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双语新闻-谁将在十年内成为“中产”? |
Who will become the middle class in 10 years?
China's middle class may be booming, but a majority of respondents to a recent survey said they do not feel so wealthy.
Only 12.7 percent of a poll conducted by China Youth Daily and Sina.com said they think they are living a middle-class life.
The poll, entitled "Who will become the middle class in 10 years?" found that about 83 percent of the 7,313 people interviewed think a typical middle class Chinese needs to have a good and steady income, a house and a car.
Nearly 70 percent think the middle class needs higher education and good manners. About 60 percent think a decent profession is a crucial feature that defines the middle class.
The survey follows a similar study released earlier this month by HSBC, Fudan University and MasterCard Worldwide.
That survey, which interviewed 1,736 people in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from February to May, researched spending patterns of the country's increasingly affluent middle class.
It found that the number of middle-class consumers in the country is expected to increase to100 million in the 10 years from 35 million in 2006.
A Chinese middle class is defined by the survey as someone whose annual income ranges from $7,500 to $25,000 and who is between 20 to 49 years of age.
However, the latest survey found that only 2.2 percent of respondents agree with that definition.
More than 30 percent of those surveyed chose investment and finance as the best paths to becoming middle class.
Nearly 20 percent think a good collection of social networks and resources will make people richer and 15 percent believe in diligence at work.
The speed at which people join the middle class varies between professions.
The survey found Chinese think those in the science and technology and IT industries are the quickest to get rich, followed by those in the banking, finance and investment industries.
中国的"中产阶层"正在日益壮大,但近日的一项调查表明,大多数受访者认为自己并没有那么富有。
该项由《中国青年报》和新浪网联合开展的调查显示,仅有12.7%的受访者认为自己过着"中产的生活"。
该项题为"谁将在十年内成为中产阶层?"的民意调查发现,在7313名调查对象中,约83%的人认为"中产阶层"的典型特征是收入稳定丰厚、有房有车。
近70%的受访对象认为"中产阶层"的特征之一是受教育水平高,有良好的修养;约60%的人认为"工作体面"是"中产"应具备的重要特征。
本月初,汇丰银行、复旦大学和万事达环球公司公布了它们联合开展的一项类似调查的结果。
该调查从今年2月持续至5月,共对北京、上海和广州的1736人进行了访问,调查主要针对的是这些正在兴起的"中产阶层"的消费模式。
调查发现,未来十年内,中国的"中产阶层"人数预计将从去年的3500万增至1亿。
该调查将年龄在20岁至49岁、年收入在7500美元至2.5万美元之间的人定义为"中产阶层"。
然而,《中国青年报》和新浪网联合开展的这项最新调查发现,仅有2.2%的受访者同意这一说法。
超过30%的人认为投资和理财是成为"中产"的最佳途径。
近20%的人认为,拥有广泛的社会关系和充足的社会资源可以致富,另有15%的受访者认为努力工作很重要。
各行业的人步入"中产阶层"的速度有所不同。
调查发现,人们认为高科技及IT行业的人致富速度最快,其次是银行、金融和投资业。
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美文欣赏-The Baby Eagle 小鹰的故事 |
Once upon a time there was a baby eagle living in a nest perched on a cliff overlooking a beautiful valley with waterfalls and streams, trees and lots of little animals, scurrying about enjoying their lives.
The baby eagle liked the nest. It was the only world he had ever known. It was warm and comfortable, had a great view, and even better, he had all the food and love and attention that a great mother eagle could provide. Many times each day the mother would swoop down from the sky and land in the nest and feed the baby eagle delicious morsels of food. She was like a god to him, he had no idea where she came from or how she worked her magic.
The baby eagle was hungry all the time, but the mother eagle would always come just in time with the food and love and attention he craved. The baby eagle grew strong. His vision grew very sharp. He felt good all the time.
Until one day, the mother stopped coming to the nest.
The baby eagle was hungry. "I'm sure to die," said the baby eagle, all the time.
"Very soon, death is coming," he cried, with tears streaming down his face. Over and over. But there was no one there to hear him.
Then one day the mother eagle appeared at the top of the mountain cliff, with a big bowl of delicious food and she looked down at her baby. The baby looked up at the mother and cried "Why did you abandon me? I'm going to die any minute. How could you do this to me?"
