這在網路上可以找到許多資訊。但是這些資訊不一致也不完全正確。我們要知道有些英語母語人士在他們的國家從來不使用冷氣機，而是使用暖氣機，所以他們將Air Conditioner (AC)直接定義為暖氣機。但是在台灣大家將Air Conditioner (空調)直接定義為冷氣機。所以當這些母語人士在他們的國家說turn up the AC (air-conditioner)，無論turn up是指(1)機器發力強一些，還是(2)溫度往上調，都是需要「暖和一點」的意思。可是在台灣turn up若是指(1)機器發力強一些，就是指冷氣強一些，但若是指(2)溫度往上調就是指冷氣弱一些，如此一來就造成不同國家的人的困惑了，因為不知道講者指的是(1)機器發力，還是(2)溫度。這沒有對與錯的問題，而是文化差異造成的混淆。
要避免這種現象，最好永遠都說 It’s too cold here. Please turn the air-conditioner up? (溫度上調)，或 It’s too cold here. Please turn the air-conditioner down? (強度轉弱)。
或者直接說 I want the room to be cooler或者I want the room to be warmer。
Turn the knob clockwise to adjust the volume. 或 Turn the knob in a clockwise direction to adjust the volume. 按順時針方向轉動旋鈕來調整音量。
Athletes race around the track counterclockwise. 運動員以逆時鐘方向繞著跑道跑。。
pace (v) (因焦慮而)來回踱步 pace oneself控制速度；調整工作節奏
He paced up and down in the waiting room of the hospital. 他來回踱步，等著醫生叫他的名字。 No more soup! I’m pacing myself so that I have room in my stomach for a dessert. 我不要喝湯了！我正在控制吃的速度，這樣才能在胃部留點空間給點心。
Keep pace with 並駕齊驅；趕上 put sb/sth through their/its paces 使展現良好性能
He runs so fast, I just cannot keep pace with him. 他跑得這麼快，我無法與他並駕齊驅。 All the candidates were put through their paces during the television debate. 在電視辯論會上，所有候選人都使出了看家本領。
wrong (v.)不公正地對待；冤枉 spite (v.) 刁難；存心故意…
She felt deeply wronged by his accusations. 他的指控使她覺得深受冤枉。 They kept on asking questions just to spite me. 他們不斷的提問只是要刁難我們。
They eat huge quantities of sweet and fried foods, in willful disregard of their health. 他們固執地無視自己的健康，吃大量甜食和油炸食品。 If you’re willing to fly at night, you can get a much cheaper ticket. 如果你若願意在晚上搭乘飛機，就能買到更便宜的機票。
in spite of儘管；不顧，不管 = despite in spite of oneself不由自主地 out of spite出於怨恨
In spite of his injury, Roger will play in Saturday’s tennis match. 儘管Roger有傷，星期六的網球比賽他仍然會出場。 She started to laugh, in spite of herself. 她不由自主地笑了起來。 He’s the sort of man who wouldn’t even look at you just out of spite. 他是那種會爲了會懷恨不看你一眼的人。
give…a hand 幫忙 give…a big hand熱烈鼓掌
Could you give me a hand? I need to move this table, but it is too heavy for me. 你可以幫我一個忙嗎？我必須搬這張桌子, 但是對我而言太重了。 Ladies and gentlemen, please give our speaker John Smith a big hand! 各位女士與先生，請給我們的講者熱烈的掌聲吧！
Pull one’s leg 開某人玩笑 (非扯後腿的意思) Hold someone back阻礙；扯後腿 (某些狀況下)
Is it really your car or are you pulling my leg? 這真是你的汽車，還是你在騙我。 She felt that having children would hold her back. 她覺得有小孩會阻礙她的發展。 Stop discouraging me. Don’t hold me back. 別說令人洩氣的話，別扯我後腿。
lose composure失態 lose consciousness失去意識
I didn’t want to lose my composure in the meeting. 我不想會議中失態。 The boy lost consciousness after a car accident and never regained it. 那男孩車禍後失去意識，一直沒有恢復。
lose face沒面子 lose oneself in專注於…
I would lose face if you tell everyone what happened to us. 如果你告訴每個人我們發生的事，我會覺得沒面子。 Tom has lost himself in a book for hours. Tom已經全神貫注於那本書好幾個小時了。
lose ground不流行；失寵；居下風 gain ground流行；得勢；站上風
Do you agree that the ruling party is losing ground among the working classes? 你是否同意執政黨正在失去工人階級的支援？ His views were not accepted at first, but are now gaining ground all over the world. 一開始他的觀點不被接受，但是現在開始在全世界流行起來了。
allude to sb/sth 影射；間接提到；略為提到
