new to the country, without talking him or her into imbibing some, is unthinkable.
The repetitious calls for “bottoms up” are considered a show of hospitality and camaraderie. In the popular martial arts romances, the drinking man is glorified. There is even a school of martial arts called drunken boxing. When the family pays homage to its deceased ancestors and forbears, alcohol is indispensable. It is plausible to say that if children raised in such a culture are not more susceptible to alcoholism, they would likely to be more tolerant of the habit, because their “role models” at home and in the realm of imagination effectively remind us of the “horseback roughnecks” in the commercial of a certain brand of cigarettes. This might sound corny, but might ultimately prove to be useful in our search for a solution to the DUI problem: Let us teach our children, at home and at school, that alcohol can be as bad as nicotine. And let us tell them to nag their hard-drinking parents into giving up their overindulgence. As a matter of fact, school pupils are some of the best fighters in the battle against smoking. Many longtime addicts have kicked their habit after succumbing to the nagging of their school-age children and their frowns and nasty looks. And then, if we really cannot teach our children about the harm of hard drinking, we had better not encourage them to try it.

Coverage of Light of Taiwan's affair leaves media looking dim,
April 28, 2012 ,TWN, The China Post news staff

Taiwan has been rather gloomy over the past few days, with the “Light of Taiwan” dimming after apologizing for his extramarital affair that lasted eight long months with a Taiwanese woman. The local media, however, are partly to blame for local fans' profound negative outlook toward Chien-Ming Wang's (王建民) private life. The scandal began in summer 2010 when Wang, Taiwan's most famous pitcher to have made it big in the Major League, was at his lowest both mentally and physically. Wang was undergoing rehabilitation from a shoulder surgery in Florida when “Cyndi,” a Taiwanese woman who worked part-time at local bars, entered his life from an encounter at a local nightclub. Wang made a public confession and official apology over his affair on April 23 in the U.S., hours before a Chinese-language newspaper ran a front-page story showing Wang and Cyndi cuddling and kissing. It is said that Wang had initially intended to make the public appearance at a later date, but was forced to make his confession early after discovering that the Taiwanese media had already obtained details of his affair. Insiders know, however, that the main reason behind Wang stepping up should be to defend his “clean” image, which is what matters from the perspectives of his sponsors and endorsers. After all, Wang's private life is none of the public's business, and when his wife — with whom he has been wed to for nine years — has agreed to forgive him, what is there to be excused by the public? While Wang's exceptional athletic abilities granted him recognition and fame, his positive image as a family man was what landed him the endorsements, and is exactly what he sought to hold on to through publicly apologizing for the affair.

Wang's apology is well accepted, as both men and women alike revere him for his courage to admit, confront, and humbly take responsibility over the “mistake.” Men, especially, claim to understand that what Wang did was “something all men in the world might have done,” as internationally renowned kung fu actor Jackie Chan claimed after his own extramarital affair was revealed in 1999. Unlike what typically happens when rumors of juicy gossip begin floating around, the Taiwanese media did not make an exceptionally big deal out of Wang's affair. Instead, the scandal was soft-toned, with most remarks focusing on how difficult Wang's recovery days must have been for him to have sought comfort with Cyndi, who is “not hot,” commentators on television news programs and netizens judged. Many expressed disappointment in Wang's taste, commenting with more bitterness on Cyndi's looks than Wang having an affair in and of itself. Peering at an enlarged photograph of Wang's head against Cyndi's, a commentator mockingly said on an evening news program that it is hard to believe that Wang had fallen for someone with such “improvable appearance and style.” Netizens flooded online forums with cynical comments of how Cyndi looked more like a barfly lacking in elegance than someone who could match up to Wang. The bitterness and disappointment many felt and expressed toward the scandal actually stems from high expectations for Wang, which have been built up by the Taiwanese media through beautifying the sportsman's image. Wang is Taiwan's highest-profile Major League Baseball pitcher and an ideal athlete with great affection for his family; he is the “Light of Taiwan,” the role model Taiwanese children look up to. The media needs Wang to continuously be the example of a successful Taiwanese person, and Cyndi has become the scapegoat that will allow Wang's legend to go on. No affair can last if affection is single-sided, yet the Taiwanese media is lifting the blame off Wang — or somehow manipulating it so it weighs lighter on him — by attacking Cyndi. As incomprehensible as it is, the fact that Cyndi's appearance is where most attacks have been directed reveals how desperately the Taiwanese media need to re-evaluate the values they have been constructing and imposing on the public.

Hi, everyone,
Following the gentle order of Royal Father (William) and warm support from Jason, Rock, and Michael, I arrange the hosting schedule as follows:
6/7 Morris
6/14 Jason
6/21 Michael
6/28 Rock

Thank you for your support.

ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients

When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients - listen to >> - ESLPOD 784
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 784

Dictation: (聽寫練習)

expense account >>
can’t wait to wine and dine our clients >>
to win over >>
slush fund >>
Schmoozing >>
charity events to rub elbows >>
elite >>
booze >>
plates of rubber chicken >>

(5/3)(Thu.)Titanic & My Heart Will Go On （Host:Penny）

Session 1 Titanic (From 空中英語教室2012/4/13)
This week the world remembers the famous ship's historic joureny.

April 13
Titanic, the largest passenger ship of its time,set out on its maiden voyage one hundred years ago this week.
Famous long before it set sail,this "ship of dreams "offered the finest luxuries of its day.
Scheduled to sail from Southampton,England,to New York City. Titanic welcomed passengers from all walks of life.
No doubt,each one boarding the ship on April 10,1912,was filled the excitement and cofidence.
This confidence existed because Titanic was said by all to be "unsinkable."

In their own words
Seven-year-old Eva Hart's mother had a premonition that something terrible would occur.
Frightened and awake,Mrs.Hart felt the impact and notified her husband. According to Eva,
"He put my mother and me in a lifeboat, and we never saw him again."

Amazing survival stories
Others,though,survived despite the odds. Crew member Frank Prentice held onto the railing as the stern lifted up out of the water.
"I was hanging on , getting higher and higher in the air, and i dropped in and hit the water with a terrific crack."Prentice was
rescued by a nearby lifeboat.
The ship's barber,K. Whiteman was blown off the ship by an explosion and was eventually rescued from the freezing waters.

A false sense of security
According the Edwina Mackenzie,"You could not get people to go on lifeboats.They felt safer on the Titanic....
But as we were rowing away, we could see the Titqanic gradually sinking .... That scream of death was worse than and sound."
A trip that had begun as a dream come true ended in a nightmare 100 years ago today.

walks of life n 行業
maiden voyage n. 首航
unsinkable adj. 不會沉沒的
premonition n.預感
stern n 船尾


Session 1 Questions :
1 、Have you ever seen this movie (Titanic ) ? Do you like it ?
Will you see that again in the movie theater when it adds 3D effects ?

2、Think about the love story in this movie ....it was romantic and touch us ....
If they both alive....
What kind of live they will be....?

3、Have you ever took a cruise like Titanic?...please share the experience for us....
If you have not .........Do you want to travel with a cruise?.....Where will you most want to go?

PS: Titanic Museum Introduction
http://tw.travel.yahoo.com/topic/tw-travel.yahookimo.com.tw/13348276126044



Sessions 2 English Songs :
The movie theme song of Titanic is "My Heart Will Go On"....
It was sang by "Celine Dion"....
I search it on WiKi ...let me introduce something :

"My Heart Will Go On" is the main theme song to the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.
With music by James Horner, lyrics by Will Jennings, and production by Simon Franglen, James Horner and Walter Afanasieff, it was recorded by Céline Dion.
Originally released in 1997 on the Titanic soundtrack album and Dion's album Let's Talk About Love, the song went to number 1 all over the world, including the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia.
"My Heart Will Go On" was released in Australia and Germany on December 8, 1997, and in the rest of the world in January and February 1998.

It became Dion's biggest hit, and one of the best-selling singles of all time, and was the world's best-selling single of 1998.

if you want to see the detail you can see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Heart_Will_Go_On


and I can search the song on youtube ...please listen the beautiful music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWl7FtfrR0w&feature=fvsr


Session 2 Questions 2 :
1、What kind of English songs do you favorite ?
2、Do you agree Movies releated to movie theme songs?
3、Please share some songs for us which was be movie theme song.....
(I will group 5 tables , when we finished the discussion ...
I need Each group will introduce at least 1 song to us ....
You can introduce some elements of the song , such as :Who sang ? Which movie ..?And What kind of stories of this song.)



Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

Because of the outing activity, we will cancel the meeting of this Saturday (April 28).

Outing activity : Journey to Keelung to eat sea food.
Date : April 28 (Saturday), by電聯車 from
a) 板橋火車站 1212車次 – 13:32 or
b) 台北火車站 1212 車次 – 13:45 arrive Keelung at 14:29

Please reserve your seat with William in advance.

Date:April,26th,2012

Host: FRED LEE

Topic:Getting Paid to Procreate in Taiwan: Is $640 Enough?

In China, overpopulation has led to a one-child rule for many couples. Its neighbor, Taiwan, has the opposite problem: Its birthrate dropped to a record low last year. With less than 20,000 babies born, moms and dads will soon get paid to procreate.
Starting next year, the Taiwanese government will pay couples 20,000 New Taiwanese Dollars — about $640— for each new citizen they produce.
Officials aren’t stopping there; they are also considering the possibility of subsidizing fertility treatments to encourage would-be parents to make more babies. Top brass in the Interior Ministry are mulling a plan to offer annual subsidies of up to $4,800 to offset fertility treatments, reports Agence France-Presse, citing Taipei’s Apple Daily. (More on Time.com: 5 Pregnancy Taboos Explained (or Debunked))
The government is slated to vote on the proposal — which is anticipated to yield 3,000 babies a year — later this month. Last year, 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, which amounted to a 3.74% drop from the year before. It may not sound like much, but it’s got the government atwitter because of the discrepancy between the average Taiwanese birthrate — 1.03 for a couple — and the population replacement rate, which is 2.1. Too few babies now means too few workers down the road. (To make child-rearing even more appealing, Taiwan already offers a babysitting subsidy. Apparently, it is not doing the trick.)

The unique approach to baby-making may turn out to be little more than a nice, if superficial, gesture. Diapers alone in the first year can tally $600, and in-vitro fertilization can top $15,000 — at least in the U.S.

Read more:

http://life.chinatimes.com/2009Cti/Chan ... 83,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 16,00.html


Section I
Question & Discussion
1. Do you want to have a baby in the future?Why or why not?
2. Do you think raising a pet can replace kids to accompany you through out your elderly stage ? why or why not.
3. Have you ever had a pet? Share your experience about that.


Section II
Let’s play a GAME about guess the words!

Rules:
I’ll devide you into two groups, each groups have a volunteer to guess the words I show you. The group members are all the helper to explain the words. The words are from the Chinese idiom or Chinese old saying.The most words you have answered in a team is a winner. Let’s have a competition!

It is a link about the usage of the verb. Hope you can learn something from it.

http://blog.yam.com/bensblog/article/21348547

ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00


Audio conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings - listen to >> - ESLPOD 782


manipulators >>
monumentally awful >>
bitter >>
get over it >>
jaded >>
absolute >>
reconciliation >>
walked all over me >>
iota >>
persona non grata! >>

Yeah, I totally agree.

daring >> taking risks, doing things definately than the way other people do things.

