「傾聽」是學好發音第一關鍵,「演說訓練」則是第二關鍵。而我們的困難是通常都只聽而不說,因為沒有說的對象。聽了卻不必說,會讓我們常常分心,無法傾聽。全文輸入輸出訓練,就是來解決這個問題。因為只練習音標發音不夠,音標單獨發聲時也許能分辨不同,但是整個單字快速發音時仍常難分辨,例如fool及full,但能掌控語境的整體含意就不易誤解,例如 I ate too much. I am full。所以聽力的焦點要放在整個句子上,而不是個別單字上。全文輸入輸出訓練可以做為輔助。
The Trump administration formally began pulling the United States out of the 2015 Paris Agreement. That is a big concern for some of the world’s most vulnerable countries, including the island nations of the Pacific.
Pacific
island nations consider themselves on the front lines of climate change and they had hoped the U.S. to help confront the rising seas around them. Now
some of those nations are turning to China for help. Beijing has vowed to stay in the Paris Climate
Agreement. The diplomatic restructuring
in the region has opened up a new front in the battle for influence between
China and the U.S.
The
Solomon Islands decided in September to downgrade its ties with
Taiwan and renormalize diplomatic
relations with Beijing. Taiwan then ended its relationship with the Solomons. Economic
reasons were a driver of the Solomons’ decision, but climate change was a key factor
in the decision to switch. Climate change
is about the present and future.
Where will be the place of our children in the
future?
Key Words:
outstrip (程度或成就上)超過
clock需時;達到一個時間
intervention 干涉
autonomous 自動化的
fabricate捏造,虛構
exaggerate誇張說法
In one or two decades, AI will outstrip many of the abilities we believe make us different from animals and machines.
In 2016, Google’s self-driving cars clocked 635,868 miles (1,023,330km),
and required human intervention 124
times. That is one human intervention about every 5,000 miles (8,047km) of autonomous driving. What makes the
figure impressive is, in 2015, it was 4 interventions every 5,000 miles. In
order words, autonomous driving had made a 400% improvement.
Today, self-driving
cars may not be a norm. It is already a reality technically.
You probably think “how nice!” We can take a nap on our way to office
because AI can drive for us. But what about playing chess! A computer has beat
the human chess champion a few times. And the computer is now identifying tumor
for doctors and cooking recipes for chefs. AI is even helping our
kids learn English😣.
I wonder what my
daughters will be doing in the future. They will never solve a math question quicker.
They will never lift an object heavier. They will never drive better. They are
human, so they can never become the best chess player. And language, the best
thing I pass down to them through telling them many good stories, is no more
their advantage since real-time machine translation has made huge improvement.
They are likely to lose every battle against AI, aren’t they?
No way! What exactly makes humans special? We
dream, imagine, rethink, and even regret! We pretend, fabricate, exaggerate,
and go crazy. That’s right! We are different from AI because we create.
Well, I am less worried about my daughters now! I am more worried about those people who learn English with AI apps. They don’t know they are actually helping AI learn English and the AI machine will take the place of human English users in return.
A Ponzi scheme or a Ponzi game is a form of fraud that lures investors and pays profits to earlier investors with funds from more recent investors.
The scheme leads victims to
believe that profits are coming from product sales or other means, and they are
not aware that other investors are the source of funds, or their profits. A
Ponzi scheme can maintain the illusion of a money-making business as
long as new investors contribute new
funds, and as long as most of the investors do not demand full repayment and
still believe in the non-existent assets
they are told to own.
The scheme is named after Charles Ponzi, who became notorious for using the technique in the 1920s.
Sacred trees are not only found in Taiwan.
The book Wise Trees show you the
photoes of sacred trees all around the world. Photographers Len Jenshel and Diane Cook
spent 3 years making Wise Trees.
The first photographs were the blossoming “Survivor Tree." The tree had been pulled out of the ruins of the World Trade Center weeks after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. The tree was nursed back to health and re-planted a decade later at what is now the National September 11 Memorial.
In Varanasi, India, a sweet shopwas built
around a tree considered too holy to cut down. People there use the tree’s
leaves to repel insects, the sap for stomach pain and the twigs to brush their
teeth.
In Naunde, Mozambique, a huge mango tree serves as the
village center. Under its branches, people tell stories, make marriage
arrangements and resolve land disputes.
At a temple in Varanasi, India, people pray to the monkey
god Hanuman, who is believed to be embodied in this tree. Devotees leave
offerings, rub vermilion paste into the tree’s bark and wrap thread around the
tree’s base.
In West Bali, a road runs straight through a sacred
banyan tree. Engineers insisted the land the tree grew on was the best place
for the road, so worshippers prayed for forgiveness for the giant hole.
In the picture, Mexican children admire this cypress on a
school field trip. The tree is said to be the widest (138 feet in
circumference) and oldest (1,200 to 3,000 years) of its kind. Authorities
diverted a major highway to spare the tree and dug a deeper well because of
disappearing swampland.
To remember the children killed at this tree by
Cambodia’s Khmer Rouge, visitors hang bracelets on the bark — woven threads,
embroidered cloth, leather and beads.
This 170-foot-tall tree is found in the remote Forest of
New Zealand and is sacred to the Maori people. The tree is called “Tane
Mahuta,” which is translated as Lord of the Forest.
This video shows AI New也s Anchor Making Debut in China
China’s Xinhua News Agency has billed the technology as the “world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) news anchor.
The anchor can learn from live broadcasting videos by himself and can read
texts. Critics disagree about whether the technology appears natural. You can
decide for yourself here with this male English-speaking anchor.
It was designed by Xinhua jointly with the
Chinese search engine company Sogou.com. The wire service added it wasn’t clear
when the technology would actually go into use. Xinhua points to what it sees
as certain advantages of an AI anchor, saying it can work 24 hours a day on its
official website and various social media platforms, reducing news production
costs and improving efficiency.
But some experts are skeptical about the kind of news-watching experience
an AI news anchor offers.AI anchor is evidently devoid of decision making and
processing skills and cannot offer the emotional element given by a real
journalist.
Facing a future full of artificial intelligence, what we should know is
never new. That is you must use your creativity and improve the social skills
which take time, patience, and natural intelligence to complete.