2015.12.24 - Week 15

A. Vocabularies to Know
1) scenario: a description of possible actions or events in the future
2) outline: the main shape or edge of something, without any details
3) utilitarian: designed to be useful rather than decorative
4) drifting along: to float along; to be carried along on no particular course.
5) espouse: to become involved with or support an activity or opinion
6) denounce: to ​criticize something or someone ​strongly and ​publicly
7) inherent: ​existing as a ​natural or ​basic ​part of something:
8) learned: describes someone who has studied for a long time and has a lot of knowledge
9) belligerent: wishing to fight or argue ;fighting a war
10) feeble:  weak and without energy, strength or power
11) pledge my promise: a serious or formal promise, especially one to give money or to be a friend, or something that you give as a sign that you will keep a promise
11-2) pledge one's loyalty to the country
12) anthology: a collection of artistic works which have a similar form or subject, often those considered to be the best
13) rosary:  a string of beads (= little decorative balls) used especially by Roman Catholics and Buddhists to count prayers, or the prayers themselves
14) immaculate: perfectly clean or tidy
15) mordant: (especially of humour) cruel; criticizing in a humorous way
B. Credit-performance (cost-performance)
Measuring credit performance is useful in judging the effectiveness of the credit function, monitoring the impact of credit policies (including new ones designed to fuel sales or those implemented to speed up cash flow), uncovering problems, and recognizing successes.
C. Thomas Dooley (Full name Thomas Anthony Dooley)
Thomas Dooley (born December 5, 1961) is a retired American soccer defender and defensive midfielder, a long-time member and former captain of the United States national team. Dooley is the current head coach of the Philippines national team.

Our Father which art in heaven
Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth,
as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those
who trespass against us.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom,
and the power, and the glory,
forever and ever.

2015.12.17 - Week 14

A. Vocabularies to know
1) make a analogy : a comparison between things which have similar features, often used to help explain a principle or idea
2) commencement : the beginning of something; a ceremony at which students formally receive their degrees (= university qualifications)
3) nihilism: a belief that all political and religious organizations are bad, or a system of thought which says that there are no principles or beliefs which have any meaning or can be true
4) petite: If a woman or girl is petite, she is small and thin in an attractive way
5) opponent: a person who disagrees with something and speaks against it or tries to change it
5-1) proponent: a person who speaks publicly in support of a particular idea or plan of action
6) protagonist: an important supporter of an idea or political system
7) onomatopoeia: the creation and use of words which include sounds that are similar to the noises that the words refer to
8) doomsday: the end of the world, or a time when something very bad will happen
9) skyscraper : a very tall modern building, usually in a city;  to get rid of something which is no longer useful or wanted, often using its parts in new ways
10) holistic: dealing with or treating the whole of something or someone and not just a part
11) placebo:  a substance given to someone who is told that it is a particular medicine, either to make them feel as if they are getting better or to compare the effect of the particular medicine when given to others
12) omniscient: having or seeming to have unlimited knowledge; all
12-1) omnipotent: having unlimited power; able to do anything; power
12-2) impotent: not having the power or ability to change or improve a situation
13) computer-literate: able to use computers well
14) be accused of: to say that someone has done something morally wrong, illegal or unkind
15) staunch: always loyal in supporting a person, organization or set of beliefs or opinions
16) astrology star sign: the study of the movements and positions of the sun, moon, planets and stars, and the skill of describing the expected effect that some people believe these have on the character and behaviour of humans
16-1) astronauts: a person who has been trained for travelling in spacecraft
16-2) asterisk: the symbol * which is used to refer readers to a note at the bottom of a page of text, or to show that a letter is missing from a word
16-3) astronomy:  the scientific study of the universe and of objects which exist naturally in space, such as the moon, the sun, planets and stars
16-4) astrological prediction
17) subversive: trying to destroy or damage something, especially an established political system; under
18) has the jury reached a verdict: an opinion or decision made after judging the facts that are given, especially one made at the end of a trial
19) presume innocence:to believe something to be true because it is very likely, although you are not certain; when someone is not guilty of a crime, or does not have much experience of life and does not know about the bad things that happen in life
20) heterosexuality: a person who is sexually attracted to people of the opposite sex
B. Movie : Dead Poets Society

Dead Poets Society is a 1989 American drama film written by Tom Schulman, directed by Peter Weir and starring Robin Williams. Set at the conservative and aristocratic Welton Academy in the Northeastern United States in 1959, it tells the story of an English teacher who inspires his students through his teaching of poetry.
The film received critical acclaim and was a box office success; it was also BAFTA's best film and best foreign film in France and Italy. Schulman received an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for his work.