Thanks Stanley, for pointing out my incorrect spelling. it's the definitely.
and " exiting " it should be >> " exciting.

Jack 寫:

Jack 寫:

Jack 寫:ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar - listen to >> - ESLPOD 786
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 786
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

burbs >>
on tap >>
well drinks >>
couple of shots >>
welcome any excuse to let my hair down >>
thorough impression >>
company >>

Few days ago, have some people questioned about how we go for this Tuesday study.
1.請先 進入 Eslpod 請聽完整篇的對話.
2. 在Eslpod 中的對話文章裡 有黑粗體字部份 ，也就是每週 這裡有 綠色 箭頭的字 >> Eslpod會有外國老師 解釋它，請將聽到的解釋 儘量的寫出來
3. 貼上這裡 或以私人訊息傳過來
4. 登入 SKYPE 對話練習，依照對話文章互相演練
5. 於Skype 中互相討論 ，並比較彼此間的聽寫是否正確，意見分享 儘量以英文對話.
6. 造句練習，以熟悉字的使用
7. 針對比較可能不熟悉的字與詞 作記錄 以便雙週或一個月後作重複習 登載個人記錄.

burbs >> informal word for ??, around of main city outside of downtown area.
on tap >> available usually from a faucet, a big container and it comes right out of it into glass or a mug, you pull the beer and you drink of beer out of it.
well drinks >> any alcolhol, cock tail..
couple of shots >> small container, small amount alcohol in a small glass.
welcome any excuse to let my hair down >> would be to use any opporunity /reason to relax to have fun
thorough impression >> complete idea,
impression :can mean the way you understand something the opinion you have about something.
company >> other people who spend time with you.

Hi Stanley,
I have incorrect spell to a word "pull" the beer..., that means I seldom use it... so I feel something weird when I wrote it down after dictaction. It should be "pour" I think.

And you mentioned, there are some phrases you don't get it.
am very sorry about that I did't put it on list.

stinking drunk >> drink a lot, to be very drunk/ increadible drunk.
school night >> because next day you have school Monday through Friday, however people sometimes use it just means a work night, a day, or night that will be followed by a day you have to go to work.

cover charge >> means you have to pay money just to get into the bar or the club. and of course you also have to pay for your drinks. used to be like a 5, 10 more dollars.

The "cover charge" , 算會經常接觸到 它像是 低消(基本消費) 的意思吧..

Jack 寫:ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients

When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients - listen to >> - ESLPOD 784
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 784

Dictation: (聽寫練習)

expense account >>
can’t wait to wine and dine our clients >>
to win over >>
slush fund >>
Schmoozing >>
charity events to rub elbows >>
elite >>
booze >>
plates of rubber chicken >>

expense account >> the money that a company will give you to spend on things that are related to company business. so when you travel for example, what you need to eat, you need to go to restaurant
the company will pay for that. It's part of your expense account, it's part of the money they give you for buying things related to your job.
can’t wait to wine and dine our clients >> to go and entertain someone with wine alcolhol, taking someone - one of your custermers to a nice restaurant,
to win over >> to pursue or convince someone. To get someone in this case to agree with you or to buy something from your company, the purpose to get new custermer.
slush fund >> is money you can spend on any purpose. can sometime to be used by illegal purposes. the money that company doesn't keep track of.
the expense account is definately not a slush fund.
Schmooze >> to have informal conversations with people, designed to make them feel confortable.
You are talking about informal topics, usually not even related to business, for the purpose becoming friendly, making them feel welcome or important.
charity events to rub elbows >> to spend time with someone, to work with someone closely.
elite >> are group of people who are considered the best in their feild, or most important people in their feild.
booze >> is another word for alcolhol, beer, wine... and ???
rubber chicken >> over cook, it doesn't taste good. it gets hard and a little bit difficult to eat.

haiyumenadesu 寫:我想要參加 那我要如何參加報名呢??

just come and bring a copy of that day's article. You don't need to sign up.

Thursday: 摩斯漢堡 明曜店 地下室

Saturday’s meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

ML 寫:Dear Jack:

That is ok, I don't travel a lot as well,
Everyone aware you are busy in making money, so, after you have more saving, maybe you can plan more tours. money and time are the critical elements for planning travelling.

Still , hope you have a good day.

Hi Martin,

Yes, I am cheap, so.. have to work very hard to earn money, and heheheh.. I hope I can work in central bank to make money.

Let me share a good movie theme song for you...
"When You Believe"
It is a song by American recording artists Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston.
The song was written and composed by Stephen Schwartz for the 1998 DreamWorks animated feature The Prince of Egypt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdAy9GH51ZE

attendence:
william, jason, jd, way, luis, aria, david, morris, walter, joanna, michael, anny, joseph, fred, penny, daniel su, scotty, ken, jason lai, una, willy, nick, yolanda.

newcomers: o, phillp.

Jack 寫:ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00


Audio conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings - listen to >> - ESLPOD 782


manipulators >>
monumentally awful >>
bitter >>
get over it >>
jaded >>
absolute >>
reconciliation >>
walked all over me >>
iota >>
persona non grata! >>

manipulators >> to control another person by tricking or fooling them, to get them to do something for you that you aren't done.
monumentally awful >>
awful: terrible, very bad.
monumentally : extremly in a big way, or simply very much.
bitter >> feeling that something was unfair, or something was wrong. You are hurt in some way, and you don't want to forgive the other person.
get over it >> to no longer to be mad, or upset over something, to recover to feel better, and no longer be so angry.
jaded >> you have lot of of experiences with something, and it no longer interests you, it bores you.
absolute >> definite.
reconciliation >> when two people or two organizations, have some sort of disagreement and separation.
walked all over me >> it's to take advantage of another person. To use the other person for what you want and not care about the person.
iota >> it is a very small amount of something, here means almost nothing.
persona non grata! >> that person is not welcome here. You will not talk to them.

.
I am done with >> You don't want to be involved or have anything to do with that thing, or in this case "people".

great link, so I can correct my wording mistakes.

Update: 2011-11-13
最自由的全英文會話聚會,前三次不用交會費, 帶著開放與熱情來學英文
Royal 終旨 : 創造全英文會話環境, 開口用英文

每週四台北市聚會地點

摩斯漢堡MOS BURGER(明曜店)
台北市大安區仁愛路四段151巷37號B1
捷運忠孝敦化站(步行約5分鐘)

http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318
低消$30
time: PM 7:00-9:30

每週六台北市聚會地點
阿密麗多
(Mister Donut隔壁) 的地下一樓板橋市文化路一段 407 號 b1(MRT 新埔站 1 號出口)
低消80
time: PM 7:00-9:30

請帶文章來一起討論,歡迎自我介紹
加入會員終生會費NT$500.
有問題歡迎留言 joseph520520@msn.com

參加本club,三個月即可自由用英文交談,四個月即可用英文發表感想,一年可發表長篇大論

(5/3)(Thu.)Titanic & My Heart Will Go On （Host:Penny）

Session 1 Titanic (From 空中英語教室2012/4/13)
This week the world remembers the famous ship's historic joureny.

April 13
Titanic, the largest passenger ship of its time,set out on its maiden voyage one hundred years ago this week.
Famous long before it set sail,this "ship of dreams "offered the finest luxuries of its day.
Scheduled to sail from Southampton,England,to New York City. Titanic welcomed passengers from all walks of life.
No doubt,each one boarding the ship on April 10,1912,was filled the excitement and cofidence.
This confidence existed because Titanic was said by all to be "unsinkable."

In their own words
Seven-year-old Eva Hart's mother had a premonition that something terrible would occur.
Frightened and awake,Mrs.Hart felt the impact and notified her husband. According to Eva,
"He put my mother and me in a lifeboat, and we never saw him again."

Amazing survival stories
Others,though,survived despite the odds. Crew member Frank Prentice held onto the railing as the stern lifted up out of the water.
"I was hanging on , getting higher and higher in the air, and i dropped in and hit the water with a terrific crack."Prentice was
rescued by a nearby lifeboat.
The ship's barber,K. Whiteman was blown off the ship by an explosion and was eventually rescued from the freezing waters.

A false sense of security
According the Edwina Mackenzie,"You could not get people to go on lifeboats.They felt safer on the Titanic....
But as we were rowing away, we could see the Titqanic gradually sinking .... That scream of death was worse than and sound."
A trip that had begun as a dream come true ended in a nightmare 100 years ago today.

walks of life n 行業
maiden voyage n. 首航
unsinkable adj. 不會沉沒的
premonition n.預感
stern n 船尾


Session 1 Questions :
1 、Have you ever seen this movie (Titanic ) ? Do you like it ?
Will you see that again in the movie theater when it adds 3D effects ?

2、Think about the love story in this movie ....it was romantic and touch us ....
If they both alive....
What kind of live they will be....?

3、Have you ever took a cruise like Titanic?...please share the experience for us....
If you have not .........Do you want to travel with a cruise?.....Where will you most want to go?

PS: Titanic Museum Introduction
http://tw.travel.yahoo.com/topic/tw-travel.yahookimo.com.tw/13348276126044



Sessions 2 English Songs :
The movie theme song of Titanic is "My Heart Will Go On"....
It was sang by "Celine Dion"....
I search it on WiKi ...let me introduce something :

"My Heart Will Go On" is the main theme song to the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.
With music by James Horner, lyrics by Will Jennings, and production by Simon Franglen, James Horner and Walter Afanasieff, it was recorded by Céline Dion.
Originally released in 1997 on the Titanic soundtrack album and Dion's album Let's Talk About Love, the song went to number 1 all over the world, including the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia.
"My Heart Will Go On" was released in Australia and Germany on December 8, 1997, and in the rest of the world in January and February 1998.

It became Dion's biggest hit, and one of the best-selling singles of all time, and was the world's best-selling single of 1998.

if you want to see the detail you can see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Heart_Will_Go_On


and I can search the song on youtube ...please listen the beautiful music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWl7FtfrR0w&feature=fvsr


Session 2 Questions 2 :
1、What kind of English songs do you favorite ?
2、Do you agree Movies releated to movie theme songs?
3、Please share some songs for us which was be movie theme song.....
(I will group 5 tables , when we finished the discussion ...
I need Each group will introduce at least 1 song to us ....
You can introduce some elements of the song , such as :Who sang ? Which movie ..?And What kind of stories of this song.)



Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

Session 1:
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Taipei City May 1 demanding improved workplace safety and better protection of labor rights.

The crowd of laborers, medical personnel, temporary workers, unionists and college students used International Workers’ Day to raise issues including irregular shifts, overwork, stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing prices and unfair tax schemes.

“The use of dispatch workers should be prohibited across all sectors,” said Shih Chao-hsien, president of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, calling the common practice of replacing full-time employees with temporary ones a compromise of labor rights. Taiwan has around 600,000 dispatch workers, sources said.

The TCTU also urged authorities to better monitor working conditions to avoid work-related injuries. “The Legislature should approve revisions to the Labor Safety and Health Act and the bill protecting workers with occupational injuries as soon as possible,” he added.

Echoing recent online criticism from a Taiwanese nurse on the inhumanely long shifts in hospitals, medical workers also spoke out. “As a result of personnel shortages, many doctors and nurses are required to work up to 120 hours per week, more than twice what is allowed by labor laws,” a protestor said. “This is no way to provide high-quality medical care.”