She mentioned some trouble that she’d had at home and I guessed she was alluding to her son. 她提到家中有些麻煩事，我猜她是指她的兒子。 She did not mention Mr. Lee by name, but it was clear she was alluding to him. 她沒提李先生的名字，但她顯然在暗示著他。 He did not even allude to his brother’s engagement to Mary. 他兄弟與瑪麗訂婚的事他隻字未提。
Loophole (n) 合約書或法律條文的漏洞或破綻 Loop纏繞；彎曲
tax loopholes稅法的漏洞 The company employed lawyers to find loopholes in environmental protection laws. 該公司僱用律師來尋找環境保護法的漏洞。 Loop the rope over the bar. 用繩子在欄杆上纏一圈。 Turn left where the road loops round the farm buildings. 在這條路繞過農場房屋的地方向左轉。
Criticism just undermines their confidence. 批評只是削弱了他們的信心。 Psychological problems very often underlie apparently physical disorders. 心理問題常常是明顯生理疾病的深層原因。
Freewheeling (adj) 隨心所欲、不受規範的
The singer was freewheeling tonight at his concert. 那歌手今晚在演唱會上真是完全無拘無束發揮。 A bobsled coaster is one that runs along a freewheeling trough rather than a set of track rails. Bobsled是在沿著一個槽自由滑動，而不是在軌道上。
Carefree無憂無慮的 Relieved放心的；解脫的
My carefree student days are long gone and never come back. 無憂無慮的學生時代早已遠離永不再來。 I was relieved to see my daughter reach the other side of the river safely. 看到我女兒安全到達河對岸，我就放心了。
Disinfect (v) 殺菌，消毒 Infect (v) 傳染，感染
Disinfect a wound before you apply any medicine on it. 敷任何藥物之前先消毒。 The hospital cleans and disinfects public facilities twice a day. 那醫院每天清潔以及消毒公共設備兩次。 The ward was full of patients who are infected with coronavirus. 病房裡住滿了感染心冠肺炎的病患。
Takeaway (n) 從…中了解到的主要資訊 (重要) Takeaway (n) 外賣的飯食
The takeaway from the meeting was how to be competitive in the tourism industry. 這場會議的主要資訊是如何在旅遊業保有競爭立。 At the end of the class, the teacher often restate the takeaway points. 下課前，老師經常再提一次這堂課的要點。 We usually order takeaway on Sundays. 我們通常在星期天叫外送餐。
settle for something無奈接受；勉強同意
A true leader never settles for second best for the country. 真正的領袖為了國家從不甘心於退而求其次。 They were hoping to sell their house for 8 million, but settled for 7 million. 他們本來希望8百萬賣房子，但後來只能勉強以6百萬賣出。
meme (n) 模因（網路上迅速傳播的概念、圖像、視頻）
Take a look at the top ten Internet memes for this past year. 看一下去年網路上的十大模因。 Internet memes refer to things that become known to lots of people through their exposure on line, such as the photo of Michael Jordan crying. 網路迷因是指因為在網路上傳播而爆紅的東西，像是飛人喬丹哭泣的照片。
segue (v) (n) 流暢地轉換
The singer sang “Yesterday” first and segued into a cover version of “Yesterday Once More”. 那位歌手先唱<昨日>，再流暢轉換到翻唱的<昨日重現>。 What a segue! You changed your topic fast! 真會轉移話題啊！ 你轉得真快！
Calling (n) 具有社會價值的使命感 Cause (n) 人們強烈支持的目標
I‘m glad she’s going into medicine. It’s a very worthy calling. 很高興她打算從醫。這非常有使命感。 He had a calling to become a sailor. 他有航海的熱情。 They are fighting for a cause – the liberation of their people. 他們戰鬥的動機是解放人民。 I‘ll sponsor the charity project. It’s all in a good cause. 我將會資助那個慈善活動，這是為了做對的事。
off chance極為渺小的可能性 on the off chance抱著一線希望20
I applied for the job on theoff chance that they might like me, but I didn’t expect to get it. 我申請了這份工作碰碰運氣，不過我沒指望能獲得工作。 There is an off chance of finding her at home. 在她家裡遇到她的可能性很小。
Inconvenience (v.) 造成…的不便
Will my request inconvenience you a lot? 我的要求會不會造成你的不便？ The strike inconvenienced many people. 罷工造成了許多人的不便。 多數人知道convenient (方便的)，相反詞是inconvenient，而inconvenience (不便利性)則是名詞，但是也可以當動詞，意思是「帶來不方便」，超級方便好用！
thankless (adj.) 吃力不討好的
