Early Movies 早期電影

If you like movies, maybe you will like to learn about a very interesting Frenchman called Georges Méliès on the Sunday morning blog:

http://cute-sunday-morning.blogspot.com/2011/11/famous-french-people-georges-melies.html

校慶停課一天

提醒同學11月13日是中國科技大學校慶，因此停課一次

Fiction In Action : Whodunit

After our midterm, we will be reading the first story in Fiction In Action : Whodunit, a free-to-share textbook. This book has a Creative Commons license. This means:

1] You can download this book (click on "Download now"), make copies of it and share it with your friends,

BUT

2] you must keep the writers' names on the book (you cannot say that you wrote this book!)
AND
3] you cannot sell it
OR
4] change it

You can learn more about Creative Commons in English, in Standard Chinese or, just for fun, (very briefly) in Bân-lâm-gú (romanized Minnan Dialect 閩南語). 

Whodunit is not completely "free,"  but you can read it first without paying. If you like it, please go back to the download page in January. Use Google Checkout to give the writers some money.

You can pay whenever you want to and you can pay a little ($1~$2) or a bit more ($10~$20). It's up to you. Please encourage the authors.

Your homework is to read and think about Chapter 1 of The Inverted Eagle (pages 4~17) for the main idea. Don't use your dictionary to look up every word. First, just enjoy the story.

"What did she say?"-- How to "Catch" Song Lyrics

Listening to old songs is a pleasant way to learn some new words. Some songs can also help you learn correct rhythm. "Amado Mio" is a lovely song I heard a few weeks ago on the radio. I couldn't understand all of the words, but I wanted to learn this song. Have you ever had this problem?

Here is one way to find the unknown words in a song (= lyrics) and also the name of the song:

1) Find a short phrase (10 words or less) where the words are very clear. In this song, "Love me forever, And let forever begin tonight" is very clear. The last five words are very special.

2) Type the short phrase into Google. Be sure to put quotation marks before and after the phrase. Then add the word lyrics.

English Grammar -- Give money. Sister hungry.

What is grammar? Grammar has two important parts: 

1] Where we put words and 

2] How words change shape (they look or sound different)

Every language has two kinds of words: 實字Content words (N, VB, ADJ, ADV) and 虛字Function words (Preposition, determiners, helping verbs etc.). Content words show most of the meaning. Look at these two sentences. A robber is talking:

This is a holdup! (from
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gcfairch/4189169360/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

Here is a beautiful Filipina "robber" (from www.flickr.com/photos/sinabsolution/3509205210/in/photostream). She wants money. Are you afraid?

That's my uncle Benjamin's picture. Really! If you have one of these pictures, you should give it to me. All of this money is mine! ;-) Just kidding! (from http://www.flickr.com/photos/amagill/3366720659/sizes/m/in/photostream/)

The Oxford Bookworms Syllabus explains how these excellent graded readers work.

http://www.oup-bookworms.com/downloads/pdf/oxford_bookworms/syllabus.pdf

There are 7 levels: Starter Level (mostly pictures) and Levels 1-6.

Learn to paraphrase

Use the Macmillan Essential Dictionary every day. Look up words that you already know. This will help you learn to paraphrase.

pets = animals 

       such as cats and dogs

jewelry = objects

such as rings

that的 you wear

as decoration

實字content words: N, VB, ADJ, ADV

虛字function words: ALL other words

Chinese Grammar (Topic-Comment) VS English Grammar (Subject-Verb)

Chinese grammar does not work like English grammar. Chinese uses Topic-Comment chains 話題鏈, but English uses Subjects and Verb Phrases. Chinese doesn't need subjects, but English sentences almost ALWAYS need subjects.

Chinese: 話題 + 評論

English: NP = Noun Phrase; VP = Verb Phrase 動詞組

{我弟弟        1 他很會游泳             2 經常去游泳池         3 去年得了游泳冠軍}

My brother {is a good swimmer.}

He often {goes to the swimming pool.}

Last year he {won the swimming championship.}

{昨天晚上的節目    1 你看了沒有?     2 很有趣       3 家裡人超喜歡}

Did you {see the TV program} last night. It {was very interesting.}My whole family {liked it very much.}

Some more topic comment sentences from Reading Into a New China Integrated Skills for Advanced Chinese, a Chinese textbook for foreigners). I have sometimes changed the English to make it more natural.

3.   這四家超市，空氣品質都有問題。

      These four supermarkets all {have problems with their air quality.}
4. 重慶火車站旅客流量再上高峰。
      The passenger flow rate in Chongqing Train Station {has hit another peak.}
5.   這個計畫，大家都不喜歡.
      Nobody {likes this plan.}
6.   所有的檢票廳都改成了臨時候車室。
      Somebody {converted all the ticket-checking halls to temporary waiting rooms.}

改成 All the ticket-checking halls {were converted to temporary waiting rooms.}
7.   春節期間坐火車就更是難上加難了。
      It {is even more difficult to travel by train} during the Spring Festival Holidays.
8.   火車上擠滿了人。
      There {were many people crowded onto the train.{}

Books near the Dinner Table

In the past, many Americans kept two or three books in the living room or near the dinner table. Can you guess what they are?

Quotations from Mister Matthews-2 (馬語錄-2)

#2 Don’t worry about grammar!

Some people avoid speaking or writing English. They are very afraid of making mistakes.

Their minds are full of ghosts (The ghosts of their junior high school English teachers). 

Don't be afraid of making mistakes. The ghosts cannot punish you for mistakes.

Making mistakes is good. They can help you: "You need to fix this problem."

Learn new grammar and review old grammar, but don’t worry about it.

Just pay attention, practice, practice, practice and you’ll get it.

get 16 [informal] Oh! I get it! (= now I understand!)

I = 降調

(here) ghosts = 陰影