一封员工要求加薪的英文信,以及老板的回信

员工的信

Dear Bo$$
In thi$ life, we all need $ome thing mo$t de$perately. I think you $hould be under$tanding of the need$ of u$ . worker$ who have given $o much $upport including $weat and $ervice to your company.
I am $ure you will gue$$ what I mean and re$pond $oon.
Your$ $incerely,
Marian $hih

第二天,她收到了老板的回信:

Dear Marian
I kNOw you have been working very hard.NOwadays,NOthing much has changed. You must have NOticed that our company is NOt doing NOticeably well as yet.
NOw the newspaper are saying the world`s leading ecoNOmists are NOt sure if the United States may go into aNOther recession. After the NOvember presidential elections things may turn bad.
I have NOthing more to add NOw. You kNOw what I mean.

Yours truly,
Manager

Local man married to his blood sister committed suicide

Local man married to his blood sister committed suicide

by Princess Conswenna

Alex Wang, a 32-year-old man, was found dead in his bedroom by his neighbor Mrs. Li yesterday. According to Mrs. Li, Alex was a nice and helpful man, working in a IT company. He married a woman from the same hometown a month ago. Mrs Li went to their wedding and they were really a happy couple and so made for each other. Nobody could believe he would committ suicide a month later.

The police cordoned off the spot and found a letter from his newly married wife, in which, she said when she went back home after their wedding, she found out Alex was her brother, who was lost at the age of 2. Their mother recognized him from a honey moon picture taken on the sea shore, in which Alex showed his very special birthmark shaped like a three-leg horse on his chest. The mother went to talk to Alexes present parents to confirm it. It turned out it’s true. The happy couple are brother and sister. The bide was desperately sad and decided to leave without telling him where she was going.

Alexes parents came right after they recieved phone call from the police. The four parents cried together for the lost of both children.

两个学习外语的网站

学习一门外语时如果没有语言环境的话,当然离不开多听多看了。今天介绍两个很好的网站,一个是专门用来听的,另一个用来看(当然也包括听)。

第一个:Listen and Write

这个网站是专门用来做听写练习的。

举例说明,单击这里打开一个练习,首先会下载音频,完成后应该会跟下图所示一样:

Listen-and-Write-example可以看到,有两个播放按钮,第一个(Click play to listen all audio at once下面的)用来听全文。第二个(Click play to start dictation…下面的)用来做听写练习。操作其实非常简单,需要注意以下几点:

  • 开始听写后,你只需在下面的小方框里输入你听到的句子就可以了,不需要输入标点符号(有点不好的是像I’m都只需要输入im,我觉得不利于培养初学者正确的英文输入习惯)
  • 它会自动逐个字母地进行检查,如果输入错了它会自动删掉,如果正确的话会一个单词一个单词地显示在上面的大方框里
  • 在当前听的句子全听写完之前,音频会自动循环播放
  • 听写完成后,会在播放完当前这一句之后再播放一遍当前句,之后自动进入下一句
  • 以上说的是在默认情况下。你也可以更改一下如Auto Repeat和Auto Complete之类的选项,让它更符合你的需求。

Listen-and-Write-example注册后还可以查看自己的得分记录等等,也可以自己上传音频并且分段成练习题,和大家一起共享。

第二个:TVWeb360

这个是个在线看电视的网站,前面那个网站可以用做精学工具,而这个就可以作为泛学工具了。

你可以选择不同语言的节目,或者不同国家的节目,也可以根据不同类别来选择喜欢的节目。除了电视节目之外,还有一些地方的摄像头,你可以看到那些地方的实时画面。当然由于种种原因,可能有些节目可能收看不了,那就换台吧。

TVWeb360

怎么利用蹭课网里的应用来学英语?