It is a thankless job. 那是個吃力不討好的工作。 有時候一個表達似乎很難，但其實只是很簡單的 “thankless job”。簡單又好記😄! Teaching teenagers is a thankless task. 教導青少年真是吃力不討好的工作。
disown (v) 聲明與…斷絕關係 disconnect (v) 切斷 (水電、電話、聯繫)
The girl’s parents disowned her when she married a foreigner. 當那女孩嫁給外國人，父母與她斷絕關係。 Never try to fix a broken machine without disconnecting it from the electricity supply. 務必先切斷電源再去修理機器。
Silence 使安靜；使沈默；使停止批評
The teacher raised his voice to silence the class 老師提高嗓門讓學生們安靜下來。 Her remark about his appearance silenced him. 她對他外貌的評價使他啞口無言。 The more they try to silence us, the more we will speak out. 他們愈讓我們閉嘴，我們就愈要表達意見。
Against all odds, Taiwan Keeps Coronavirus under control
The challenges that COVID-19 poses for governments around the world are formidable. Taiwan’s response to the novel coronavirus has been remarkably effective so far. Taiwan has reported a relatively low number of cases of the virus despite the close links between Taiwan and China. Millions of people travel back and forth between Taiwan and China each year, which means more than 5,700 flights per month on average.
Now Taiwan is holding lessons for the rest of the world to follow. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, Taiwan’s authorities have taken 124 actions since last December when the looming threat was emerging and the rest of the world was looking the other way. Taiwan quickly activated a response command center, sent a fact-finding team to China, imposed swift travel bans and quarantines, and even restricted the export of face masks.
Taiwan has also had to contend with political pressure and possible misinformation from China. On the global stage, the Chinese government has tried to squeeze Taiwan. Taiwan only has a handful of diplomatic allies, and it’s not a member of the United Nations or the World Health Organization. It means that certain types of information that WHO members get as a matter of course are not available to Taiwan — even though Taiwan does have a lot to contribute to the whole world when it comes to combatting this disease.
As the virus went rampant in China in late January, a stream of rumors about Taiwan’s response to the outbreak began to appear on social media sites. One claimed that the outbreak was out of control in Taiwan and that trucks were hauling dead bodies to crematoriums. Some of the posts used simplified Chinese characters or terminology that’s common in China but not in Taiwan.
The net effect of Taiwan’s non-membership in the WHO and the spread of virus-related disinformation targeting Taiwan is hard to measure. However, the risk of a widespread deadly virus is undoubtedly rising for Taiwan.
Against all odds, Taiwan has kept a deadly disease corralled.
申請大學參考： My name is (中文姓名). I graduated from (學校名稱). I am the eldest child in a happy middle-class family. My father and mother have been running a trading company for 15 years. As a result, I have heard them talking about their business since I was 3 years old. They are always busy, so as the eldest child in my family, I help my parents take care of my two younger sister and brother. These experiences make me independent and interested in doing business.