C. Poet: O'captain! My Captain!

"O Captain! My Captain!" is an extended metaphor poem written in 1865 by Walt Whitman, about the death of American president Abraham Lincoln. The poem was first published in the pamphlet Sequel to Drum-Taps which assembled 18 poems regarding the American Civil War, including another Lincoln elegy, "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd". It was included in Whitman's comprehensive collection Leaves of Grass beginning with its fourth edition published in 1867.









O Captain! My Captain! our fearful trip is done;
The ship has weather'd every rack, the prize we sought is won;
The port is near, the bells I hear, the people all exulting,
While follow eyes the steady keel, the vessel grim and daring:

But O heart! heart! heart!
O the bleeding drops of red,
Where on the deck my Captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.
O Captain! My Captain! rise up and hear the bells;
Rise up—for you the flag is flung—for you the bugle trills;
For you bouquets and ribbon'd wreaths—for you the shores a-crowding;
For you they call, the swaying mass, their eager faces turning;

Here captain! dear father!
This arm beneath your head;
It is some dream that on the deck,
You've fallen cold and dead.
My Captain does not answer, his lips are pale and still;
My father does not feel my arm, he has no pulse nor will;
The ship is anchor'd safe and sound, its voyage closed and done;
From fearful trip, the victor ship, comes in with object won;

Exult, O shores, and ring, O bells!
But I, with mournful tread,
Walk the deck my captain lies,
Fallen cold and dead.

D. NATO phonetic alphabet

The International Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet and also known as the ICAO radiotelephonic, phonetic or spelling alphabet and the ITU radiotelephonic or phonetic alphabet, is the most widely used radiotelephonic spelling alphabet. Although often called "phonetic alphabets", spelling alphabets are not associated with phonetic transcription systems such as the International Phonetic Alphabet. Instead, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) alphabet assigned code words acrophonically to the letters of the English alphabet so that critical combinations of letters and numbers can be pronounced and understood by those who transmit and receive voice messages by radio or telephone regardless of language barriers or the presence of transmission static.

The 26 code words in the NATO phonetic alphabet are assigned to the 26 letters of the English alphabet in alphabetical order as follows: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu.

E. supplement

James Madison: Knowledge will forever govern ignorance; and a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.

2015.12.10 - Week13

A. Vocabularies to Know
1) decorum: behavior that is controlled, calm and polite
2) receipt: a piece of paper which proves that money, goods or information have been received
3) columnist: someone who writes a regular article for a newspaper or magazine
4) espouse: to become involved with or support an activity or opinion
5) politician: a member of a government or law-making organization
6) be filled with = be full of
7) march: an event in which a large number of people walk through a public place to express their support for something, or their disagreement with or disapproval of something
7-1) parade: a large number of people walking or in vehicles, all going in the same direction, usually as part of a public celebration of something
7-2) demonstration: when you show someone how to do something, or how something works
8) exhilaration: excitement and happiness
8-1) liveliness: having or showing a lot of energy and enthusiasm, or showing interesting and exciting thought
9) exorbitant: Exorbitant prices and demands, etc. are much too large
10) armed: using or carrying weapons
11) ashtray: a small dish or container, sometimes decorative, in which people can leave cigarette ash and cigarette ends
12) protestant: a member of the parts of the Christian Church which separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century
13) -ant通常是人
13-1) protestant:  a member of the parts of the Christian Church which separated from the Roman Catholic Church during the 16th century
13-2) contestant: someone who competes in a contest
13-3) applicant: a person who formally requests something, especially a job, or a place at college or university
13-4) attendant: someone whose job is to be in a place and help visitors or customers; someone whose job is to travel or live with an important person and help them
13-5) accountant: someone who keeps or examines the records of money received, paid and owed by a company or person
14) -er, -or, -ist, -ian: suffix for people (profession)
15) extricate: to remove or set free something with difficulty
16) facilitate: to make possible or easier
17) orthodox: (of beliefs, ideas or activities) considered traditional, normal and acceptable by most people
18) icon: a small picture or symbol on a computer screen that you point to and click on (= press) with a mouse (= small control device) to give the computer an instruction
19) tenuous: A tenuous connection, idea or situation is weak and possibly does not exist
20) shaky: moving with quick, short movements from side to side, not in a controlled way
21) opponent: a person who disagrees with something and speaks against it or tries to change it
22) proponent: a person who speaks publicly in support of a particular idea or plan of action
23) rebellious: If a group of people are rebellious, they oppose the ideas of the people in authority and plan to change the system, often using force
24) denunciation: public criticism of something or someone
25) dissipate: to (cause to) gradually disappear or waste
26) scatter: to (cause to) move far apart in different directions
27) alienation; the feeling that you have no connection with the people around you
28) idle: not working or being used
29) nonchalant: behaving in a calm manner, often in a way which suggests you are not interested or do not care
30) unassuming: Someone who is unassuming is quiet and shows no wish for attention or admiration
B. Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the mid-1950s, and won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954. He published seven novels, six short story collections, and two non-fiction works. Additional works, including three novels, four short story collections, and three non-fiction works, were published posthumously. Many of his works are considered classics of American literature.

