wedges lengthwise. Arrange them on a plate. Now what you need to do is to roll up thin sheets of prosciutto and place them between the papaya wedges. Remember the last thing, squeeze fresh limejuice over the papaya and prosciutto.
If you would like to serve the papaya as an appetizer, cut the papaya into 1-inch pieces, sprinkle on some lime juice, wrap each piece with some prosciutto, and secure with a tooth pick. It serves 2-4.
Unit Six Travel Listening Task 1
I was spending my summer in a remote village in Ghana. I got afflicted with “the runny stomach”, as the family I lived with called it. After 5 days of the runny stomach, we left the village and took a 12-hour car ride to the capital city. Needless to say, 12-hour car rides and runny stomachs aren’t compatible. Once we had to stop in a village, greet the 20 or so people that were there, give a detailed explanation of my condition, and then I was allowed to use a brand-new porcelain toilet. I was very embarrassed because they had someone clean the toilet and stand outside while I did my noisy business. Through a crack in the bathroom wall I could hear some kids washing the dishes. I was splendid entertainment for the kids. Each time I let out some gas, I heard squeals of delight and hysterical laughter. They also muttered about “runny stomach”. But the highlight of my sickness had to be the wedding we attended in the capital. There I was greeted by countless guests. They asked about the details of my stomach condition. On my 8th day of sickness, we went to a private hospital and for the next two weeks I took lots of prescribed antibiotics and drank bottles of oral rehydration salts. My condition began improving in about two days. Much to my disappointment, the stool and blood samples came back negative, so my condition was a result of a change of diet. Needless to say, I learned not to be shy about stomach conditions.
Listening Task 2
When he realized that his short-term memory was failing, my husband decided to wear a multi-pocketed vest. The vest, with its 17 pockets each serving a purpose, did work for a while. Things were going so well that he started to relax a little and one day he turned back to his traditional pants-pocket wallet.
Just seconds after boarding the crowded Rome subway, a pickpocket was attracted by the familiar bulge. My husband stared at him for a moment. Finally the would-be thief withdrew and joined the crowd.
My partner became more careful, and the next time he was better organized, all the essentials in their assigned pockets. We had checked in for our flight to Athens. Before boarding I casually asked where his Swiss army knife was. His hand immediately went to the pocket designated for the knife, and found it safe there. Then his face fell: safe, that is , for anything but air travel.
Realizing that his precious knife would be taken away at security, he returned to the check-in counter. Fortunately, the frowning attendant agreed to pack his knife in a little box and check it separately.
By the time we got to Athens at midnight we were both exhausted. Our luggage emerged and all the other passengers were gone. My husband was still watching the carousel going round and round and round. Finally, he went to find a baggage handler and a half hour later reappeared triumphantly with his knife. Unit Seven Language
Listening Task 1
Jessica Bucknam shouts “tiao!” and her fourth-grade students jump. “Dun!” she commands, and they crouch. They giggle as the commands keep coming in Mandarin Chinese. Most of the kids have studied Chinese since they were in kindergarten.
They are part of a Chinese-immersion program at Woodstock Elementary School, in Portland, Oregon. Bucknam, who is from China, introduces her students to approximately 150 new Chinese characters each year. Students read stories, sing songs and learn math and science, all in Chinese. Half of the students at the school are enrolled in the program. They can continue studying Chinese in middle and high school. The goal: to speak like natives.
About 24,000 American students are currently learning Chinese. Most are in high school. But the number of younger students is growing in response to China’s emergence as a global superpower. The U.S government is helping to pay for language instruction. Recently, the Defense Department gave Oregon schools $700,000 for classes like Bucknam’s. The Senate is considering giving $1.3 billion for Chinese classes in public schools.
“China has become a stong partner of the United States,” says Mary Patterson, Woodstock’s principal. “Children who learn Chinese at a young age will have more opportunities for jobs in the future.” Isabel Weiss, 9, isn't thinking about the future. She thinks learning Chinese is fun. “When you hear people speaking in Chinese, you know what they’re saying,” she says. “And they don’t know that you know.”
Want to learn Chinese? You have to memorize 3,500 characters to really know it all! Start with these Chinese characters and their pronunciations.
Listening Task 2
An idiom is an expression whose meaning cannot be deduced from the literal definitions and the arrangement of its parts, but refers instead to a figurative meaning that is known only through conventional use. In the English expression to kick the bucket, a listener knowing only the meaning of kick and bucket would be unable to deduce the expression’s actual meaning, which is to die. Although kick the bucket can refer literally to the act of striking a bucket with a foot, native speakers rarely use it that way.
Idioms hence tend to confuse those not already familiar with them; students of a new language must learn its idiomatic expressions the way they learn its other vocabulary. In fact many natural language words have idiomatic origins, but have been sufficiently assimilated so that their figurative senses have been lost.
Interestingly, many Chinese characters are likewise idiomatic constructs, as their meanings are more often not traceable to a literal meaning of their assembled parts, or radicals. Because all characters are composed from a relatively small base of about 214 radicals, their assembled meanings follow several different modes of interpretation – from the pictographic to the metaphorical to those whose original meaning has been lost in history. Real world listening Q: Why are some idioms so difficult to be understood outside of the local culture?