申請工作參考： My name is *** *** ***. My major is *********. I come from a family of 4. My parents run a small business, which leads me to the world of business. Because both my parents have been busy since I was little, I have developed an independent personality. My parents have a great influence on me and on the forming of my personality. Before college, my parents often had to work in shifts to take care of their small grocery store. As a result, I deeply understand a successful business person must have been very devoted to their work. Watching them work hard for years, looking at their small store become a supermarket. I understand how much they sacrifice for me and their business. I learned a lot from them.
申請大學參考： In my spare time, I like to do anything that helps me know what is really happening in the whole world. Since a lot of related information is often in English first, I watch English videos and English TV programs often. I even try to attend the activities held by some English clubs or institutes, such as Toastmasters International. I once went abroad for a short-term English study. During that time, I made many friends from different countries. I heard them talking about different things in their own countries. That experience makes me realize the importance of English as a global language.
申請工作參考： I am lucky to be able to learn to play the piano as a kid. I have been playing the piano ever since. From piano, I developed interest in singing songs. From singing, I developed interest in composing music. I have won prizes in piano contest three times. Music plays an important part in my creativity. Without music, I was not able to come up with the ideas as a marketer. Some of my ideas were applied to advertisements during my stay in my previous company.
申請大學參考： School life is very valuable to me. Though I am not a top student in terms of school grades, I am good at many fields and consider myself a devoted and enthusiastic learner. Among the school subjects, I love science best and read English science report on a daily basis. As a result, I also do pretty well in English learning. I participated in several English speech and composition contests and won very some prizes. Also, I have been active in school camps, including those held by universities, and different kinds of workshops. I believe that extracurricular activities provide valuable opportunities for me to accumulate valuable experiences and broaden my horizons. I learn important intrapersonal and interpersonal skills from these special activities.
I was elected the president of social service club. Because of this position and experiences, I learned a lot about leading skills, organizing group activities and promoting events. Also, I have learned how to cooperate with people of all ages. I believe that I performed in a responsible way at the position. And I valued the opportunities when I am able to help others. I deeply believe that individual success will eventually come after team success.
申請工作參考： My college life is colorful and rewarding. Though I am not a top student in terms of my academic performance, I am good at a certain subjects and skilled at a sport. The subject I like best is marketing. And I was able to apply what I learned to my last job as marketing assistant. I was chose the employee of the season two times for my performance. The biggest achievement I have ever had is to get an order for my company that was worth 5 million dollars.
When I was a college student, I enjoyed playing basketball very much. I still do now. I learned communication and negotiation skills from teaming up with others while playing basketball. After I graduated from college, I was in the jogging club. Other club members and I have joined several marathon races. When we had a marathon race, we had to get up early while most other teenagers were still wrapped in their warm bed. The determination to get out of bed is the first thing I learn from marathon. Patience is the second thing I learn from marathon because it takes a long time to complete a marathon race, without patience I may get exhausted half way.
Playing basketball and jogging long-distance have been my favorite recreational activities.
申請大學參考： Once I become a university student, I will make every effort to make the best use of school resources. Based on my short-term plan, in the first two years in college, besides required courses, I hope to take some other optional courses about international relationship and interpretation. Before graduation, I hope to take some courses about journalism. After graduation, I would like to be a journalist, translator, interpreter, or teacher. In addition, I hope to study further to improve myself on end. I believe that teaching and learning promote and enhance each other, so I would work and study simultaneously to face any bigger challenge in my future career.
說明：建議先上該校系的網址參考其必修及選修課程，才能夠有利說服教授，傳遞一個訊息：你就是最佳人選!
申請工作參考： I have been interested in reading all kinds of books since I was little. Reading also helps me overcome many difficulties in life because I learn from failure experiences of others in books. Books about successful business people greatly affect the way I think. For example, the story of 郭台銘inspired me, who, like him, was from a middle class family. The story of Warren Buffet told me the importance of public speaking. I hope I can be as successful as a businessman like them and I will start from improving my marketing strategies.
I will certainly keep reading to enlarge my background knowledge and keep running marathon races to maintain healthy to welcome my successful future.
I would say good morning, but it’s afternoon. I’m grateful to Vanessa and the Bryant family for the opportunity to speak today.