The mother said, "Here is some very tasty and nourishing food, all you have to do is come get it."
"Come get it!" said the baby, with much anger. "How?"
The mother flew away.
The baby cried and cried and cried.
A few days later, "I'm going to end it all," he said. "I give up. It is time for me to die."
He didn't know his mother was nearby. She swooped down to the nest with his last meal.
"Eat this, it's your last meal," she said.
The baby cried, but he ate and whined and whined about what a bad mother she was.
"You're a terrible mother," he said. Then she pushed him out of the nest.
He fell.
Head first.
Picked up speed.
Faster and faster.
He screamed. "I'm dying I'm dying," he cried. He picked up more speed.
He looked up at his mother. "How could you do this to me?"
He looked down.
The ground rushed closer, faster and faster. He could visualize his own death so clearly, coming so soon, and cried and whined and complained. "This isn't fair!" he screamed.
Something strange happens.
The air caught behind his arms and they snapped away from his body, with a feeling unlike anything he had ever experienced. He looked down and saw the sky. He wasn't moving towards the ground anymore, his eyes were pointed up at the sun.
"Huh?" he said. "What is going on here!"
"You're flying," his mother said.
"This is fun!" laughed the baby eagle, as he soared and dived and swooped.
"Yes it is!" said the mother.
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想笑就笑-A Blonde With A Gun |
A young blonde woman is distraught because she fears her husband is having an affair, so she goes to a gun shop and buys a handgun.
The next day she comes home to find her husband in bed with a beautiful redhead. She grabs the gun and holds it to her own head.
The husband jumps out of bed, begging and pleading with her not to shoot herself. Hysterically the blonde responds to the husband, "shut up...you're next!"
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情感故事-Late for School |
All my life, I've had this recurring dream that causes me to wake up feeling strange. In it, I am a little girl again, rushing about, trying to get ready for school.
"Hurry, Gin, you'll be late for school," my mother calls to me. I am hurrying, Mom! Where's my lunch? What did I do with my books?"
Deep inside I know where the dream comes from and what it means. It is God's way of reminding me of some unfinished business in my life.
I loved everything about school, even though the school I attended in Springfield, Ohio, in the 1920s was very strict. I loved books, teachers, even tests and homework. Most of all I longed to someday march down the aisle to the strains of "Pomp and Circumstance." To me, that song was even more beautiful than "Here Comes the Bride."
But there were problems.
The Great Depression hit the hardest at large, poor families like ours. With seven children, Mom and Dad had no money for things like fine school clothes. Every morning, I cut out strips of cardboard to stuff inside my shoes to cover the holes in the soles. There was no money for musical instruments or sports uniforms or after-school treats. We sang to ourselves, played jacks or duck-on-the-rock, and munched on onions as we did homework.
These hardships I accepted. As long as I could go to school, I didn't mind too much how I looked or what I lacked.
What happened next was harder to accept. My brother Paul died of an infection after he accidentally stabbed himself in the eye with a fork. Then my father contracted tuberculosis and died. My sister, Margaret, caught the same disease, and soon she was gone, too.
The shock of these losses gave me an ulcer, and I fell behind in my schoolwork. Meanwhile, my widowed mother tried to keep going on the five dollars a week she made cleaning houses. Her face became a mask of despair.
One day I said to her, "Mom, I'm going to quit school and get a job to help out."
The look in her eyes was a mixture of grief and relief.
At fifteen, I dropped out of my beloved school and went to work in a bakery. My hope of walking down the aisle to "Pomp and Circumstance" was dead, or so I thought.
In 1940, I married Ed, a machinist, and we began our family. Then Ed decided to become a preacher, so we moved to Cincinnati where he could attend the Cincinnati Bible Seminary. With the coming of children went the dream of schooling, forever.
Even so, I was determined that my children would have the education I had missed. I made sure the house was filled with books and magazines. I helped them with their homework and urged them to study hard. It paid off. All our six children eventually got some college training, and one of them is a college professor.
But Linda, our last child, had health problems. Juvenile arthritis in her hands and knees made it impossible for her to function in the typical classroom. Furthermore, the medications gave her cramps, stomach trouble and migraine headaches.