我和大家一样,也是在探索怎么好好地利用蹭课网来帮大家学习。我先简单说说我关于用本站学习英语的一个想法。

  1. 打开蹭课网后先把“在线广播”打开,然后找一个国外的英文台听,再在新窗口里进行别的操作;
  2. 在“鲜果阅读器”里订阅你感兴趣的所有英文网站,然后就可以不用每次都要打开它们的网站来看最新内容了。操作很简单:
    1. 打开“鲜果阅读器”;
    2. 如果还没有设置过就先按照提示进行注册与绑定,如果已设置好直接看下一步;
    3. 单击右上角的“添加订阅”;
    4. 把你喜欢的网站的RSS地址找到(很多网站都有RSS,比如VOA 慢速英语最新文章的RSS地址:http://www.voanews.com/specialenglish/customCF /RecentStoriesRSS.cfm),填到地址框里,再单击旁边的“添加订阅”就可以了。Tips:很多网站的RSS地址可以被鲜果自动检测 到,你可以直接输入网址就可以了,如:www.time.com
    5. 订好之后阅读器就会在你所订的网站有新的更新时自动获取文章供你阅读了。
  3. 在阅读英文的时候肯定会有生词出现,这时可以在新窗口打开“英汉词典”或者“n词酷”来查单词;
  4. 利用“读书”应用来查找、购买和讨论各种图书,并且在这个应用里你可以看到同一本书在不同的地方买会打多少折,方便你花最少的钱买喜欢的书。
  5. ……

当 然,等我们的用户多起来了之后,大家可以在“去蹭课了!”找到更多的免费课程或者讲座信息,与朋友们相约一起去学习,我也希望大家一起参与进来,用“发起 ”来分享你所知道的信息,我们一起努力把“蹭课网”打造成在娱乐型社交网站成群的中国唯一一个以学习为特色的社交网站!

语音课倒数第二次的综合练习资料

选这篇文章也有我自己的个人喜好的因素,这是VOA Special English的新闻播报节目In The News里当时对Michael Jackson的报道。这篇文章也希望同学们仔细听每个细节,尤其是开始不久那里有一段电话录音,那是最真实的英语。我们一般学习英语的过程中是很难接触到真正的现实生活中的英语的。比如我们大多是从一些英语教学的录音里、电影、电视、收音机等等地方听到的模拟场景的声音,而我们在生活中遇到英语国家的人的时候,他们给我们说话时经常会不由自主地放慢语速,尽量吐字清楚并且使用简单的词汇及句型。所以这篇文章中的那段电话录音是个很好的材料。在那段录音中有这么一句"OK, OK. How old is he?",而实际上我们听到的是"OK, OK. How’di?"这是个很严重的略读现象,并且把is给全省没了,我们要说他发音错了都不为过。而实际上呢,电话另一头的人一点都没有迟疑,立刻回答"He’s uh, he’s 50 years old, sir."。所以各位同学,请放心大胆地把该省的音省掉,该连的音连起来,该弱读的音就弱读。咱们中国人可能听不明白,但只要你不是乱说的,英语为母语的国家的人们反而会感觉到听你的英语很亲切!

点这里下载音频

This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
(MUSIC)
Fans around the world are remembering the man who called himself the King of Pop. Michael Jackson died Thursday in Los Angeles. This was the emergency call from the house where he was living.
CALLER: "We have a gentleman here that needs help and he’s not breathing. He’s not breathing and we’re trying to pump him but he’s not –”
OPERATOR: "OK, OK. How old is he?"
CALLER: "He’s fifty years old, sir."
OPERATOR: "Fifty, OK."
A personal doctor was with him at the house. 
Michael Jackson would have celebrated his fifty-first birthday in August. He was just days from launching what he hoped would be a comeback — a series of fifty concerts in London.
More than seven hundred fifty thousand tickets sold out within hours of going on sale in March. The shows were set to begin July thirteenth. There were questions, though, about whether his health could handle the extended tour.
And after he died there were more questions — this time about his use of painkillers. Medical examiners did an autopsy on Friday, but tests for drugs in the body normally take weeks.
Around the world, fans like this one reacted to news of his death.
WOMAN: "Somebody like Michael Jackson who’s done so much for the world and stuff, you think almost like he’s invincible."
(MUSIC)
"Thriller," his nineteen eighty-two album, earned a place in Guinness World Records as the best selling album of all time. It produced hits like "Beat It" and "Billie Jean."
(MUSIC)
Michael Jackson was born in Gary, Indiana, the seventh of nine children. He was five years old when he and his brothers began performing in the Jackson 5.
He was eleven when they had their first album — "Diana Ross Presents the Jackson 5" — in nineteen sixty-nine. Their album "ABC" followed less than a year later.
(MUSIC)
In nineteen seventy-one, Michael Jackson began his solo career. He went on to sell an estimated seven hundred fifty million albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame — twice.
But as talented and successful as he was, he was also deeply troubled. His behavior and appearance grew increasingly strange. He was heavily in debt.
He was childlike. But in nineteen ninety-three, a thirteen-year-old boy accused him of child molestation. The case was settled out of court. Later, another accusation led to a criminal trial. But four years ago this month a jury cleared him of all charges.
Michael Jackson left his mark on popular culture. His music, his videos, his dance moves and moonwalking, the hand in a sequined white glove, the father of three was even married for a time to Elvis Presley’s daughter. Now, he leaves behind family, friends and fans to mourn his death. In a sad way he did make a comeback. His death has pushed sales of his music back to the top of the charts again.
And that’s IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English, written by June Simms. I’m Steve Ember.