Housing prices and workers’ pay also came under attack. “While our average wages have remained fixed over the past decade, real estate prices have nearly doubled,” said Peng Yang-kai, spokesman for the Social Housing Promotion Alliance.

In response to the demands, the Council of Labor Affairs said in a news release that it will continue to monitor working conditions and push for a special act to regulate the use of dispatch workers. (THN)

Questions:
1. Do you or someone you know have to work overtime? Share your story.
2. HTC(宏達電) requires its employees to work overtime (especially RD field, no overtime pay). Would you consider to quit your job if it requires you to work from 9AM to 10PM, without overtime pay?
3. The nurses are happy to have 20% increases of their salary ($8000 more a month) in one of the hospitals in Taiwan. If you are one of them, do you think it's fair enough?
4. Do you think you are a more competitive person to others if you work overtime?
5. Please suggestion solutions to the overworking problem.

Session 2:
When Buying a Car, Ladies Are Tougher Customers
You know how ladies don't know anything about cars and need a man to help them through even the simplest purchase? Surprise: this is bullshit.

Actually, a study by LeaseTrader found that women tend to ask more questions and order more inspections than men do. The company looked at 2011 out-of-state lease transfers, in which the car is in a different location than the buyer, so he or she may not be able to check it out in person. Women were more likely than men to pay a third party to inspect the car for them when they had to buy sight unseen — 67.2% of them asked for such an inspection, compared to 54.5% of men. The difference was biggest among buyers between 21 and 30 — just 42.3% of twentysomething men asked for inspections, compared with 78.2% of women. Ladies also asked different questions than men did — they were more likely to ask for specifics about the car's safety, history, and functioning, whereas guys were more likely to ask about performance, looks, and technology. Says LeaseTrader CEO Sergio Stiberman, "That our data illustrates a deepening relationship between women and cars comes as no surprise to us given that the gender gap has narrowed and even reversed in some areas since our marketplace opened nearly 15 years ago."

It's a bit of a cliche that guys care about rims and ladies just want airbags, but the data above don't just show soccer moms asking about the safety of their minivans. They also indicate that women, especially younger women, are better at doing due diligence when they have to buy a car from somewhere far away. Maybe women are more cautious car buyers, or maybe their fear of playing into the car-ignorant lady stereotype makes them especially concerned about crossing all their t's. And maybe some dudes feel they have enough automotive expertise to forgo the third-party inspection — but even for a pretty savvy buyer, it's hard to tell what you're getting if you never test-drive or look under the hood. It would be interesting to see a followup study examining how satisfied male and female buyers feel with their cars after they get them. Do women's extra steps actually pay off? It's not yet clear, but given the choice, I know who I'd feel safer riding with.

Questions:
6. If you were about to buy your first car, what would be your main specifics and preferences?
If you are not interested to buy a car, share your other preferences on something you are about to make a purchase, such as clothing, shampoo, etc.
7. After reading the article, do you still believe ladies need a man's help to buy a car?
8. When going to a food market(菜市場), do you try to knock the price off (殺價), and bargain with the seller? Do you have any tactics to share with your group?

Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

Date:April,26th,2012

Host: FRED LEE

Topic:Getting Paid to Procreate in Taiwan: Is $640 Enough?

In China, overpopulation has led to a one-child rule for many couples. Its neighbor, Taiwan, has the opposite problem: Its birthrate dropped to a record low last year. With less than 20,000 babies born, moms and dads will soon get paid to procreate.
Starting next year, the Taiwanese government will pay couples 20,000 New Taiwanese Dollars — about $640— for each new citizen they produce.
Officials aren’t stopping there; they are also considering the possibility of subsidizing fertility treatments to encourage would-be parents to make more babies. Top brass in the Interior Ministry are mulling a plan to offer annual subsidies of up to $4,800 to offset fertility treatments, reports Agence France-Presse, citing Taipei’s Apple Daily. (More on Time.com: 5 Pregnancy Taboos Explained (or Debunked))
The government is slated to vote on the proposal — which is anticipated to yield 3,000 babies a year — later this month. Last year, 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, which amounted to a 3.74% drop from the year before. It may not sound like much, but it’s got the government atwitter because of the discrepancy between the average Taiwanese birthrate — 1.03 for a couple — and the population replacement rate, which is 2.1. Too few babies now means too few workers down the road. (To make child-rearing even more appealing, Taiwan already offers a babysitting subsidy. Apparently, it is not doing the trick.)

The unique approach to baby-making may turn out to be little more than a nice, if superficial, gesture. Diapers alone in the first year can tally $600, and in-vitro fertilization can top $15,000 — at least in the U.S.

Read more:

http://life.chinatimes.com/2009Cti/Chan ... 83,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 16,00.html


Section I
Question & Discussion
1. Do you want to have a baby in the future?Why or why not?
2. Do you think raising a pet can replace kids to accompany you through out your elderly stage ? why or why not.
3. Have you ever had a pet? Share your experience about that.


Section II
Let’s play a GAME about guess the words!

Rules:
I’ll devide you into two groups, each groups have a volunteer to guess the words I show you. The group members are all the helper to explain the words. The words are from the Chinese idiom or Chinese old saying.The most words you have answered in a team is a winner. Let’s have a competition!

(5/10)(Thu.)Technology stems from humanity（Host:Penny）
Session 1 : How Steve Jobs Changed Our Lives, Around The World
by: admin Steve Jobs in 2007 (acaben)
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
http://worldcrunch.com/how-steve-jobs-changed-our-lives-around-world/3892


Le Monde remembers the Apple founder, as a corporate executive who was always more than a businessman.
His gift was to see the ways that the latest technology could enter into ordinary lives.

PARIS - Flowers in the night, candles –a few tears, too… in front of electronic stores!
Has the world we’re living in become so consumer-oriented that only capitalist heroes manage to bring us to tears?
No. Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, was indeed much more than a brilliant CEO.

The Apple co-founder has changed the world.
His work has transformed the lives of millions of people across the planet in a much more tangible way than many heads of state ever will.
His death has triggered a frenzy of reactions, from official and anonymous sources alike,
that go beyond even the honors usually reserved for globetrotting rock stars.

It even reached China, where an estimated 35 million mourning microblogging messages could be read by noon on Thursday on Sina Weibo,
China’s equivalent of Twitter.
The American entrepreneur’s genius consisted in being able to manipulate technology in order to implant it in everyday life.
While many post-war computer manufacturers had launched into a race for power, performance and technical prowess,
the Silicon Valley man’s sole ambition was to create simple and useful products.
Granted, the computer mouse was not invented by Apple;
but the company was the first to come up with the idea of producing a personal computer -- the Macintosh -- with a mouse.
That was back in 1984.
A myth in the making MP3 players were likewise not invented by Apple, nor were online music stores,
but the 2001 launching of the iPod and the iTunes digital media store managed to capture generations of customers that record music companies thought were lost forever.
Mobile broadband, touch screens, online services – all had already existed for years,
but the Californian brand is the one that succeeded in providing the average man with the whole package,
with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008 and the iPad in 2010.
Steve Jobs fashioned landmark products that have made industrial history, the way other great inventions have over the centuries.
His success is all the more symbolic that it is coincides with the mythology of Silicon Valley. He was a 21-year-old college dropout when he created Apple in 1976, together with his friend, Steve Wozniak.
Every step of his original career contributed to make him one of the most outstanding chairman of all time,
including his legendary comeback in 1997 to return as CEO of “his” company, 12 years after having been sacked by shareholders.
So even before he became a worldwide superstar, he was already a worldwide super-manager. He used everything globalization could offer him.
The Taiwanese company Foxconn, the world's largest maker of electronic components, f
amous for manufacturing iPhone and iPad’s components on Chinese territory, is a key to this success.
Foxconn –and even Apple—employees know this for a fact. Jobs’ occasionally unrealistic demands, it must be said,
have sparked some fits of social unrest.
But ultimately, Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of our era’s greatest inventors;
and as such, we pause today to pay our respects before this most modern sort of global royalty.
Read the original story in French
Photo - acaben
All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with Le Monde
October 6th, 2011 - 16:10

More readings:
http://nccc.cool3c.com/article/50244


Session 1 Questions :
1、Have you ever used smart phone?
Do you think how did it changed your lives?
If you don't have any smart phone , why don't you want ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of smart phone...........

3、Please watch this TED speaking video...this is Steve Jobs's speaking ..... and share your dream live for us ..........
How to live before you die.....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc[/youtube]


Session 2 :Facebook used to foil suicides
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/27/2003531399

More readings:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/04/05/2003529508



Session 2 Questions :
1、Have you ever used Facebook ? What kind of things do you always post on FB?
If you don't want to use , why ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of Facebook.......

3、 Compare the people of this photo....What kind of live do you like ? Why ?






Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar - listen to >> - ESLPOD 786
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 786
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

burbs >>
on tap >>
well drinks >>
couple of shots >>
welcome any excuse to let my hair down >>
thorough impression >>
company >>

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Children may be solution to kicking alcohol addiction, April 29, 2012, TWN, The China Post news staff

Many families have been broken and loved ones killed or maimed in tragic road accidents in Taiwan, and the culprits are often motorists who hit the bottle, hit the road and hit something else. Last year, 419 people were killed and close to 200 were seriously injured in road accidents caused by drivers operating vehicles while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and other substances. It was the cause of up to 30 percent of fatal car crashes in northern Taiwan. In the first nine months of 2012, DUI was blamed for 32 percent of the fatal road accidents in the northeastern county of Yilan. The “best-remembered” case last year involved a female firefighter. The then-27-year-old Lai Wen-li was hit by a drunk driver during a traffic callout when she was trying to help a person injured in an earlier crash. Lai had to have her leg amputated. In recognition of her courage and dedication to her job as a lifesaver, the Legislature named an amendment to the criminal code after her, calling it the “Lai Wen-li Clause.” The amendment raises the penalty for drivers under the influence of drugs, anesthetics, alcohol or similar substances to two years of imprisonment, detention, or a fine of NT$200,000 (US$6,625). In a stern statement before the passage of the amendment, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said he would direct the country's prosecutors to seek the maximum penalties for offenders in order to deter drunk driving. “Don't drink if you want to drive,” he warned. The public's memory is short. And many of those who drink simply would not need Tseng's admonition. National Police Agency statistics show that in the first three months of 2012, a total of 88,034 drunk drivers were caught.