A: Idioms are, in essence, often colloquial metaphors – terms which requires some foundational knowledge, information, or experience, to use only within a culture where parties must have common reference. As cultures are typically localized, idioms are more often not useful for communication outside of that local context.
Q: Are all idioms translatable across languages?
A: Not all idioms are translatable. But the most common idioms can have deep roots, traceable across many languages. To have blood on one’s hands is a familiar example, whose meaning is obvious. These idioms can be more universally used than others, and they can be easily translated, or their metaphorical meaning can be more easily deduced. Many have translations in other languages, and tend to become international.
Q: How are idioms different from others in vocabulary?
A: First, the meaning of an idiom is not a straightforward composition of the meaning of its parts. For example, the meaning of kick the bucket has nothing to do with kicking buckets. Second, one cannot substitute a word in an idiom with a related word. For example, we can not say kick the pail instead of kick the bucket although bucket and pail are synonyms. Third, one can not modify an idiom or apply syntactic transformations. For example, John kicked the green bucket or the bucket was kicked has nothing to do with dying. Unit 8 Examination Listening Task 1
At first, fifth-grader Edward Lynch didn’t pay much attention to his teacher’s warnings about the big tests the class would take at the end of the school year. But two weeks before North Carolina’s first-ever elementary-promotion exams, Edward says he’s scared. He’s a B student but an erratic test taker. “The other night I had a dream my books were squishing me and pencils were stabbing me,” says the 11-year-old. His classmate West Bullock says, “I have friends who throw up the night before tests.” Their teacher, Kelly Allen, worries that half of her 21 students are at risk of failing next week’s multiple-choice tests on math and reading. If they fail, they won’t be able to graduate to middle school.
In 1996 the state of North Carolina launched its ABCs testing program, a carrot-and-stick approach that holds schools responsible for their students’ educational progress. Over the next four years, scores on statewide tests rose 14%. But critics of the program say the cost has been high, in ways that range from stomachaches to insomnia and depression.
Schools, also, are sacrificing important lessons in science, social studies and foreign languages to focus on concepts that will be tested. Thus the harmful practices such as retention in grade and tracking are encouraged. High school biology students no longer dissect frogs. A history teacher doesn’t assign research papers because they don’t help him prepare students for state-mandated tests. Lisa, a mother of a struggling fifth-grader said. “If they have kids with straight A’s, they think it’s fine, but I think there’s too much pressure with this pass-fail system.” She views the accountability system as a social experiment whose outcome is not yet known. Listening Task 2
No one wants to be tested. We would all like to get a driver’s license without answering questions about right of way or showing that we can parallel park a car. Many future lawyers and doctors probably wish they could join their profession without taking an exam.
But tests and standards are a necessary fact of life. They protect us – most of the time – from inept drivers, hazardous products and shoddy professionals. In schools too, exams play a constructive role. They tell teachers what their students have learned – and have not. They tell parents how their children are doing compared with others their age. They encourage students to exert more effort.
Therefore, formal testing has its place in the overall scope of education. The test data can be very
useful in making decisions for the upcoming school year as well as for long term planning. Besides, the parents need accountability to themselves. Welcome the opportunity to discover their child’s strengths and weaknesses and to ascertain needs that should be addressed or pieces that are missing in the student’s academic training.
However, all tests have a margin of error. Several factors will affect tests scores, including rapport established with examiner, health of students, lack of sleep the night before, temperature of testing room, attention span, and many other variables. In other words, don’t fall apart if the scores aren’t what you think they should have been. They are just test scores and tests are not infallible.
没事就用这些词练练你的嘴皮子~~
●说吧，你是想死呢还是不想活了？ ●好久没有人把牛皮吹的这么清新脱俗了！
●你给我滚，马不停蹄的滚…… ●人人都说我丑，其实我只是美得不明显。
●无理取闹,必有所图！
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●天被熬亮了。 ●不是路不平，而是你不行。
●恶心妈妈抱着恶心哭得很伤心，为什么呢？因为恶心死了……
●要不是打不过你，我早就和你翻脸了。 ●我这心碎得，捧出来跟饺子馅似的。
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●没人牵手，我就揣兜。
●我的兴趣爱好可分为静态和动态两种，静态就是睡觉，动态就是翻身…
●唉～这人要一没正形，连头痛都是偏的。 ●我这人不太懂音乐，所以时而不靠谱，时而不着调。 ●怎么会突然想哭？难道我也有些逆流成河的小忧伤？
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●好漂亮的美女叔叔啊！
●我不跟猪摔跤有两个原因：首先这让我自己变得很脏，其次这让猪很高兴。
●没事偷着乐是不太可能了,偷着胖还是有点儿希望.
●放下屠刀立地成佛的意思是，你放下屠刀的那一刻对方把你砍成两瓣儿了。
●没事可做时，觉得最累。
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●李碧华说过： 什么叫多余？夏天的棉袄，冬天的蒲扇，还有等我已经心冷后你的殷勤。
●永远年轻，永远装嫩，永远不知好歹，永远热泪盈眶。
●我爸面对我发胖一事发表了看法：没有韩红的命，还得了韩红的病。 ●你来我信你不会走，你走我当你没来过。——我们该这样对待缘分与爱。