语音课第二次课的综合练习

如题。语音课第二次的综合练习是选自VOA Special English的Words And Their Stories节目。在教材里只是那篇文章的片断。这里我把全文及其音频发出来,供各位同学学习:

点击下载音频

下面是文本内容:

Words and Their Stories: Pulling a Fast One

Now, the VOA Special English program WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

(MUSIC)

Today I will tell about expressions using numbers. Let us start with the number one. Numbers can be tricky. On the one hand, they are simply numbers. On the other hand, they have meanings. I for one use these expressions a lot.

Many people consider themselves number one, the most important person. They are always looking out for number one and taking care of number one. It is as if they are the one and only person on Earth. Some people however, are not so self-centered. My brother is such a person. It is true – no joke. I am not trying to pull a fast one on you.

First, you have to understand that my brother is one in a million. He is such a nice person. All his friends like him. They consider him one of the boys. Recently, my brother had a bad day at the office. It was just one of those days. Nothing went right. So he stopped at a local bar — a drinking place — after leaving work. My brother planned to have a glass of beer with his friends — a quick one – before he went home. But a quick one turned into one or two, and soon those became one too many.

As my brother was leaving, he ordered a last drink — one for the road. His friends became concerned. One by one, they asked him if he was able to drive home safely.

Now my brother is a wise and calm person. He is at one with himself. He recognizes when he has had too much alcohol to drink. So he accepted an offer for a ride home from a female friend.

At one time in the past, my brother had been in love with this woman. She is a great person — kind, thoughtful and intelligent — all good qualities rolled up into one. But sadly their relationship did not work. He always used to say "One of these days, I am going to marry this girl." But that never happened.

For one thing, she did not love him as much as he loved her. It was just one of those things. The situation was regrettable and my brother had to accept it. But even now, he considers her the one that got away.

However, they are still friends. And because my brother had been kind to her, she felt that one good turn deserves another. He was good to her and she wanted to help him in return. So she drove him home.

If my brother had driven home from the bar that night, his number would have been up. Something bad would have happened. Thankfully he made it home safely. And, he and the woman are back to square one. They are back to where they started – being friends.

(MUSIC)

This VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES, was written by Jill Moss. I’m Faith Lapidus.

给语音课的同学的第二个综合练习资料

下载音频

点上面的播放按钮可以在线听。下面是文本(选自《空中英语教室》):

American Parties

By Ruth Devlin

Americans love parties, and most people choose to entertain in their homes. A gathering can be just a small dinner party for friends. Or it may be a big celebration of a special occasion like a birthday or a wedding anniversary.

One special kind of party, called a shower, celebrates an upcoming wedding or birth. Usually only women attend a wedding shower or baby shower. At the party, women “shower” the bride-to-be or mother-to-be with gifts. Everyone plays games, watches the guest of honor open her gifts, and enjoys refreshments.

A potluck is another popular kind of party that can be held for any reason. At a potluck, everyone brings a dish to share. It might be a main dish, salad or dessert. Sometimes the hostess will tell people what kind of food to bring – so everyone won’t bring the same thing.

Whatever the reason for the party, people enjoy sharing food and conversation with their friends.

American_Parties.MP3

给语音课同学们的资料

语音班的同学不好意思,这两天不在公司,所以没有及时把资料发布出来。下面是那节课的音频资料和软件下载地址:

音频下载

软件下载

再附上文字:

‘Hair’ – More Than a Rock Musical

02 May 2009
 

Now, the VOA Special English program, WORDS AND THEIR STORIES.

A listener named Rita wants to learn about expressions with the word "hair." So we will tell a story.