Teachers and principals were not always sympathetic. I lived in dread of the phone calls from school. "Mom, I'm coming home."
Now Linda was nineteen, and still she did not have her high school diploma. She was repeating my own experience.
I prayed about this problem, and when we moved to Sturgis, Michigan, in 1979, I began to see an answer. I drove to the local high school to check it out. On the bulletin board, I spotted an announcement about evening courses.
That's the answer, I said to myself. Linda always feels better in the evening, so I'll just sign her up for night school.
Linda was busy filling out enrollment forms when the registrar looked at me with brown, persuasive eyes and said, "Mrs. Schantz, why don't you come back to school?"
I laughed in his face. "Me? Ha! I'm an old woman. I'm fifty-five!"
But he persisted, and before I knew what I had done, I was enrolled for classes in English and crafts. "This is only an experiment," I warned him, but he just smiled.
To my surprise, both Linda and I thrived in evening school. I went back again the next semester, and my grades steadily improved.
It was exciting, going to school again, but it was no game. Sitting in a class full of kids was awkward, but most of them were respectful and encouraging. During the day, I still had loads of housework to do and grandchildren to care for. Sometimes, I stayed up until two in the morning, adding columns of numbers for bookkeeping class. When the numbers didn't seem to work out, my eyes would cloud with tears and I would berate myself. Why am I so dumb?
But when I was down, Linda encouraged me. "Mom, you can't quit now!" And when she was down, I encouraged her. Together we would see this through.
At last, graduation was near, and the registrar called me into his office. I entered, trembling, afraid I had done something wrong.
He smiled and motioned for me to have a seat. "Mrs. Schantz," he began, You have done very well in school."
I blushed with relief.
"As a matter of fact," he went on, "your classmates have voted unanimously for you to be class orator."
I was speechless.
He smiled again and handed me a piece of paper. "And here is a little reward for all your hard work."
I looked at the paper. It was a college scholarship for $3,000. "Thank you" was all I could think to say, and I said it over and over.
The night of graduation, I was terrified. Two hundred people were sitting out there, and public speaking was a brand-new experience for me. My mouth wrinkled as if I had been eating persimmons. My heart skipped beats, and I wanted to flee, but I couldn't! After all, my own children were sitting in that audience. I couldn't be a coward in front of them.
Then, when I heard the first strains of "Pomp and Circumstance," my fears dissolved in a flood of delight. I am graduating! And so is Linda!
Somehow I got through the speech. I was startled by the applause, the first I ever remember receiving in my life.
Afterwards, roses arrived from my brothers and sisters throughout the Midwest. My husband gave me silk roses, "so they will not fade."
The local media showed up with cameras and recorders and lots of questions. There were tears and hugs and congratulations. I was proud of Linda, and a little afraid that I might have unintentionally stolen some of the attention that she deserved for her victory, but she seemed as proud as anyone of our dual success.
The class of '81 is history now, and I've gone on for some college education.
But sometimes, I sit down and put on the tape of my graduation speech. I hear myself say to the audience, "Don't ever underestimate your dreams in life. Anything can happen if you believe. Not a childish, magical belief. It means hard work, but never doubt that you can do it, with God's help."
And then, I remember the recurring dream-Hurry, Gin, you'll be late for school-and my eyes cloud over when I think of my mother.
Yes, Mom, I was late for school, but it was all the sweeter for waiting. I only wish you and Dad could have been there to see your daughter and granddaughter in all their pomp and circumstance.
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史上今日-January 10 |
Macmillan was one of the first supporters of the United Europe movement
1957: Macmillan becomes Prime Minister
England have
Harold Macmillan has accepted the Queen's invitation to become prime minister following the sudden resignation of Sir Anthony Eden.
The appointment was officially announced from Buckingham Palace this afternoon after the Queen had held meetings with Tory elders Sir Winston Churchill and the Marquess of Salisbury.
In a televised speech this evening, Mr Macmillan, 62, said: "We have a difficult task before us in this country - all of us.
"It will need all our courage and strength, and we shall need the sympathy, good will and understanding of everyone in the country, whatever their party or beliefs."
Sir Anthony Eden resigned yesterday on the grounds of ill health in the wake of the Suez crisis.