I’m grateful to be here to honor Gigi and celebrate the gifts that Kobe gave us all – what he accomplished as a basketball player, as a businessman, and a storyteller and as a father. In the game of basketball, in life, as a parent – Kobe left nothing in the tank. He left it all on the floor.
Maybe it surprised people that Kobe and I were very close friends. But we were very close friends. Kobe was my dear friend. He was like a little brother. Everyone always wanted to talk about the comparisons between he and I. I just wanted to talk about Kobe.
You know all of us have brothers and sisters, little brothers, little sisters, who for whatever reason always tend to get in your stuff, your closet, your shoes, everything. It was a nuisance – if I can say that word – but that nuisance turned into love over a period of time. Just because the admiration that they have for you as big brothers or big sisters, the questions in wanting to know every little detail about life that they were about to embark on.
He used to call me, text me, 11:30, 2:30, 3 o’clock in the morning, talking about post-up moves, footwork, and sometimes, the triangle. At first, it was an aggravation. But then it turned into a certain passion. This kid had passion like you would never know. It’s an amazing thing about passion. If you love something, if you have a strong passion for something, you would go to the extreme to try to understand or try to get it. Either ice cream, Cokes, hamburgers, whatever you have a love for. If you have to walk, you would go get it. If you have to beg someone, you would go get it.
What Kobe Bryant was to me was the inspiration that someone truly cared about the way either I played the game or the way that he wanted to play the game. He wanted to be the best basketball player that he could be. And as I got to know him, I wanted to be the best big brother that I could be.
To do that, you have to put up with the aggravation, the late-night calls, or the dumb questions. I took great pride as I got to know Kobe Bryant that he was just trying to be a better person – a better basketball player. We talked about business, we talked about family, we talked about everything. And he was just trying to be a better person.
Now, he’s got me and I’ll have to look at another crying meme for the next …
I told my wife I wasn’t gonna do this cause I didn’t want to see that for the next three or four years. That is what Kobe Bryant does to me. I’m pretty sure Vanessa and his friends all can say the same thing – he knows how to get to you in a way that affects you personally, even though he’s being a pain in the ass. But you have a sense of love for him and the way that he can bring out the best in you. And he did that for me.
I remember maybe a couple months ago he sends me a text and he said, ‘I’m trying to teach my daughter some moves. And I don’t know what I was thinking or what I was working on, but what were you thinking about when you were growing up trying to work on your moves?’ I said ‘What age?’ He says ’12’. I said ’12, I was trying to play baseball.’ He sends me a text back saying ‘Laughing my ass off.’ And this is at 2 o’clock in the morning.
But the thing about him was we could talk about anything that related to basketball but we could talk about anything that related to life. And we, as we grew up in life, rarely have friends that we can have conversations like that. Well, it’s even rarer when you can grow up against adversaries and have conversations like that.
I went and saw Phil Jackson in 1999, maybe 2000, I don’t know, when Phil was here in L.A. And I walk in and Kobe’s sitting there.
And the first thing, Kobe said, ‘Did you bring your shoes?’
‘No, I wasn’t thinking about playing.’
But his attitude to compete and play against someone he felt like he could enhance and improve his game, that’s what I loved about the kid. I absolutely loved the kid. No matter where he saw me, it was a challenge. And I admired him because his passion, you rarely see someone who is looking and trying to improve each and every day, not just in sports, but as a parent, as a husband. I am inspired by what he’s done, and what he’s shared with Vanessa, and what he’s shared with his kids.
I have a daughter who’s 30 and I became a grandparent. And I have two twins. I have twins at 6. I can’t wait to get home to become a GirlDad and to hug them and to see the love and smiles that they bring to us as parents. He taught me that just by looking at this tonight, looking at how he responded and reacted with the people he actually loved. These are the things that we will continue to learn from Kobe Bryant.
To Vanessa, Natalia, Bianka, Capri, my wife and I will keep you close in our hearts and our prayers. We will always be here for you. Always. I also want to offer our condolences and support to all the families affected by this enormous tragedy.
Kobe gave every last ounce of himself to whatever he was doing, After basketball, he showed a creative side to himself that I didn’t think any of us knew he had. In retirement, he seemed so happy. He found new passions. And he continued to give back, as a coach, in his community. More importantly, he was an amazing dad, amazing husband, who dedicated himself to his family and who loved his daughters with all his heart. Kobe never left anything on the court. And I think that’s what he would want for us to do.