Yesterday when I woke up, I looked in a mirror.  I looked very neat and organized.  Not a hair was out of place.  But today when I woke up, I knew I was going to have a bad hair day.  My hair was standing up in all the wrong places.  I thought I would be unhappy all day and things would not go well. I work at home so I just hoped that my computer would work right and not have a bad hair day also.      

An advertisement for the musical "Hair"
An advertisement for the musical "Hair"

I was very tired because I did not sleep well last night. I made the mistake of watching a horror movie on television.  The movie really made my hair stand on end.  It was about a house possessed by evil spirits. The thought of having to live alone in a house like that was so frightening it was enough to curl your hair. I will say it another way: watching that movie was a hair-raising experience.

I prepared a meal for my children but they were behaving badly. I turned on the television so they would be quiet. I did not want them to be difficult or to get in my hair while I was working on the computer.

My children were making so much noise that I could not work.  I was getting angry.  In fact, I was ready to pull my hair out.  I told them to please be quiet or I would punish them. But they knew I would not harm a hair on their heads.

I decided to make myself some strong coffee so I could work better. But my drink was so strong that it could put hair on your chest. 

Finally, I got back to work. I was writing a proposal for a project. I knew that I was very close to finishing the proposal.  Success was very close – within a hair’s breadth. My supervisor called me to discuss the project.  She wanted to argue about very small differences and unimportant details.  But I told her not to split hairs.

Later, I got a telephone call from a friend whom I had not seen in a long time. In fact, I had not seen hide nor hair of him in months.  So I was glad to know that he was all right.

I worked all day and finished my project. So I decided to celebrate, have some fun and let my hair down.  I played some old recordings, and my children and I danced around the room. The recordings are from my favorite musical, a show called "Hair." It takes place during the nineteen sixties when many young people wore their hair very long.

(MUSIC)

This VOA Special English program was written by Shelley Gollust.  I’m Faith Lapidus. You can find other WORDS AND THEIR STORIES at our Web site, voaspecialenglish.com.

Expressions With the Word “Hair”

Not a hair was out of place:干净利索,一丝不乱

bad hair day: “头发糟糕的日子,暗示一整天都不顺利,心情不好。< o:p>

made one’s hair stand on end: 使人毛骨悚然

curl one’s hair令人惊诧,令人惊恐

hair-raising:令人恐惧

get in one’s hair: 激怒某人

pull one’s hair out生气,发怒

harm a hair on one’s heads: 不伤某人一根毫毛

put hair on one’s chest: 使人具有男子气概;(饮料)富含酒精的;(食物)使人健康、强壮的

a hair’s breadth即将来临,指日可待

split hairs:在小事上争论不休,斤斤计较

hide nor hair:踪影,痕迹(hide or hair)

let one’s hair down: 放松

 

关于荐书、找书、读书与英语词汇

有同学留言如下:

Hey,Richard
在兰州的时候听过老师的课,觉得老师有种内敛的吊~
呵呵 先祝贺下完成了著书,继续加油哦
我是个快步入社会的学生,很迫切的想加强下自己的英语能力 不知道老师有没有什么能推荐的书籍? 如果想加大自己的词汇量,应该怎么去做呢?
恩,像老师这样自学能力乱强的人,给你一些时间一点机遇,想做的会达成的
哈哈 提前先谢谢老师的帮助

?“内敛的吊”,这种夸法实在太有才了。谢谢你!借你的提问我展开来说说自己的一些拙见。

学习英语的书以及英文原版书数不胜数,每当有人让我推荐书的时候我心里都会有点不安。因为:

  1. 从我自身学习的经历来讲,我是不太喜欢一般人们推荐书的方式的(下面详说);
  2. 就算是我推荐,我也不一定知道有哪些真正的好书,因为毕竟还是才疏学浅。

虽然有这种不安,想想还是得有个答复,所以只能尽目前所知与所经历过的来说一说。


关于荐书

上面说到我不太喜欢一般人们推荐书的方式。这是什么意思呢?