Many had expected his deputy, Rab Butler, to succeed him but it is understood his views on the Suez crisis would have split the Conservative party.
Accepting the decision gracefully, Mr Butler, 54, today pledged his support to the new prime minister and wished him "the greatest possible success".
Opposition leader Hugh Gaitskell, who is currently on a lecture tour of the United States, has called for an immediate general election but this has been rejected by Harold Macmillan.
Born in 1894 to an American mother and British father, Harold Macmillan served in WWI. He was wounded three times and received the Military Cross.
He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford before beginning his political career in 1924, when he was elected MP for Stockton-on-Tees.
In 1938 he published his book "The Middle Way", whichadvocateda wide extension of social enterprise and credit.
He was also one of the first supporters of the United Europe movement.
From 1940 he served in Churchill's war cabinet.
He was appointed Minister of Housing in 1951 and was very successful in this post, keeping to his pledge of building 300,000 houses a year.
In 1954 he became Minster of Defence, before being appointed Foreign Secretary in 1955 and most recently Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Mr Macmillan, who is married with four children, has vowed to repair damaged relations with the US and the UN following the Suez crisis.
Comets were grounded after the crash
1954: Comet jet crashes with 35 on board
Artificially 1969:
The Thirty-five people are missing, feared dead, after a Comet jet airliner crashed into the Mediterranean.
The plane - a British Overseas Airways Corporation jet - was on its way from Singapore to London. It came down in the sea about 20 minutes after taking off from Rome, in Italy, on the last leg of its journey.
Fifteen bodies have been recovered so far. There were 10 children among the passengers. World War II correspondent Chester Wilmot, was also among those missing.
A fisherman reported seeing the plane crash into the sea, south of Elba, after what appeared to be a mid-air explosion.
This is the third crash involving a Comet since the began service on 2 May 1952. The worst accident happened on the first anniversary of the jet's introduction; all 43 people on board were killed shortly after the plane took off from Calcutta in India.
An inquiry found the accident was caused by an unusually severe storm. The plane suffered a structural failure in the air which caused a fire and led to the crash.
Giovanni di Marco, the fisherman who first reported the latest crash, said: "I heard three explosions, very quickly, one after the other. For a moment all was quiet. Then, several miles away, I saw a silver thing flash out of the clouds. Smoke came from it. It hit the sea.
"There was a great cloud of water. By the time I got there all was still again. There were some bodies in the water. We began to pick them up. There was nothing else we could do."
The alarm was raised at about 1115 local time. Italian search aircraft were airborne by 1230.
By nightfall, three Italian ships were reported to be at the scene of the disaster, where wreckage with BOAC markings has been found.
Police say none of the bodies recovered so far have been identified. The 10 children on board were on their way home to school in Britain after visiting their parents in the East for the Christmas holidays.
Mr Wilmott was a war correspondent for the BBC in western Europe. He also reported on the Nuremberg trial.
Vocabulary:
advocate : to plead in favor of; to defend by argument, before a tribunal or the public; to support(提倡;鼓吹)
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商贸英语-销售人员常用电话用语 |
Using the Telephone
Making telephone calls is an important part a secretary''s work. When Mr Shelli wants to speak to someone on the telephone, Maria gets the call for him. Today Mr Shelli wants to talk to. Mr Kola of the National Bank. Here he is asking Maria to get the call for him.
MR SHELLI: I''d like to speak to Mr Kola of the National Bank, would you get him on the phone,please?
MARIA: Certainly, I''ll do it at once, Mr Shelli. (TO HERSELF) Now what''s Mr Kola''s number? Ah,here it is ... five, three, zero,double six. (LIFTS PHONE)
ROSE: Switchboard, can I help you?
MARIA: Good morning, Rose. Maria here.Could I have an outside line,please?
Good morning, Rose. Maria here.Could I have an outside line,please?
ROSE: Oh, hello, Maria. Hold the line a moment.
(DIALLING)There you are, you''ve an outside line now, you can hear the dialling tone.
MARIA: Thank you. (TO HERSELF) Five, three, zero, six, six.
(RINGING)
Thank you. (TO HERSELF) Five, three, zero, six, six.
(RINGING)
2ND OPERATOR: National Bank.Good morning,can I help you?
MARIA: Good morning, would you put me through to Mr Kola please?