No one knows how much time we have. That’s why we must live in the moment, we must enjoy the moment, we must reach and see and spend as much time as we can with our families and friends and the people that we absolutely love. To live in the moment means to enjoy each and every one that we come in contact with.
When Kobe Bryant died, a piece of me died. And as I look in this arena and across the globe, a piece of you died, or else you wouldn’t be here. Those are the memories that we have to live with and we learn from.
I promise you from this day forward, I will live with the memories of knowing that I had a little brother and I tried to help in every way I could.
This world is being flooded with unfamiliar words and phrases in coverage of the newly discovered coronavirus. It’s useful to understand relevant medical terms during a time of health crisis.
Coronavirus: This term refers to a category of viruses that can cause fever, breathing difficulties, pneumonia and diarrhea. Some are potentially fatal. Others can cause a certain percentage of common colds. The name comes from the shape of the virus. Coronaviruses originate in animals and are usually not transmissible to humans. But occasionally a coronavirus mutates and can pass from animals to humans and then from human to human.
Novel coronavirus: A coronavirus strain that has not been previously identified. The Wuhan coronavirus, for example, is novel because it is a new respiratory virus that was first identified in Wuhan, China, in December 2019.
Confirmed Case: A potential case is a person who is likely to have been infected with a specific disease while a confirmed case is a person who has been proven through clinical or laboratory procedures to be infected with the specific disease.
Epidemic: A sudden increase in the number of cases of a disease in a particular geographic area, beyond the number health officials expect. An increase that occurs in a relatively small geographic area or among a small group of people may be called an “outbreak." For example, HIV/AIDS, which affects 1.2 million people in the United States, is an “epidemic." By contrast, two cases of sickness from drinking raw milk in the United States is called an “outbreak."
Pandemic: An epidemic spanning many countries and/or several continents. The difference between an outbreak, an epidemic and a pandemic can be murky and depends on the opinions of scientists and health officials.
Emerging disease: A disease that occurs in the population of a certain geographic region for the first time, or a disease that’s been present at low levels in a region but then rapidly reaches new peaks in the number of cases reported.
Animal-human interface: The points of contact between animals and humans — when people cut down forests and set up dwellings where forest animals are still prevalent, for example. Some types of diseases spread from animals to humans at this interface.
Reservoir: An animal, plant or environment in which a disease can persist for long periods of time. For example, some bats serve as a reservoir for rabies and can spread the disease by biting humans.
Zoonotic: Any disease that spreads from animals to people. The animals can range from tiny ticks to lumbering cattle.
Transmission: How a disease is transferred. This happens in different ways. There’s direct transmission — person-to-person contact and droplet spread. And there’s indirect transmission, for example, consuming contaminated food and water, getting bitten by a disease-carrying mosquito or tick or breathing in a microbe carried by dust.
Person-to-person Contact: How a disease might spread from one person to another. This can happen in many ways – by kissing, touching, having sex, exchanging bodily fluids, sneezing or coughing.
Droplet: The spray produced by sneezing, coughing or even talking. Droplets can spread disease when an infected person coughs or sneezes — and the spray lands on a nearby person’s mouth, nose or eyes. It can also spread when a person touches a body part or a surface with infected droplets, then touches their face.
Incubation Period: the process or period of time in which harmful bacteria or viruses increase in size or number in a person’s or animal’s body but do not yet produce the effects of disease.
Isolation: Separating infected and sick individuals from healthy individuals. Hospitals commonly put sick patients in isolation to prevent the spread of disease.
Quarantine: The separation or restriction of movement of individuals who appear to be healthy but may have been exposed to an infectious disease to see if they become sick.
Contact Tracing: Identifying people who may have come into contact with a person infected with a disease.
Screening: A health check to see whether a person has a disease — often by taking their temperature and then asking questions about symptoms if the temperature is high.
Reproductive Rate: The number of people one victim can infect, known as the reproduction number of a virus or pathogen. SARS, by comparison, was between 2 and 5, and measles, the most contagious disease known to humans, is a whopping 12 to 18.