一般人们给别人推荐书的时候会说:“你应该看某某书,它是一本如何如何牛的人写的,有多么多么地好”,如此这般。

其实我认为一本书好不好,实际上是针对特定的人的特定时期的。一本书可能对某个人会产生很大的影响,看了激动地都不想睡觉了;而对另一个人则可能是用来解决失眠问题的。就算是同一个人也会在不同的时期对一本书有不同的感觉。

所以我们怎么能那么主观地向他人推荐书呢?我实在不敢。被迫无奈,不得不招出几本书的时候我都会啰啰嗦嗦地讲完这个道理,然后在说明我所提到的书只是曾经适合我的前提下,才说出几本书名来。

这次既然是在我的博客上,那我就按自己的想法来说说。我不打算列书目,而是告诉你怎么去找适合自己的书,只要符合以下几个简单的条件就可以了:

  1. 不要管作者是谁,不要看别人作的序说这本书有如何好;
  2. 从正文的开头读起。在看完一页之后如果产生了强烈的想要一口气全部看完的感觉,那就买了吧。否则不论是什么人推荐的,什么牛人写的都不要在乎了;
  3. 要克服你自己的成见,不要因为听别人说了,就对一本书产生盲目的喜欢或盲目的厌恶,以自己看到它的内容时的真实感受为准;
  4. 一般我们都认为人无完人,那么人类写的书就更难以有“完书”了,所以读一本书不用强迫自己读完,读到什么时候不想读了那就不要读了;
  5. 虽然你要从书里面学东西,但是千万不要成为书的奴隶。

简单来说就是“去成见,找感觉”,这样就能找到适合自己的书了。


英语词汇

词汇的问题最好解决,我个人的学习过程中几乎没有考虑过词汇。

我的方法就是“不要背单词”,而是在大量的阅读当中以自然筛选的方式来积累。在遇到生词的时候查;在遇到看着面熟的词的时候不去猜,还是查;只有自己百分之百肯定的词才不用查。但是千万要留心那些你百分之九十九肯定的单词,你可能认为是那样的,但如果你查一下的话会发现不是那样的。在大量的阅读中,常用的词你就会经常见到,就会在你的大脑中反复加深记忆。并且在阅读中你是在有上下文的情况下,在各种不同的、恰当的情景中见到这个单词的,所以这样的单词你才是真正掌握了它的用法。

这里补充一点,也是比较重要的。就是用阅读的方式来掌握单词,会让你把单词的形、义掌握得非常到位,而音的话就不一定了。

李敖就是个很好的例子,他被人们称为大师,自己也经常夸赞自己。他在很多言论中体现出他的阅读量之大,并且对英文单词的把握也特别到位。比如他曾讲过proud这个单词,我们可以查到它有“骄傲的”和“感到光荣的”两个意思。英文当中有一种说法是“I’m so proud of you”,有很多人的翻译是“我以你为傲”或者“我为你感到骄傲”。李敖说“骄傲”是个贬义词,而这句话是要表达一种褒义。那这种翻译肯定是有问题的了。

我后来也专门查了查,在《辞海》中,“骄”与“傲”两个字在描述一个人的时候都是带有贬义的,有“自高自大”的意思。当你说“我以你为傲”和“我为你感到骄傲”时,实际上是等于说“我以你为自大”、“我为你感到自高自大”,这显然是比较荒谬的说法嘛。因此恰当的翻译应该是“我以你为荣”或“我为你感到光荣”。

由此可见李敖在他海量的阅读中对文字的把握有多么准确。但是你听一听他说英文,发音可就很烂了。其实如果他在学习过程中能稍微留点心,他的发音也不会有太大的问题。我们有很多途径来找到音频资料,只要经常听、经常模仿,我们难道连自己的嘴巴都管不好吗?没有多难的。就一个很简单的办法,人家怎么发音,自己也怎么发音就可以了。

不知不觉啰啰嗦嗦地写了这么多。希望你有耐心看完,对你有所助益。

Writing a book – Finishing my homework

At first I thought it would be easier to write this book than the one for BOCOG. But I was wrong. I haven’t been feeling like this for more than 10 years, I guess. It’s just like the last night of my summber vacation when I hadn’t done any homework yet. It happened a lot when I was in primary school. I never finished my home work for the summer vacations and winter vacations since middle school. Cuz since then I didn’t care about it anymore. Now the girls from the publisher call me every now and then to check out the progress. I have to finish the book as soon as I can. Every day these days is just like the last days of my childhood vacations. The only difference is that I can never cry while writing as I did back then. When am I gonna finish it? Oh, God!