Good morning, would you put me through to Mr Kola please?
2ND OPERATOR: MR Kola? Certainly. Who''s calling him?
MARIA:Mr Shelli of Modern Office Limited would like to speak to him.
2ND OPERATOR: Thank you. Hold the line, please.
(PHONE)
MR KOLA: Kola speaking.
2ND OPERATOR: Good morning, Mr Kola. I have a call for you from Mr Shelli of Modern Office Limited.
MR KOLA: Thank you, Operator, put him through, please.
MARIA: Mr Kola?
Mr Kola?
MR KOLA: Kola speaking.
MARIA:Oh, good morning, Mr Kola. Mr Shelli is calling you. Would you hold the line a moment please. I''ll hand you over. Mr Shelli?
MR SHELLI: Yes?
Yes?
MARIA: Mr Kola''s on the line now, Mr Shelli. Will you take it in here please?
Mr Kola''s on the line now, Mr Shelli. Will you take it in here please?
MR SHELLI:Thank you Maria. Hello, is that Mr Kola?
MR KOLA: Good morning, Mr Shelli.
MR SHELLI: Ah, good morning, Mr Kola, how are you?
Ah, good morning, Mr Kola, how are you?
MR KOLA: Fine, thanks, and you?
MR SHELLI: Very well, thank you.
Very well, thank you.
MR KOLA: I''m glad to hear it. Well, what can I do for you, Mr Shelli?
MR SHELLI: Well, I''m going to Europe next week and I''d like some travellers cheques. 7,000 dollars say…
Well, I''m going to Europe next week and I''d like some travellers cheques. 7,000 dollars say…
MR KOLA: 7,000 dollars. Yes certainly I can fix that for you. So you''re going to Europe, are you?
注释:
☆switchboard 交换机、总机
☆an outside line 外线
☆dialling tone 电话的拨号音
☆travellers''cheques 旅行支票
☆to fix 办理、解决
☆to book a call 预约电话
☆international operator 国际电话话务员
☆a personal call 受话人直接通话的电话
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双语诗歌-感怀蜗牛:从容中的激情 |
Considering the Snail
by Thom Gunn
The snail pushes through a green
night, for the grass is heavy
with water and meets over
the bright path he makes, where rain
has darkened the earth's dark. He
moves in a wood of desire,
pale antlers barely stirring
as he hunts. I cannot tell
what power is at work, drenched there
with purpose, knowing nothing.
What is a snail's fury? All
I think is that if later
I parted the blades above
the tunnel and saw the thin
trail of broken white across
litter, I would never have
imagined the slow passion
to that deliberate progress.
蜗牛感怀
蜗牛用触角推进墨绿色的
夜晚,因为草叶上湿漉漉
沾满水珠,耷拉着交织在
它推出的明亮小径,雨在上面
使大地的昏暗更加昏暗。它
在欲望之林中缓缓蠕动。
它捕食时,苍白的触角
几乎不动。我无法说出
什么力量起作用,在那里
浸透于百思不解的思绪中。
蜗牛的愤懑何在?我仅仅
这样遐想:即使稍后一些时候
我拨开蜗牛爬过的路上的叶片,
但见它留下的细细痕迹
粘着破碎的白色微粒,穿过
垃圾碎屑,那我也难以想像
伴随它从容前进的
徐迟缓慢的激情。
注:这首诗发表于1956年。就其主题而言,本诗并非特别地具有"现代性",因为它只是通过对蜗牛世界中蜗牛力量的描绘来阐明想像的作用。这种作用与华兹华斯《咏水仙》中的inward eye不无相似之处,而本诗中那蜗牛的"力量"也可以说是在"空漠"的"心灵"中所闪现的一种景象。
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英文演讲-President Bush Meets with Israeli President Peres |
January 9, 2008
PRESIDENT PERES: Mr. President, distinguished guests, as the President of the state I am delighted to speak on behalf of our people. I want to tell you in simple language -- you came to a land and a people that loves deeply the United States of America, and without any reservation.
And also may I say that I have the highest respect for you and the highest regard, because, speaking as a politician, you introduced character in politics. It's a great contribution to politics -- character, courage, vision. And I'm thinking about the last few years you did really three things of importance: your address in 2002, which for the first time established the basis for a solution, and the basis for a consensus in the Arab countries and the rest of -- the two-state solution.