It appears that severe punishments, or simply their threat, are not working. DUI is here to stay. The government may try other methods, such as raising the cost of alcohol retail licenses, tripling the tax on both locally brewed and imported spirits, wines, and even beers, or deploying more road blocks manned by police officers equipped with breathalyzer kits. But one doubts these measures would work beyond the immediate aftermath of another appalling DUI accident. It appears that the problem has so far resisted solutions because a cultural aspect to it has been overlooked. Drinking, especially the drinking of hard alcohol, is deeply ingrained and even encouraged in the Chinese culture. Think of state banquets. During his Beijing visit in 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon downed a shot of the notorious Maotai, a fiery, sorghum-based sprit to the thunderous applause of his Chinese hosts. The story is still remembered by many. At the Chinese dinner table, drinking is encouraged, especially in households presided over by an elderly pair of grandparents. The grandfather and the mother would not normally eat their staple food, noodle for northerners and rice for southerners, until round after round of hard spirits, often the over-50-percent alcohol Kaoliang. And they encourage youngsters to drink early. First, they let them sample such drinks with the tip of a chopstick, and then they egg them on for more. Treating a guest to a dinner, especially if he or she is a foreigner new to the country, without talking him or her into imbibing some, is unthinkable.
The repetitious calls for “bottoms up” are considered a show of hospitality and camaraderie. In the popular martial arts romances, the drinking man is glorified. There is even a school of martial arts called drunken boxing. When the family pays homage to its deceased ancestors and forbears, alcohol is indispensable. It is plausible to say that if children raised in such a culture are not more susceptible to alcoholism, they would likely to be more tolerant of the habit, because their “role models” at home and in the realm of imagination effectively remind us of the “horseback roughnecks” in the commercial of a certain brand of cigarettes. This might sound corny, but might ultimately prove to be useful in our search for a solution to the DUI problem: Let us teach our children, at home and at school, that alcohol can be as bad as nicotine. And let us tell them to nag their hard-drinking parents into giving up their overindulgence. As a matter of fact, school pupils are some of the best fighters in the battle against smoking. Many longtime addicts have kicked their habit after succumbing to the nagging of their school-age children and their frowns and nasty looks. And then, if we really cannot teach our children about the harm of hard drinking, we had better not encourage them to try it.

Coverage of Light of Taiwan's affair leaves media looking dim,
April 28, 2012 ,TWN, The China Post news staff

Taiwan has been rather gloomy over the past few days, with the “Light of Taiwan” dimming after apologizing for his extramarital affair that lasted eight long months with a Taiwanese woman. The local media, however, are partly to blame for local fans' profound negative outlook toward Chien-Ming Wang's (王建民) private life. The scandal began in summer 2010 when Wang, Taiwan's most famous pitcher to have made it big in the Major League, was at his lowest both mentally and physically. Wang was undergoing rehabilitation from a shoulder surgery in Florida when “Cyndi,” a Taiwanese woman who worked part-time at local bars, entered his life from an encounter at a local nightclub. Wang made a public confession and official apology over his affair on April 23 in the U.S., hours before a Chinese-language newspaper ran a front-page story showing Wang and Cyndi cuddling and kissing. It is said that Wang had initially intended to make the public appearance at a later date, but was forced to make his confession early after discovering that the Taiwanese media had already obtained details of his affair. Insiders know, however, that the main reason behind Wang stepping up should be to defend his “clean” image, which is what matters from the perspectives of his sponsors and endorsers. After all, Wang's private life is none of the public's business, and when his wife — with whom he has been wed to for nine years — has agreed to forgive him, what is there to be excused by the public? While Wang's exceptional athletic abilities granted him recognition and fame, his positive image as a family man was what landed him the endorsements, and is exactly what he sought to hold on to through publicly apologizing for the affair.

Wang's apology is well accepted, as both men and women alike revere him for his courage to admit, confront, and humbly take responsibility over the “mistake.” Men, especially, claim to understand that what Wang did was “something all men in the world might have done,” as internationally renowned kung fu actor Jackie Chan claimed after his own extramarital affair was revealed in 1999. Unlike what typically happens when rumors of juicy gossip begin floating around, the Taiwanese media did not make an exceptionally big deal out of Wang's affair. Instead, the scandal was soft-toned, with most remarks focusing on how difficult Wang's recovery days must have been for him to have sought comfort with Cyndi, who is “not hot,” commentators on television news programs and netizens judged. Many expressed disappointment in Wang's taste, commenting with more bitterness on Cyndi's looks than Wang having an affair in and of itself. Peering at an enlarged photograph of Wang's head against Cyndi's, a commentator mockingly said on an evening news program that it is hard to believe that Wang had fallen for someone with such “improvable appearance and style.” Netizens flooded online forums with cynical comments of how Cyndi looked more like a barfly lacking in elegance than someone who could match up to Wang. The bitterness and disappointment many felt and expressed toward the scandal actually stems from high expectations for Wang, which have been built up by the Taiwanese media through beautifying the sportsman's image. Wang is Taiwan's highest-profile Major League Baseball pitcher and an ideal athlete with great affection for his family; he is the “Light of Taiwan,” the role model Taiwanese children look up to. The media needs Wang to continuously be the example of a successful Taiwanese person, and Cyndi has become the scapegoat that will allow Wang's legend to go on. No affair can last if affection is single-sided, yet the Taiwanese media is lifting the blame off Wang — or somehow manipulating it so it weighs lighter on him — by attacking Cyndi. As incomprehensible as it is, the fact that Cyndi's appearance is where most attacks have been directed reveals how desperately the Taiwanese media need to re-evaluate the values they have been constructing and imposing on the public.

It is a link about the usage of the verb. Hope you can learn something from it.

http://blog.yam.com/bensblog/article/21348547

ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring - listen to >> - ESLPOD 788
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 788
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

conservative >>
staid >>
to push the envelope >>
loose cannon >>
pan out >>
fall flat >>
daring >>
reckless >>
sheer >>
conventional >>
it's your call >>
to end up with egg on our face >>


1.請先 進入 Eslpod 請聽完整篇的對話.
2. 在Eslpod 中的對話文章裡 有黑粗體字部份 ，也就是每週 這裡有 綠色 箭頭的字 >> Eslpod會有外國老師 解釋它，請將聽到的解釋 儘量的寫出來
3. 貼上這裡 或以私人訊息傳過來
4. 登入 SKYPE 對話練習，依照對話文章互相演練
5. 於Skype 中互相討論 ，並比較彼此間的聽寫是否正確，意見分享 儘量以英文對話.
6. 造句練習，以熟悉字的使用
7. 針對比較可能不熟悉的字與詞 作記錄 以便雙週或一個月後作重複習 登載個人記錄.

ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00


Audio conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings - listen to >> - ESLPOD 782


manipulators >>
monumentally awful >>
bitter >>
get over it >>
jaded >>
absolute >>
reconciliation >>
walked all over me >>
iota >>
persona non grata! >>

ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients

When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients - listen to >> - ESLPOD 784
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 784

Dictation: (聽寫練習)

expense account >>
can’t wait to wine and dine our clients >>
to win over >>
slush fund >>
Schmoozing >>
charity events to rub elbows >>
elite >>
booze >>
plates of rubber chicken >>

只要一百元起即可暢遊北海岸 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%A5%BD%E8%A1%8C-%E7%99%BE%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E6%9A%A2%E9%81%8A%E5%8C%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8-213000257.html
http://www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/user/Article.aspx?Lang=1&SNo=04004562..

台灣好行 百元起暢遊北海岸
.-字
+字
.作者： 黃如萍╱台北報導 | 中時電子報 – 2012年5月4日 上午5:30.. .



.
.

中國時報【黃如萍╱台北報導】

到淺水灣喝咖啡、野柳地質公園看女王頭或到金山逛朱銘美術館，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線開跑，不必再自行開車，只要一百元即可暢遊北海岸。還有結合美術館、溫泉泡湯券、火車票、船票或下午茶等六種套票，一日遊只要一九九元起。

交通部觀光局北海岸及觀音山國家風景區管理處長陳美秀表示，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線全線十二個景點，淺水灣、白沙灣、朱銘美術館、鄧麗君長眠的筠園、可遠眺雙燭嶼的獅頭山公園等景點，民眾一券在手，可盡情漫遊濱海公路。

歡慶皇冠北海岸線開行，北觀處也祭出五七折的一九九元優惠套票，台灣好行巴士票加朱銘美術館門票，還有北海岸紀念品，限量一千組！

北觀處並同步推出一九九元至六三三元等不同組合的六種超值套票，讓旅遊變得更輕鬆、簡單，預期今年將可吸引廿萬人搭乘，觀光產值可達台幣兩億元。民眾可上皇冠北海岸線官網、或在雄獅旅行社火車站、忠孝旗艦、板橋、市府轉運站等四家門市購買套票。
...
.
Facebook 馬上按讚 加入Yahoo!奇摩新聞粉絲團

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Students prep on amino acid drips, 2012-05-08,Zheng Jinran ( China Daily)

More than 20 high school students in Hubei province had intravenous infusions of amino acids in their classroom in the hopes of providing extra energy to prepare for the national college entrance examination scheduled for early June. The infusions, which doctors said were neither necessary nor wise, raise concerns about the health of students and the fierce competition in education. Several pictures were uploaded to the Internet showing dozens of infusion bags hanging over the heads of a group of students in a classroom at Hubei Xiaogan No 1 High School on Friday night. The lights were on in the classroom and books were piled up high on the students' desks. Some students were receiving infusions while doing their homework. "The fluid in the infusion bags was amino acids to power up the students. They took such an infusion of their own accord," said an official surnamed Xia from the school, Changjiang Times reported on Sunday. The official also said that it was getting hot, so many students felt uncomfortable, asking for the infusion. But the school clinic did not have enough room for them, making them take the infusion in their classroom. But many doctors said the infusions can do nothing positive and could be harmful. "Infusion of amino acids is not necessary at all for students in good health," said Gao Huiying, chief physician with the Chinese Nutrition Society. "Amino acids serve as the building blocks of proteins, while excessive intake of protein will increase the burden on the kidneys and cause a loss of calcium." Furthermore, intravenous infusion may cause an adverse reaction of the body, such as trembling and sweating.

"What they need is to keep a balanced diet. If they need more energy, they can have extra meals," she said. Chen Ting, a doctor with the People's Liberation Army 455 Hospital in Shanghai, echoed Gao. "Having intravenous infusion in the classroom violates the principle of keeping the environment germ-free. Such an infusion at all is unwise," Chen said. The pictures of the students receiving the infusions became a hot topic online. Many netizens commented that they understood the students' burning desire to make their bodies perfect during exam preparation because their performance at the college entrance examination may decide the rest of their lives. But many others called them crazy and blamed the examination for their behavior. For example, a netizen from Beijing with the name "Mozhisiyu" commented on her micro blog that the country's education system makes them use such extreme ways to prepare for the examination. "I don't think it's inappropriate at all," one of the students in that classroom, a 17-year-old student who would only go by the surname Chi, told China Daily. "Students preparing for the college entrance examination at our school began to take infusions of amino acids years ago and some of them took them more than twice." "Some people's misunderstanding and criticism makes us unhappy and disturbs our preparation.