We should be competitive in order to be successful. The goal of being competitive is to be the winner. However, sometimes losing a competition doesn’t make the competitor less great. Today our story is about a man who is well-known and well-respected for his failure.
A century ago, Robert Scott, a British, and 4 other men started off on an expedition. His goal was to be the first to get to the South Pole. Nobody had ever done it. He overcame difficulties and eventually got there. However, a Norwegian flag was waving there. He lost the competition. But losing the competition didn’t make him less great.
The weather on the return journey was exceptionally bad. Food and fuel supplies were low. One man died. Another, who didn’t want to be a drag on the team, crawled out into a blizzard and disappeared into snow. The other three survivors struggled on but then they were confined to their tent by another blizzard that lasted for nine days. They all succumbed to the weather. They were only 11 miles away from their depot.
Robert Scott lost the competition, his life, and the lives of his team. It seemed that he was a loser. It was eight months later when his body was found in the tent, people got to know what he was doing.
Alongside their frozen bodies, the rescue team found 16kg of fossils, a lot of notes for weather, animals, and terrains. They also found rolls of films, and a diary that described what they saw in details, and 7 letters. Obviously, they could and they should have dropped all these to lighten their load. They could and they should have jettisoned all these for a better chance of survival. But they didn’t. They thought these too valuable to give up for their lives.
Scott’s notes and diary left valuable records to scientists and what he did set an example to explorers. As for the 7 letters, in the first letter, he started from “To my widow”. He said goodbye and explained to his wife why he couldn’t be back to her. It became a symbol of true love and brave love. We must learn from what Robert Scott and his team. Losing a competition didn’t make them less great.
Tsai Ing-wen has won a landslide victory in a hotly contested election. Tsai’s party, the Democratic Progressive Party, also maintained its majority in Taiwan’s legislature, which means a clear path for Tsai to push through a number of reforms.
This year, demographics played in Tsai’s favor. Young people identify with Taiwan and the democratic values that Tsai promised to protect to a greater degree than her competitor. China has sought to isolate Taiwan, whittling down Taiwan’s diplomatic allies. China has also refused to rule out military force against Taiwan for the sake of reunification.
While China looms in the background of every Taiwanese election, this presidential race turned into a proxy vote on how Taiwan should engage with China since China’s suppressing protests in Hong Kong has cast a shadow over Taiwan’s future.
Analysts forecast more obstacles in cross-Straits relations after the election. In the next four years, Tsai will have to delicately balance growing calls for independence among her supporters and Beijing will continue to squeeze Taiwan internationally.
For the past 15 years, a lovestruck stork, Klepetan, has faithfully returned from its winter home in South Africa to the same rooftop in a country village in Croatia, where he is reunited with his disabled wife, Malena. It is a love story that has caught the attention of millions.
Tens of thousands of storks have to make this 5000-mile migratory journey from Africa to Croatia each spring. On the 1993 journey, Malena was shot and couldn’t fly properly. Luckily, she was discovered by a school janitor, Stjepan Vokic, who has looked after her ever since. One day 15 years ago, Klepetan saw her and the pair have been inseparable since. Over the years, the couple have dozens of chicks. But every winter Klepetan has to join other storks who fly to their winter home in South Africa. Every spring, people wait to watch the reunification of Klepetan and Melana, fearing that Klepetan may not make its way back to Melana.
Migratory birds brave numerous threats on their journey – from storms to starvation, predators to power lines. However, there’s one particular threat of Klepetan’s – a 100 mile stretch that takes Klepetan over Lebanon. It is here that some storks are shot down from the sky by hunters.
Vokic was so concerned about Klepetan that he wrote a letter to the President of Lebanon, using a pen fashioned from one of Klepetan’s feathers. The heartfelt letter urges the President to pen a law offering stronger protection for birds during the critical migration seasons. The Lebanese President read the letter and pledged to stop the annual slaughter in his country.
Any action needs to be swift and decisive and followed with action on the ground. For the lovestruck stork who returns to his partner every year like clockwork, the clock is ticking.
超凡遠距 