Then you and the Secretary worked very hard in Annapolis, in spite of all the skeptics around. Finally, Annapolis gave us one thing, at least, a year to work and make progress. And time is so precious. Dare I say that, firstly, I believe it won't be the last year, but it may be the best year for peace. God knows what can happen later on, we'll have to take it extremely seriously.
And I also believe that the process may be slow, but the progress can be sweet. The process will be slow because negotiations by character calls for time between the opening positions and the fallback positions. You argue, you argue, you have to wait for them. But in the meantime, you can build a support for the negotiations that can make it realistic, tangible. I'm referring to economy, it can raise the standard of the lives of the people that will help immensely the Palestinians, Abu Mazen, nothing more than an economic -- (inaudible) advance, and also the security arrangements, which are also positive.
About the economy, I say, it can be done very quickly, because things are ready, and that will have the most profound impact upon all people around. And I would like to add also that while the political side is controversial in our country, economic is a win-win situation. It is accepted by the whole parliament, it is accepted by the Arabs, it is accepted by you and the Europeans, and you can really build a constructive coalition with the Europeans on that issue under your leadership.
We take your visit not as a ceremonial occasion, very powerful, but a third opening after the two states, after the year of Annapolis, and now the year to implement the highest and the greatest hopes we have. It is in this spirit that I welcome you so much.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Thank you. Mr. President, thank you for your kind words about me. I'm just following your example. (Laughter.)
PRESIDENT PERES: Be careful. (Laughter.)
Q Ten years to follow.
PRESIDENT BUSH: I wouldn't say that. You're well known in my country, and you're well respected. And so I bring the respect of America not only to you, but to the people of Israel. Secondly, I come as an optimistic person and a realistic person -- realistic in my understanding that it's vital for the world to fight terrorists, to confront those who would murder the innocent to achieve political objectives. We've been called to this task in the past. World War II was such a time, when the world was called to fight people who murdered the innocent to achieve a dark political vision.
Here in the 21st century, America knows first hand, just like Israel knows first hand, what it's like to confront those who would murder innocent men, women and children in order to achieve a political objective. And this war, Mr. President, goes on not only in this part of the world, but it goes on in Iraq, Afghanistan, in Lebanon; it goes on in capitals in Europe. And we must be steadfast in confronting it.
Secondly, the best way to defeat an ideology of hate is with an ideology of hope. And so I come to Israel as a man who believes strongly in liberty and the power of democracy and freedom to be transformative. And your country has shown that to the world. Israel is a thriving democracy, and its politics can be rough sometimes, just like the politics of America can be rough.
PRESIDENT PERES: (Inaudible) the Israeli.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Well, we share a common vision, though, of peace. I come with high hopes. And the role of the United States will be to foster a vision of peace. The role of the Israeli leadership and the Palestinian leadership is going to do the hard work necessary to define a vision. I thank you for your hospitality. I've really been looking forward to this trip, and it's such an honor to be in your presence, sir.
PRESIDENT PERES: Thank you very much. We met, actually, the first time in 1990, the young American President on his ship.
PRESIDENT BUSH: That's exactly right.
PRESIDENT PERES: And since then we are sailing.
END 3:19 P.M. (Local)
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学习技巧-大学英语词汇课堂笔记 0―1 |
1.
一、计划
本课程词汇集中在2000~6000,都是一些基本的词汇,生活中常用的词汇,背单词要有目的性,清楚自己参加什么考试,要有针对性,才更有热情。根据自己是哪类人,在一星期内复习相关词汇,力求反复掌握。
背单词过程: 看-认-背-用。现阶段只停留在前两阶段。
背单词一次只需了解1~2个词意,然后在阅读中不断扩展。可用新概念4做为阅读材料,定期背诵。
二、英语单词的构成
1、基础词汇:无特别记忆、需建立与汉语词意间的联系
naive 天真的
2、希腊神话(听故事记单词)
tantalus 诱惑
tantalize 逗引或招惹
rim 边缘
brim 边缘
grim 恐怖的
trim 修剪整齐
prim 呆板的
prose 单调、散文
plight 困境
pray 祈祷
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