The examination is coming in a month and it's urgent we need to keep our minds at ease. Please give us more tolerance." "It (infusion) may not have an immediate effect to make us more energetic during the tense preparation, but at least it brings us some kind of psychological comfort that we have more power to move on," she said, while admitting she felt nothing improved after the infusion, and she still felt exhausted. Teachers in the school also supported the students taking an infusion of amino acids. Chi said it was the teachers who fixed iron wires in the classroom to hang the infusion bags. And many parents also asked the school to give extra amino acids for their exhausted children. Chi said her teacher told them that the school had received some subsidies from the central government that made such infusions much cheaper, and they only had to pay 10 yuan ($1.60) per bag if they took it from the school clinic, while it may cost at least 50 yuan outside. The school declined to make any comment when interviewed by China Daily. zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

Life not sweet for Philippines' sugar cane child workers,By Kyung Lah, CNN, May 2, 2012

(CNN) -- Barefoot and covered in dirt and sweat, 14-year-old Dante Campilan pulls weeds from orderly rows of sugar cane. Wearing an oversized red cap to protect him from the scorching Philippine sun, Dante is doing work that should be reserved for men, not children.
Earning 150 pesos ($3.50) for a seven-hour day, Dante has been a child laborer in the Philippine region of Mindanao since he was seven years old. He says he does it to help his parents, but he is just one of many children who are part of an illegal economic system of child labor. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.4 million child workers are in the Philippines. Many of them, according to the ILO, are in rural areas working in fields and mines. The organization estimates 60% work in hazardous conditions. Alongside Dante is 13-year-old Alvic James, who dropped out of school when he was in the first grade. Back then, he explained, his family didn't have enough money to eat. Alvic says he wants to learn to read and write but because he is needed in the fields he has no time to go to school. When the boys turn 15 or 16, they'll move on to the more hazardous job of cutting sugar cane. That's currently the job of 16-year-old Elmar Paran, who hasn't been to school since he was a young child, sentencing him to a future in the fields. The use of child laborers in the sugar fields of Northern Mindanao is so common that landowner Angeles Penda shrugs it off as a way of life. "The parents beg us to include their children to work," she said. Much of the sugar produced in the fields here ends up in coffee shops, on kitchen tables and on store shelves across the world.

"We do not deny that child labor exists in our industry," said Edith Villanueva, the president and COO of the Sugar Industry Foundation. "It's a practice among families who are paid piecemeal for their work. They like to employ their children because there's more income for the families."
Villanueva said that paying workers more so they're not tempted to use their children has not worked in the past. She cites the strong cultural ties of families working together in the fields as one of the main problems. "If you don't change their attitude and their values, then you don't change their way of life. There's a long-term solution and it's really education. We feel children should want to go to school, they should be kept in school, and aware of the rights of the children, the rights of the child to go to school and the right of the child to play," she said. The child labor problem is so overt and widespread in this region that Villanueva says the Sugar Industry Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation are paying to build a four-room high school that is set to open later this month. The Coca-Cola company is one of the largest buyers of sugar in the world and the sugar factories fed by the fields of Northern Mindanao call Coca-Cola one of their main customers. In a statement to CNN, Coca-Cola said it "does not support, encourage or endorse any form of child labor in our operations throughout our global bottling system or in our supplier network."The company says it conducts continuous assessments of its operations to ensure strong policies and practices are in place to help avoid child labor. In September 2010, the Coca-Cola Foundation says it joined a coalition of the local government, the ILO and private industry to remove children from sugarcane fields with the hope of eradicating child labor in the Bukidnon region. The Philippines government has also pledged to reduce child labor by 75% by 2015. By then Dante will be 17-years-old. It's more likely that he will have graduated to cutting sugar cane than high school.

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Hard-working mothers are the most influential of CEOs, May 13, 2012 , By Christy Moore, J.D.

With the arrival of Mother's Day, it might be a good time to tell your mom that she happens to be one of the greatest CEOs in the world. The current trend in the world places more and more value on careers outside the home rather than the “career” inside the home. Both stay-at-home mothers and mothers who work full or part-time may feel that their work inside the home is far less appreciated, far less respected, and of far lesser worth than their work inside the office. But this could not be further from the truth. A mother's job has been deemed as one of the most important jobs in the world. Rather than developing “widgets,” mothers develop human beings. But it is understandable why many mothers feel undervalued. A mother does not receive compensation for her efforts in behalf of her growing organization, defined as the “family.” A mother may not immediately see the fruits of her labors until decades later. A mother does not get paid for working “over-time.” Nor does she get the praise from her co-workers when little Johnny learns to say “sorry,” or when she overcomes the urge to yell at yet another clash between siblings. And a mother's job is not an easy one by far. According to Salary.com Inc., the average mother spends about 96.4 hours per week on jobs to maintain operations in the home. This means that most mothers work about 13 hours per day-which is surprisingly typical. The average mother's work day begins at around 6:30 a.m. and doesn't end until around 7 p.m. at night or later. The typical jobs to maintain the home includes housekeeper, chef, teacher, psychologist, budget and finance manager, laundry machine operator, driver, chief executive officer, etc. At these hours and according to wage rates for these job functions, Salary.com estimated that the average mother's work is worth at least approximately US$120,000 per year.

However, this number does not take into consideration the wage value of differing locations. Nor does this data reflect the various hours, jobs, and burdens of mothers who also work part or full-time. One job that mothers undertake is especially interesting —“chief executive officer,” or CEO. According to some definitions, a business can be described as an activity that utilizes products or services as a means of livelihood or profit. In a way, a mother is the CEO of a developing “business.” Mothers are often in charge of running the entire affairs of the family-which requires managing and organizing the individual family members' events and experiences and helping the family function efficiently and effectively. But more critical than that is the “product” or “service” that these CEO's manage. Rather than developing a short-lived product or service, these mothers develop human beings and in essence shape the future of nations — one child, one citizen, at a time. Although the “profit” is difficult to tangibly assess, especially over a short period of time, the profit that these CEO's help develop is likely the most valuable profit of all-that of a healthy and loving child, a contributing citizen, and a stable nation. For example, can the USA truly measure the worth of an Abraham Lincoln? And even he said, “All that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother.” Truly, as William Ross Wallace eloquently said, “The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world.” So next time, your mother or your wife feels a little undervalued, just remind her that she is one of the most influential and greatest CEOs in the world.

Sydney man credited with preventing hundreds of suicides dies, May 15, 2012 ,TWN, AFP

SYDNEY--An Australian man known as the “Angel of The Gap” for his efforts to save scores of would-be suicide victims from throwing themselves from one of Sydney's most scenic look-outs has died aged 86. During the almost 50 years he spent living opposite The Gap — a notorious sandstone cliff overlooking the coast — Don Ritchie regularly coaxed desperate people back from the edge, offering them a cup of tea and a chat. “Sydney's troubled have lost their angel,” said the city's Daily Telegraph newspaper. His daughter Sue Ritchie Bereny said her father, a former Navy seaman who served in World War II and then built a corporate career, had loved to look out from his front room at the ocean but was also very sensitive to troubled souls. He told his daughter he would simply approach people and say: “Is there something I could do to help you?” “And that was all that was often needed to turn people around, and he would say not to underestimate the power of a kind word and a smile,” she told The Sydney Morning Herald. Ritchie was officially noted to have saved some 160 lives since he moved into his Watsons Bay house in 1964 — once even tackling a man on the edge of a cliff to prevent him from killing himself. His family believes the real number was much higher. Ritchie was a great mixture of strength and compassion, his daughter said, describing him as “an everyday person who did an extraordinary thing for many people that saved lives, without any want of recognition.” Although modest, Ritchie — who according to reports died peacefully at his home on Sunday — was given a local hero award by the National Australia Day Council last year. “In a situation where most would turn a blind eye, Don has taken action ... With such simple actions Don has saved an extraordinary number of lives,” the council said.

Want to quit smoking? Try acupuncture or hypnosis,Tue May 8, 2012

(Reuters) - Acupuncture and hypnosis have been promoted as drug-free ways to help smokers kick the habit, and there is some evidence that they work, according to a research review that looked at 14 international studies. Researchers, whose findings appeared in the American Journal of Medicine, said that there are still plenty of questions, including exactly how effective alternative therapies might be and how they measure up against conventional methods to quit smoking. But the alternatives should still stand as options for smokers determined to break the habit, said researchers led by Mehdi Tahiri of McGill University in Montreal, Canada. In general, smokers who want to quit should first try the standard approaches, which include nicotine-replacement therapy, medications and behavioral counseling, Tahiri said. "But some people are not interested in medication," he said, adding that in many cases the standard therapies had not worked. "Then I think we should definitely recommend (acupuncture and hypnosis) as choices. "Researchers found that some studies showed that smokers subjected to acupuncture were more than three times as likely to be tobacco-free six months to a year later. Similarly, across four trials of hypnosis, smokers had a higher success rate with the therapy compared to people who had minimal help. But there were some caveats, researchers said. The success rate was not consistent in all the tests conducted, although the broad trends pointed to the benefits of alternate treatment.
A 2008 study that ran a few sessions of laser acupuncture on 258 smokers found that 55 percent who'd received the treatment quit the habit in six months, compared with four percent who were not given the treatment. But a 2007 study from Taiwan that looked at needle acupuncture around the ear, the area typically targeted for smoking cessation, reported a lower success rate. Only nine percent of those who were given acupuncture had quit after six months compared with six percent who stopped smoking without the treatment. The situation was similar across the hypnosis trials. Two studies showed a significant impact : 20 to 45 percent of hypnosis patients were smoke-free six months to a year later. The other two trials showed smaller effects. Nonetheless, Tahiri said, there was a "trend" toward a benefit across all of the studies of acupuncture and hypnosis. There are still definitely questions, he added, about how many sessions of acupuncture or hypnosis might be necessary, or which specific techniques are best. Other research reviews, though, have concluded that the jury is still out on alternative therapies for quitting smoking. SOURCE: bit.ly/Khhv63,(Reporting from New York by Amy Norton at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies and Sanjeev Miglani)

Because of the outing activity, we will cancel the meeting of this Saturday (April 28).

Outing activity : Journey to Keelung to eat sea food.
Date : April 28 (Saturday), by電聯車 from
a) 板橋火車站 1212車次 – 13:32 or
b) 台北火車站 1212 車次 – 13:45 arrive Keelung at 14:29

Please reserve your seat with William in advance.

Hi, everyone,
Following the gentle order of Royal Father (William) and warm support from Jason, Rock, and Michael, I arrange the hosting schedule as follows:
6/7 Morris
6/14 Jason
6/21 Michael
6/28 Rock

Thank you for your support.

Hi everybody,
Joseph had set up a FB group 2 months ago.
I think it can be the other platform for our member to use.
If you have FB account, Please join us.
Address as below:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/122922191164800/
You can find many new information or message from that.
We also can communicate via this FB group.

Update: 2011-11-13
最自由的全英文會話聚會,前三次不用交會費, 帶著開放與熱情來學英文
Royal 終旨 : 創造全英文會話環境, 開口用英文

每週四台北市聚會地點

摩斯漢堡MOS BURGER(明曜店)
台北市大安區仁愛路四段151巷37號B1
捷運忠孝敦化站(步行約5分鐘)

http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318
低消$30
time: PM 7:00-9:30

每週六台北市聚會地點
阿密麗多
(Mister Donut隔壁) 的地下一樓板橋市文化路一段 407 號 b1(MRT 新埔站 1 號出口)
低消80
time: PM 7:00-9:30

請帶文章來一起討論,歡迎自我介紹
加入會員終生會費NT$500.
有問題歡迎留言 joseph520520@msn.com

參加本club,三個月即可自由用英文交談,四個月即可用英文發表感想,一年可發表長篇大論

ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 786 – Going to a Bar - listen to >> - ESLPOD 786
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 786
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

burbs >>
on tap >>
well drinks >>
couple of shots >>
welcome any excuse to let my hair down >>
thorough impression >>
company >>

ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 788 – Being Conservative and Daring - listen to >> - ESLPOD 788
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 788
Dictation: (聽寫練習)

conservative >>
staid >>
to push the envelope >>
loose cannon >>
pan out >>
fall flat >>
daring >>
reckless >>
sheer >>
conventional >>
it's your call >>
to end up with egg on our face >>


1.請先 進入 Eslpod 請聽完整篇的對話.
2. 在Eslpod 中的對話文章裡 有黑粗體字部份 ，也就是每週 這裡有 綠色 箭頭的字 >> Eslpod會有外國老師 解釋它，請將聽到的解釋 儘量的寫出來
3. 貼上這裡 或以私人訊息傳過來
4. 登入 SKYPE 對話練習，依照對話文章互相演練
5. 於Skype 中互相討論 ，並比較彼此間的聽寫是否正確，意見分享 儘量以英文對話.
6. 造句練習，以熟悉字的使用
7. 針對比較可能不熟悉的字與詞 作記錄 以便雙週或一個月後作重複習 登載個人記錄.

ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings
When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00


Audio conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 782 – Expressing Bitter Feelings - listen to >> - ESLPOD 782


manipulators >>
monumentally awful >>
bitter >>
get over it >>
jaded >>
absolute >>
reconciliation >>
walked all over me >>
iota >>
persona non grata! >>

Session 1:
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Taipei City May 1 demanding improved workplace safety and better protection of labor rights.

The crowd of laborers, medical personnel, temporary workers, unionists and college students used International Workers’ Day to raise issues including irregular shifts, overwork, stagnant wages, skyrocketing housing prices and unfair tax schemes.

“The use of dispatch workers should be prohibited across all sectors,” said Shih Chao-hsien, president of the Taiwan Confederation of Trade Unions, calling the common practice of replacing full-time employees with temporary ones a compromise of labor rights. Taiwan has around 600,000 dispatch workers, sources said.

The TCTU also urged authorities to better monitor working conditions to avoid work-related injuries. “The Legislature should approve revisions to the Labor Safety and Health Act and the bill protecting workers with occupational injuries as soon as possible,” he added.

Echoing recent online criticism from a Taiwanese nurse on the inhumanely long shifts in hospitals, medical workers also spoke out. “As a result of personnel shortages, many doctors and nurses are required to work up to 120 hours per week, more than twice what is allowed by labor laws,” a protestor said. “This is no way to provide high-quality medical care.”

Housing prices and workers’ pay also came under attack. “While our average wages have remained fixed over the past decade, real estate prices have nearly doubled,” said Peng Yang-kai, spokesman for the Social Housing Promotion Alliance.

In response to the demands, the Council of Labor Affairs said in a news release that it will continue to monitor working conditions and push for a special act to regulate the use of dispatch workers. (THN)

Questions:
1. Do you or someone you know have to work overtime? Share your story.
2. HTC(宏達電) requires its employees to work overtime (especially RD field, no overtime pay). Would you consider to quit your job if it requires you to work from 9AM to 10PM, without overtime pay?
3. The nurses are happy to have 20% increases of their salary ($8000 more a month) in one of the hospitals in Taiwan. If you are one of them, do you think it's fair enough?
4. Do you think you are a more competitive person to others if you work overtime?
5. Please suggestion solutions to the overworking problem.

Session 2:
When Buying a Car, Ladies Are Tougher Customers
You know how ladies don't know anything about cars and need a man to help them through even the simplest purchase? Surprise: this is bullshit.

Actually, a study by LeaseTrader found that women tend to ask more questions and order more inspections than men do. The company looked at 2011 out-of-state lease transfers, in which the car is in a different location than the buyer, so he or she may not be able to check it out in person. Women were more likely than men to pay a third party to inspect the car for them when they had to buy sight unseen — 67.2% of them asked for such an inspection, compared to 54.5% of men. The difference was biggest among buyers between 21 and 30 — just 42.3% of twentysomething men asked for inspections, compared with 78.2% of women. Ladies also asked different questions than men did — they were more likely to ask for specifics about the car's safety, history, and functioning, whereas guys were more likely to ask about performance, looks, and technology. Says LeaseTrader CEO Sergio Stiberman, "That our data illustrates a deepening relationship between women and cars comes as no surprise to us given that the gender gap has narrowed and even reversed in some areas since our marketplace opened nearly 15 years ago."

It's a bit of a cliche that guys care about rims and ladies just want airbags, but the data above don't just show soccer moms asking about the safety of their minivans. They also indicate that women, especially younger women, are better at doing due diligence when they have to buy a car from somewhere far away. Maybe women are more cautious car buyers, or maybe their fear of playing into the car-ignorant lady stereotype makes them especially concerned about crossing all their t's. And maybe some dudes feel they have enough automotive expertise to forgo the third-party inspection — but even for a pretty savvy buyer, it's hard to tell what you're getting if you never test-drive or look under the hood. It would be interesting to see a followup study examining how satisfied male and female buyers feel with their cars after they get them. Do women's extra steps actually pay off? It's not yet clear, but given the choice, I know who I'd feel safer riding with.

Questions:
6. If you were about to buy your first car, what would be your main specifics and preferences?
If you are not interested to buy a car, share your other preferences on something you are about to make a purchase, such as clothing, shampoo, etc.
7. After reading the article, do you still believe ladies need a man's help to buy a car?
8. When going to a food market(菜市場), do you try to knock the price off (殺價), and bargain with the seller? Do you have any tactics to share with your group?

Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

It is a link about the usage of the verb. Hope you can learn something from it.

http://blog.yam.com/bensblog/article/21348547

Date:April,26th,2012

Host: FRED LEE

Topic:Getting Paid to Procreate in Taiwan: Is $640 Enough?

In China, overpopulation has led to a one-child rule for many couples. Its neighbor, Taiwan, has the opposite problem: Its birthrate dropped to a record low last year. With less than 20,000 babies born, moms and dads will soon get paid to procreate.
Starting next year, the Taiwanese government will pay couples 20,000 New Taiwanese Dollars — about $640— for each new citizen they produce.
Officials aren’t stopping there; they are also considering the possibility of subsidizing fertility treatments to encourage would-be parents to make more babies. Top brass in the Interior Ministry are mulling a plan to offer annual subsidies of up to $4,800 to offset fertility treatments, reports Agence France-Presse, citing Taipei’s Apple Daily. (More on Time.com: 5 Pregnancy Taboos Explained (or Debunked))
The government is slated to vote on the proposal — which is anticipated to yield 3,000 babies a year — later this month. Last year, 191,310 babies were born in Taiwan, which amounted to a 3.74% drop from the year before. It may not sound like much, but it’s got the government atwitter because of the discrepancy between the average Taiwanese birthrate — 1.03 for a couple — and the population replacement rate, which is 2.1. Too few babies now means too few workers down the road. (To make child-rearing even more appealing, Taiwan already offers a babysitting subsidy. Apparently, it is not doing the trick.)

The unique approach to baby-making may turn out to be little more than a nice, if superficial, gesture. Diapers alone in the first year can tally $600, and in-vitro fertilization can top $15,000 — at least in the U.S.

Read more:

http://life.chinatimes.com/2009Cti/Chan ... 83,00.html

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/ ... 16,00.html


Section I
Question & Discussion
1. Do you want to have a baby in the future?Why or why not?
2. Do you think raising a pet can replace kids to accompany you through out your elderly stage ? why or why not.
3. Have you ever had a pet? Share your experience about that.


Section II
Let’s play a GAME about guess the words!

Rules:
I’ll devide you into two groups, each groups have a volunteer to guess the words I show you. The group members are all the helper to explain the words. The words are from the Chinese idiom or Chinese old saying.The most words you have answered in a team is a winner. Let’s have a competition!

(5/3)(Thu.)Titanic & My Heart Will Go On （Host:Penny）

Session 1 Titanic (From 空中英語教室2012/4/13)
This week the world remembers the famous ship's historic joureny.

April 13
Titanic, the largest passenger ship of its time,set out on its maiden voyage one hundred years ago this week.
Famous long before it set sail,this "ship of dreams "offered the finest luxuries of its day.
Scheduled to sail from Southampton,England,to New York City. Titanic welcomed passengers from all walks of life.
No doubt,each one boarding the ship on April 10,1912,was filled the excitement and cofidence.
This confidence existed because Titanic was said by all to be "unsinkable."

In their own words
Seven-year-old Eva Hart's mother had a premonition that something terrible would occur.
Frightened and awake,Mrs.Hart felt the impact and notified her husband. According to Eva,
"He put my mother and me in a lifeboat, and we never saw him again."

Amazing survival stories
Others,though,survived despite the odds. Crew member Frank Prentice held onto the railing as the stern lifted up out of the water.
"I was hanging on , getting higher and higher in the air, and i dropped in and hit the water with a terrific crack."Prentice was
rescued by a nearby lifeboat.
The ship's barber,K. Whiteman was blown off the ship by an explosion and was eventually rescued from the freezing waters.

A false sense of security
According the Edwina Mackenzie,"You could not get people to go on lifeboats.They felt safer on the Titanic....
But as we were rowing away, we could see the Titqanic gradually sinking .... That scream of death was worse than and sound."
A trip that had begun as a dream come true ended in a nightmare 100 years ago today.

walks of life n 行業
maiden voyage n. 首航
unsinkable adj. 不會沉沒的
premonition n.預感
stern n 船尾


Session 1 Questions :
1 、Have you ever seen this movie (Titanic ) ? Do you like it ?
Will you see that again in the movie theater when it adds 3D effects ?

2、Think about the love story in this movie ....it was romantic and touch us ....
If they both alive....
What kind of live they will be....?

3、Have you ever took a cruise like Titanic?...please share the experience for us....
If you have not .........Do you want to travel with a cruise?.....Where will you most want to go?

PS: Titanic Museum Introduction
http://tw.travel.yahoo.com/topic/tw-travel.yahookimo.com.tw/13348276126044



Sessions 2 English Songs :
The movie theme song of Titanic is "My Heart Will Go On"....
It was sang by "Celine Dion"....
I search it on WiKi ...let me introduce something :

"My Heart Will Go On" is the main theme song to the 1997 blockbuster film Titanic.
With music by James Horner, lyrics by Will Jennings, and production by Simon Franglen, James Horner and Walter Afanasieff, it was recorded by Céline Dion.
Originally released in 1997 on the Titanic soundtrack album and Dion's album Let's Talk About Love, the song went to number 1 all over the world, including the United States, Ireland, United Kingdom and Australia.
"My Heart Will Go On" was released in Australia and Germany on December 8, 1997, and in the rest of the world in January and February 1998.

It became Dion's biggest hit, and one of the best-selling singles of all time, and was the world's best-selling single of 1998.

if you want to see the detail you can see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/My_Heart_Will_Go_On


and I can search the song on youtube ...please listen the beautiful music
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWl7FtfrR0w&feature=fvsr


Session 2 Questions 2 :
1、What kind of English songs do you favorite ?
2、Do you agree Movies releated to movie theme songs?
3、Please share some songs for us which was be movie theme song.....
(I will group 5 tables , when we finished the discussion ...
I need Each group will introduce at least 1 song to us ....
You can introduce some elements of the song , such as :Who sang ? Which movie ..?And What kind of stories of this song.)



Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients

When you finished read and listening, please write your dictation down and paste on our forum or you can send private message, then we can compare with.
Discuss session will be on skype (jack1026m) Tuesday 21:00 - 22:00

Audio and completed conversation please click link below:
(right click and open it in new window)
ESL Podcast 784 – Socializing With Clients - listen to >> - ESLPOD 784
Audio Download >> MP3:- ESLPOD 784

Dictation: (聽寫練習)

expense account >>
can’t wait to wine and dine our clients >>
to win over >>
slush fund >>
Schmoozing >>
charity events to rub elbows >>
elite >>
booze >>
plates of rubber chicken >>

Because of the outing activity, we will cancel the meeting of this Saturday (April 28).

Outing activity : Journey to Keelung to eat sea food.
Date : April 28 (Saturday), by電聯車 from
a) 板橋火車站 1212車次 – 13:32 or
b) 台北火車站 1212 車次 – 13:45 arrive Keelung at 14:29

Please reserve your seat with William in advance.

Hi, everyone,
Following the gentle order of Royal Father (William) and warm support from Jason, Rock, and Michael, I arrange the hosting schedule as follows:
6/7 Morris
6/14 Jason
6/21 Michael
6/28 Rock

Thank you for your support.

Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Children may be solution to kicking alcohol addiction, April 29, 2012, TWN, The China Post news staff

Many families have been broken and loved ones killed or maimed in tragic road accidents in Taiwan, and the culprits are often motorists who hit the bottle, hit the road and hit something else. Last year, 419 people were killed and close to 200 were seriously injured in road accidents caused by drivers operating vehicles while under the influence (DUI) of alcohol and other substances. It was the cause of up to 30 percent of fatal car crashes in northern Taiwan. In the first nine months of 2012, DUI was blamed for 32 percent of the fatal road accidents in the northeastern county of Yilan. The “best-remembered” case last year involved a female firefighter. The then-27-year-old Lai Wen-li was hit by a drunk driver during a traffic callout when she was trying to help a person injured in an earlier crash. Lai had to have her leg amputated. In recognition of her courage and dedication to her job as a lifesaver, the Legislature named an amendment to the criminal code after her, calling it the “Lai Wen-li Clause.” The amendment raises the penalty for drivers under the influence of drugs, anesthetics, alcohol or similar substances to two years of imprisonment, detention, or a fine of NT$200,000 (US$6,625). In a stern statement before the passage of the amendment, Minister of Justice Tseng Yung-fu (曾勇夫) said he would direct the country's prosecutors to seek the maximum penalties for offenders in order to deter drunk driving. “Don't drink if you want to drive,” he warned. The public's memory is short. And many of those who drink simply would not need Tseng's admonition. National Police Agency statistics show that in the first three months of 2012, a total of 88,034 drunk drivers were caught.

It appears that severe punishments, or simply their threat, are not working. DUI is here to stay. The government may try other methods, such as raising the cost of alcohol retail licenses, tripling the tax on both locally brewed and imported spirits, wines, and even beers, or deploying more road blocks manned by police officers equipped with breathalyzer kits. But one doubts these measures would work beyond the immediate aftermath of another appalling DUI accident. It appears that the problem has so far resisted solutions because a cultural aspect to it has been overlooked. Drinking, especially the drinking of hard alcohol, is deeply ingrained and even encouraged in the Chinese culture. Think of state banquets. During his Beijing visit in 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon downed a shot of the notorious Maotai, a fiery, sorghum-based sprit to the thunderous applause of his Chinese hosts. The story is still remembered by many. At the Chinese dinner table, drinking is encouraged, especially in households presided over by an elderly pair of grandparents. The grandfather and the mother would not normally eat their staple food, noodle for northerners and rice for southerners, until round after round of hard spirits, often the over-50-percent alcohol Kaoliang. And they encourage youngsters to drink early. First, they let them sample such drinks with the tip of a chopstick, and then they egg them on for more. Treating a guest to a dinner, especially if he or she is a foreigner new to the country, without talking him or her into imbibing some, is unthinkable.
The repetitious calls for “bottoms up” are considered a show of hospitality and camaraderie. In the popular martial arts romances, the drinking man is glorified. There is even a school of martial arts called drunken boxing. When the family pays homage to its deceased ancestors and forbears, alcohol is indispensable. It is plausible to say that if children raised in such a culture are not more susceptible to alcoholism, they would likely to be more tolerant of the habit, because their “role models” at home and in the realm of imagination effectively remind us of the “horseback roughnecks” in the commercial of a certain brand of cigarettes. This might sound corny, but might ultimately prove to be useful in our search for a solution to the DUI problem: Let us teach our children, at home and at school, that alcohol can be as bad as nicotine. And let us tell them to nag their hard-drinking parents into giving up their overindulgence. As a matter of fact, school pupils are some of the best fighters in the battle against smoking. Many longtime addicts have kicked their habit after succumbing to the nagging of their school-age children and their frowns and nasty looks. And then, if we really cannot teach our children about the harm of hard drinking, we had better not encourage them to try it.

Coverage of Light of Taiwan's affair leaves media looking dim,
April 28, 2012 ,TWN, The China Post news staff

Taiwan has been rather gloomy over the past few days, with the “Light of Taiwan” dimming after apologizing for his extramarital affair that lasted eight long months with a Taiwanese woman. The local media, however, are partly to blame for local fans' profound negative outlook toward Chien-Ming Wang's (王建民) private life. The scandal began in summer 2010 when Wang, Taiwan's most famous pitcher to have made it big in the Major League, was at his lowest both mentally and physically. Wang was undergoing rehabilitation from a shoulder surgery in Florida when “Cyndi,” a Taiwanese woman who worked part-time at local bars, entered his life from an encounter at a local nightclub. Wang made a public confession and official apology over his affair on April 23 in the U.S., hours before a Chinese-language newspaper ran a front-page story showing Wang and Cyndi cuddling and kissing. It is said that Wang had initially intended to make the public appearance at a later date, but was forced to make his confession early after discovering that the Taiwanese media had already obtained details of his affair. Insiders know, however, that the main reason behind Wang stepping up should be to defend his “clean” image, which is what matters from the perspectives of his sponsors and endorsers. After all, Wang's private life is none of the public's business, and when his wife — with whom he has been wed to for nine years — has agreed to forgive him, what is there to be excused by the public? While Wang's exceptional athletic abilities granted him recognition and fame, his positive image as a family man was what landed him the endorsements, and is exactly what he sought to hold on to through publicly apologizing for the affair.

Wang's apology is well accepted, as both men and women alike revere him for his courage to admit, confront, and humbly take responsibility over the “mistake.” Men, especially, claim to understand that what Wang did was “something all men in the world might have done,” as internationally renowned kung fu actor Jackie Chan claimed after his own extramarital affair was revealed in 1999. Unlike what typically happens when rumors of juicy gossip begin floating around, the Taiwanese media did not make an exceptionally big deal out of Wang's affair. Instead, the scandal was soft-toned, with most remarks focusing on how difficult Wang's recovery days must have been for him to have sought comfort with Cyndi, who is “not hot,” commentators on television news programs and netizens judged. Many expressed disappointment in Wang's taste, commenting with more bitterness on Cyndi's looks than Wang having an affair in and of itself. Peering at an enlarged photograph of Wang's head against Cyndi's, a commentator mockingly said on an evening news program that it is hard to believe that Wang had fallen for someone with such “improvable appearance and style.” Netizens flooded online forums with cynical comments of how Cyndi looked more like a barfly lacking in elegance than someone who could match up to Wang. The bitterness and disappointment many felt and expressed toward the scandal actually stems from high expectations for Wang, which have been built up by the Taiwanese media through beautifying the sportsman's image. Wang is Taiwan's highest-profile Major League Baseball pitcher and an ideal athlete with great affection for his family; he is the “Light of Taiwan,” the role model Taiwanese children look up to. The media needs Wang to continuously be the example of a successful Taiwanese person, and Cyndi has become the scapegoat that will allow Wang's legend to go on. No affair can last if affection is single-sided, yet the Taiwanese media is lifting the blame off Wang — or somehow manipulating it so it weighs lighter on him — by attacking Cyndi. As incomprehensible as it is, the fact that Cyndi's appearance is where most attacks have been directed reveals how desperately the Taiwanese media need to re-evaluate the values they have been constructing and imposing on the public.

(5/10)(Thu.)Technology stems from humanity（Host:Penny）
Session 1 : How Steve Jobs Changed Our Lives, Around The World
by: admin Steve Jobs in 2007 (acaben)
LE MONDE/Worldcrunch
http://worldcrunch.com/how-steve-jobs-changed-our-lives-around-world/3892


Le Monde remembers the Apple founder, as a corporate executive who was always more than a businessman.
His gift was to see the ways that the latest technology could enter into ordinary lives.

PARIS - Flowers in the night, candles –a few tears, too… in front of electronic stores!
Has the world we’re living in become so consumer-oriented that only capitalist heroes manage to bring us to tears?
No. Steve Jobs, who died Wednesday at the age of 56, was indeed much more than a brilliant CEO.

The Apple co-founder has changed the world.
His work has transformed the lives of millions of people across the planet in a much more tangible way than many heads of state ever will.
His death has triggered a frenzy of reactions, from official and anonymous sources alike,
that go beyond even the honors usually reserved for globetrotting rock stars.

It even reached China, where an estimated 35 million mourning microblogging messages could be read by noon on Thursday on Sina Weibo,
China’s equivalent of Twitter.
The American entrepreneur’s genius consisted in being able to manipulate technology in order to implant it in everyday life.
While many post-war computer manufacturers had launched into a race for power, performance and technical prowess,
the Silicon Valley man’s sole ambition was to create simple and useful products.
Granted, the computer mouse was not invented by Apple;
but the company was the first to come up with the idea of producing a personal computer -- the Macintosh -- with a mouse.
That was back in 1984.
A myth in the making MP3 players were likewise not invented by Apple, nor were online music stores,
but the 2001 launching of the iPod and the iTunes digital media store managed to capture generations of customers that record music companies thought were lost forever.
Mobile broadband, touch screens, online services – all had already existed for years,
but the Californian brand is the one that succeeded in providing the average man with the whole package,
with the introduction of the iPhone in 2007, the App Store in 2008 and the iPad in 2010.
Steve Jobs fashioned landmark products that have made industrial history, the way other great inventions have over the centuries.
His success is all the more symbolic that it is coincides with the mythology of Silicon Valley. He was a 21-year-old college dropout when he created Apple in 1976, together with his friend, Steve Wozniak.
Every step of his original career contributed to make him one of the most outstanding chairman of all time,
including his legendary comeback in 1997 to return as CEO of “his” company, 12 years after having been sacked by shareholders.
So even before he became a worldwide superstar, he was already a worldwide super-manager. He used everything globalization could offer him.
The Taiwanese company Foxconn, the world's largest maker of electronic components, f
amous for manufacturing iPhone and iPad’s components on Chinese territory, is a key to this success.
Foxconn –and even Apple—employees know this for a fact. Jobs’ occasionally unrealistic demands, it must be said,
have sparked some fits of social unrest.
But ultimately, Steve Jobs will be remembered as one of our era’s greatest inventors;
and as such, we pause today to pay our respects before this most modern sort of global royalty.
Read the original story in French
Photo - acaben
All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with Le Monde
October 6th, 2011 - 16:10

More readings:
http://nccc.cool3c.com/article/50244


Session 1 Questions :
1、Have you ever used smart phone?
Do you think how did it changed your lives?
If you don't have any smart phone , why don't you want ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of smart phone...........

3、Please watch this TED speaking video...this is Steve Jobs's speaking ..... and share your dream live for us ..........
How to live before you die.....
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc[/youtube]


Session 2 :Facebook used to foil suicides
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2012/04/27/2003531399

More readings:
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2012/04/05/2003529508



Session 2 Questions :
1、Have you ever used Facebook ? What kind of things do you always post on FB?
If you don't want to use , why ?

2、Try to think about pros and cons of Facebook.......

3、 Compare the people of this photo....What kind of live do you like ? Why ?






Agenda
7:00-7:25 Greetings and free talk
7:25-7:30 Opening remarks/ Newcomers self-introduction/ Grouping
(Session I)
7:30 ~ 8:05pm discussion session (35 mins)
8:05 ~ 8:20pm summarization (15 mins)
8:20 ~ 8:25pm Regrouping & instruction giving
(Session II)
8:25 ~ 8:35pm Taking a 10 minutes break (Intermission)
8:35 ~ 9:10pm discussion session (35 mins)
9:10 ~9:25pm summarization (15 mins)
9:25 ~ 9:30pm Concluding remarks/feedback from newcomers

The new meeting place of Thursday:
摩斯漢堡明曜店 (地下室)
捷運資訊： 近台北捷運 - 板南線 - 忠孝敦化站 (步行約5分鐘)
http://www.ipeen.com.tw/shop/32318/

只要一百元起即可暢遊北海岸 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%A5%BD%E8%A1%8C-%E7%99%BE%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E6%9A%A2%E9%81%8A%E5%8C%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8-213000257.html

..

台灣好行 百元起暢遊北海岸
.-字
+字
.作者： 黃如萍╱台北報導 | 中時電子報 – 2012年5月4日 上午5:30.. .



.
.

中國時報【黃如萍╱台北報導】

到淺水灣喝咖啡、野柳地質公園看女王頭或到金山逛朱銘美術館，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線開跑，不必再自行開車，只要一百元即可暢遊北海岸。還有結合美術館、溫泉泡湯券、火車票、船票或下午茶等六種套票，一日遊只要一九九元起。

交通部觀光局北海岸及觀音山國家風景區管理處長陳美秀表示，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線全線十二個景點，淺水灣、白沙灣、朱銘美術館、鄧麗君長眠的筠園、可遠眺雙燭嶼的獅頭山公園等景點，民眾一券在手，可盡情漫遊濱海公路。

歡慶皇冠北海岸線開行，北觀處也祭出五七折的一九九元優惠套票，台灣好行巴士票加朱銘美術館門票，還有北海岸紀念品，限量一千組！

北觀處並同步推出一九九元至六三三元等不同組合的六種超值套票，讓旅遊變得更輕鬆、簡單，預期今年將可吸引廿萬人搭乘，觀光產值可達台幣兩億元。民眾可上皇冠北海岸線官網、或在雄獅旅行社火車站、忠孝旗艦、板橋、市府轉運站等四家門市購買套票。
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Facebook 馬上按讚 加入Yahoo!奇摩新聞粉絲團

只要一百元起即可暢遊北海岸 http://tw.news.yahoo.com/%E5%8F%B0%E7%81%A3%E5%A5%BD%E8%A1%8C-%E7%99%BE%E5%85%83%E8%B5%B7%E6%9A%A2%E9%81%8A%E5%8C%97%E6%B5%B7%E5%B2%B8-213000257.html
http://www.necoast-nsa.gov.tw/user/Article.aspx?Lang=1&SNo=04004562..

台灣好行 百元起暢遊北海岸
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.作者： 黃如萍╱台北報導 | 中時電子報 – 2012年5月4日 上午5:30.. .



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中國時報【黃如萍╱台北報導】

到淺水灣喝咖啡、野柳地質公園看女王頭或到金山逛朱銘美術館，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線開跑，不必再自行開車，只要一百元即可暢遊北海岸。還有結合美術館、溫泉泡湯券、火車票、船票或下午茶等六種套票，一日遊只要一九九元起。

交通部觀光局北海岸及觀音山國家風景區管理處長陳美秀表示，台灣好行皇冠北海岸線全線十二個景點，淺水灣、白沙灣、朱銘美術館、鄧麗君長眠的筠園、可遠眺雙燭嶼的獅頭山公園等景點，民眾一券在手，可盡情漫遊濱海公路。

歡慶皇冠北海岸線開行，北觀處也祭出五七折的一九九元優惠套票，台灣好行巴士票加朱銘美術館門票，還有北海岸紀念品，限量一千組！

北觀處並同步推出一九九元至六三三元等不同組合的六種超值套票，讓旅遊變得更輕鬆、簡單，預期今年將可吸引廿萬人搭乘，觀光產值可達台幣兩億元。民眾可上皇冠北海岸線官網、或在雄獅旅行社火車站、忠孝旗艦、板橋、市府轉運站等四家門市購買套票。
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Meeting place : Dante coffee Shop (丹堤咖啡), MRT板南線 - 新埔站2號出口, next to 7-Seven, 板橋民生路二段237 號, tel: 2255-8132

Students prep on amino acid drips, 2012-05-08,Zheng Jinran ( China Daily)

More than 20 high school students in Hubei province had intravenous infusions of amino acids in their classroom in the hopes of providing extra energy to prepare for the national college entrance examination scheduled for early June. The infusions, which doctors said were neither necessary nor wise, raise concerns about the health of students and the fierce competition in education. Several pictures were uploaded to the Internet showing dozens of infusion bags hanging over the heads of a group of students in a classroom at Hubei Xiaogan No 1 High School on Friday night. The lights were on in the classroom and books were piled up high on the students' desks. Some students were receiving infusions while doing their homework. "The fluid in the infusion bags was amino acids to power up the students. They took such an infusion of their own accord," said an official surnamed Xia from the school, Changjiang Times reported on Sunday. The official also said that it was getting hot, so many students felt uncomfortable, asking for the infusion. But the school clinic did not have enough room for them, making them take the infusion in their classroom. But many doctors said the infusions can do nothing positive and could be harmful. "Infusion of amino acids is not necessary at all for students in good health," said Gao Huiying, chief physician with the Chinese Nutrition Society. "Amino acids serve as the building blocks of proteins, while excessive intake of protein will increase the burden on the kidneys and cause a loss of calcium." Furthermore, intravenous infusion may cause an adverse reaction of the body, such as trembling and sweating.

"What they need is to keep a balanced diet. If they need more energy, they can have extra meals," she said. Chen Ting, a doctor with the People's Liberation Army 455 Hospital in Shanghai, echoed Gao. "Having intravenous infusion in the classroom violates the principle of keeping the environment germ-free. Such an infusion at all is unwise," Chen said. The pictures of the students receiving the infusions became a hot topic online. Many netizens commented that they understood the students' burning desire to make their bodies perfect during exam preparation because their performance at the college entrance examination may decide the rest of their lives. But many others called them crazy and blamed the examination for their behavior. For example, a netizen from Beijing with the name "Mozhisiyu" commented on her micro blog that the country's education system makes them use such extreme ways to prepare for the examination. "I don't think it's inappropriate at all," one of the students in that classroom, a 17-year-old student who would only go by the surname Chi, told China Daily. "Students preparing for the college entrance examination at our school began to take infusions of amino acids years ago and some of them took them more than twice." "Some people's misunderstanding and criticism makes us unhappy and disturbs our preparation.

The examination is coming in a month and it's urgent we need to keep our minds at ease. Please give us more tolerance." "It (infusion) may not have an immediate effect to make us more energetic during the tense preparation, but at least it brings us some kind of psychological comfort that we have more power to move on," she said, while admitting she felt nothing improved after the infusion, and she still felt exhausted. Teachers in the school also supported the students taking an infusion of amino acids. Chi said it was the teachers who fixed iron wires in the classroom to hang the infusion bags. And many parents also asked the school to give extra amino acids for their exhausted children. Chi said her teacher told them that the school had received some subsidies from the central government that made such infusions much cheaper, and they only had to pay 10 yuan ($1.60) per bag if they took it from the school clinic, while it may cost at least 50 yuan outside. The school declined to make any comment when interviewed by China Daily. zhengjinran@chinadaily.com.cn

Life not sweet for Philippines' sugar cane child workers,By Kyung Lah, CNN, May 2, 2012

(CNN) -- Barefoot and covered in dirt and sweat, 14-year-old Dante Campilan pulls weeds from orderly rows of sugar cane. Wearing an oversized red cap to protect him from the scorching Philippine sun, Dante is doing work that should be reserved for men, not children.
Earning 150 pesos ($3.50) for a seven-hour day, Dante has been a child laborer in the Philippine region of Mindanao since he was seven years old. He says he does it to help his parents, but he is just one of many children who are part of an illegal economic system of child labor. The International Labor Organization (ILO) estimates 2.4 million child workers are in the Philippines. Many of them, according to the ILO, are in rural areas working in fields and mines. The organization estimates 60% work in hazardous conditions. Alongside Dante is 13-year-old Alvic James, who dropped out of school when he was in the first grade. Back then, he explained, his family didn't have enough money to eat. Alvic says he wants to learn to read and write but because he is needed in the fields he has no time to go to school. When the boys turn 15 or 16, they'll move on to the more hazardous job of cutting sugar cane. That's currently the job of 16-year-old Elmar Paran, who hasn't been to school since he was a young child, sentencing him to a future in the fields. The use of child laborers in the sugar fields of Northern Mindanao is so common that landowner Angeles Penda shrugs it off as a way of life. "The parents beg us to include their children to work," she said. Much of the sugar produced in the fields here ends up in coffee shops, on kitchen tables and on store shelves across the world.

"We do not deny that child labor exists in our industry," said Edith Villanueva, the president and COO of the Sugar Industry Foundation. "It's a practice among families who are paid piecemeal for their work. They like to employ their children because there's more income for the families."
Villanueva said that paying workers more so they're not tempted to use their children has not worked in the past. She cites the strong cultural ties of families working together in the fields as one of the main problems. "If you don't change their attitude and their values, then you don't change their way of life. There's a long-term solution and it's really education. We feel children should want to go to school, they should be kept in school, and aware of the rights of the children, the rights of the child to go to school and the right of the child to play," she said. The child labor problem is so overt and widespread in this region that Villanueva says the Sugar Industry Foundation and the Coca-Cola Foundation are paying to build a four-room high school that is set to open later this month. The Coca-Cola company is one of the largest buyers of sugar in the world and the sugar factories fed by the fields of Northern Mindanao call Coca-Cola one of their main customers. In a statement to CNN, Coca-Cola said it "does not support, encourage or endorse any form of child labor in our operations throughout our global bottling system or in our supplier network."The company says it conducts continuous assessments of its operations to ensure strong policies and practices are in place to help avoid child labor. In September 2010, the Coca-Cola Foundation says it joined a coalition of the local government, the ILO and private industry to remove children from sugarcane fields with the hope of eradicating child labor in the Bukidnon region. The Philippines government has also pledged to reduce child labor by 75% by 2015. By then Dante will be 17-years-old. It's more likely that he will have graduated to cutting sugar cane than high school.

Hi everybody,
Joseph had set up a FB group 2 months ago.
I think it can be the other platform for our member to use.
If you have FB account, Please join us.
Address as below:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/122922191164800/
You can find many new information or message from that.
We also can communicate via this FB group.