Hemingway was raised in Oak Park, Illinois. After high school he reported for a few months for The Kansas City Star, before leaving for the Italian front to enlist with the World War I ambulance drivers. In 1918, he was seriously wounded and returned home. His wartime experiences formed the basis for his novel A Farewell to Arms (1929).

In 1921, he married Hadley Richardson, the first of his four wives. The couple moved to Paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent and fell under the influence of the modernist writers and artists of the 1920s "Lost Generation" expatriate community. He published his first novel, The Sun Also Rises, in 1926. After his 1927 divorce from Hadley Richardson, Hemingway married Pauline Pfeiffer; they divorced after he returned from the Spanish Civil War where he had been a journalist, and after which he wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls (1940). Martha Gellhorn became his third wife in 1940; they separated when he met Mary Welsh in London during World War II. He was present at the Normandy landings and the liberation of Paris.

Shortly after the publication of The Old Man and the Sea (1952), Hemingway went on safari to Africa, where he was almost killed in two successive plane crashes that left him in pain or ill health for much of his remaining life. Hemingway maintained permanent residences in Key West, Florida, (1930s) and Cuba (1940s and 1950s), and in 1959, he bought a house in Ketchum, Idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.

a) A Farewell to Arms

A Farewell to Arms is a novel by Ernest Hemingway set during the Italian campaign of World War I. The book, published in 1929, is a first-person account of American Frederic Henry, serving as a Lieutenant ("Tenente") in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army. The title is taken from a poem by 16th-century English dramatist George Peele.

A Farewell to Arms is about a love affair between the expatriate American Henry and Catherine Barkley against the backdrop of the First World War, cynical soldiers, fighting and the displacement of populations. The publication of A Farewell to Arms cemented Hemingway's stature as a modern American writer, became his first best-seller, and is described by biographer Michael Reynolds as "the premier American war novel from that debacle World War I."

The novel has been adapted for the stage, initially in 1930 and subsequently, for film in 1932 and 1957, and as a television miniseries in 1966. The 1996 film In Love and War, directed by Richard Attenborough and starring Chris O'Donnell and Sandra Bullock, depicts Hemingway's life in Italy as an ambulance driver in the events prior to his writing of A Farewell to Arms.

b) For Whom the Bell Tolls

For Whom the Bell Tolls is a novel by Ernest Hemingway published in 1940. It tells the story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to a republican guerrilla unit during the Spanish Civil War. As a dynamiter, he is assigned to blow up a bridge during an attack on the city of Segovia. The novel is regarded as one of Hemingway's best works, along with The Sun Also Rises, The Old Man and the Sea, and A Farewell to Arms.

C. Eastern Orthodox Church

The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, also referred to as the Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Orthodoxy, is the second largest Christian Church in the world, with an estimated 225–300 million adherents.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is one of the oldest religious institutions in the world, teaching that it is the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church established by Jesus Christ in his Great Commission to the apostles, and practicing what it understands to be the original faith passed down from the Apostles.

United in communion with the Latin Church before the East–West Schism in 1054, and with the Oriental churches for the first quarter of its history, Orthodoxy spread throughout the Roman and later Byzantine Empires and beyond, playing a prominent role in European, Near Eastern, Slavic, and some African cultures. Its most prominent episcopal see is Constantinople.

Orthodoxy has no Papacy or bishopric of similar authority. The commonly-used but unofficial designation "Eastern" derives from its geographical relation to the "Western" churches, now known as the Roman Catholic Church, and from Constantinople being the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire.

Geographically, the majority of Orthodox Christians in the 21st century reside in Greece, Eastern Europe and Russia, with less numerous communities in the former Byzantine regions of the Middle East and around the Eastern Mediterranean. There are also many small but growing communities in other parts of the world, formed in part through immigration and in part through conversion and missionary activity.

D. Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (/poʊ/; born Edgar Poe; January 19, 1809 – October 7, 1849) was an American writer, editor, and literary critic. Poe is best known for his poetry and short stories, particularly his tales of mystery and the macabre. Widely regarded as a central figure of Romanticism in the United States and American literature as a whole, he was one of the country's earliest practitioners of the short story. Poe is generally considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre and is further credited with contributing to the emerging genre of science fiction. He was the first well-known American writer to try to earn a living through writing alone, resulting in a financially difficult life and career.

Born in Boston, Poe was the second child of two actors. His father abandoned the family in 1810, and his mother died the following year. Thus orphaned, the child was taken in by John and Frances Allan, of Richmond, Virginia. Although they never formally adopted him, Poe was with them well into young adulthood. Tension developed later as John Allan and Edgar repeatedly clashed over debts, including those incurred by gambling, and the cost of secondary education for the young man. Poe attended the University of Virginia for one semester but left due to lack of money. Poe quarreled with Allan over the funds for his education and enlisted in the Army in 1827 under an assumed name. It was at this time his publishing career began, albeit humbly, with an anonymous collection of poems, Tamerlane and Other Poems (1827), credited only to "a Bostonian". With the death of Frances Allan in 1829, Poe and Allan reached a temporary rapprochement. Later failing as an officer's cadet at West Point and declaring a firm wish to be a poet and writer, Poe parted ways with John Allan.

Poe switched his focus to prose and spent the next several years working for literary journals and periodicals, becoming known for his own style of literary criticism. His work forced him to move among several cities, including Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City. In Baltimore in 1835, he married Virginia Clemm, his 13-year-old cousin. In January 1845 Poe published his poem, "The Raven", to instant success. His wife died of tuberculosis two years after its publication. For years, he had been planning to produce his own journal, The Penn (later renamed The Stylus), though he died before it could be produced. On October 7, 1849, at age 40, Poe died in Baltimore; the cause of his death is unknown and has been variously attributed to alcohol, brain congestion, cholera, drugs, heart disease, rabies, suicide, tuberculosis, and other agents.

Poe and his works influenced literature in the United States and around the world, as well as in specialized fields, such as cosmology and cryptography. Poe and his work appear throughout popular culture in literature, music, films, and television. A number of his homes are dedicated museums today. The Mystery Writers of America present an annual award known as the Edgar Award for distinguished work in the mystery genre.

2015.12.3 - Week12

A. Vocabularies to Know
1) conspiracy: make up stories to do harmful things for others
2) The name of the sports depends on how we get scores. For example: basketball (basket) baseball (reach the base) football (feet)
3) encompass: to include, especially different types of things
3-1) include: to contain something as a part of something else, or to make something part of something else
3-2) exclude: to prevent someone or something from entering a place or taking part in an activity
4) entrepreneur: someone who starts their own business, especially when this involves seeing a new opportunity
5) homo- with, together, the same time
5-1) homogeneous: consisting of parts or people which are similar to each other or are of the same type
6) blistered: to get blisters or cause blisters
7) extraordinary: very unusual, special, unexpected or strange
8) coalition: the joining together of different political parties or groups for a particular purpose, usually for a limited time
9) sheriff: in the US, an official whose job is to be in charge of performing the orders of the law courts and making certain that the laws are obeyed within a particular county
10) commensurate: in a correct and suitable amount compared to something else
11) de- down, away from
11-1) denotation: the ​main ​meaning of a word, not ​including the ​feelings or ​ideas that ​people may ​connect with the word
12) diabolic: extremely bad or shocking dia- through
12-1) diabetes:  a disease in which the body cannot control the level of sugar in the blood
12-2) diameter: (the length of) a straight line that reaches from one point on the edge of a round shape or object, through its centre, to a point on the opposite edge
13) vice: used as part of the title of particular positions. The person who holds one of these positions is next below in authority to the person who holds the full position and can act for them
14) candidate:  a person who is competing to get a job or elected position
15) diversity: when many different types of things or people are included in something
15-1) university: a college or collection of colleges at which people study for a degree
16) needle: a thin metal pin, used in sewing, which is pointed at one end and has a hole called an eye at the other end for thread
16-1) thread: (a length of) a very thin fibre
17) noxious: describes something, especially a gas or other substance, that is poisonous or very harmful
18) scenario: a description of possible actions or events in the future
19) chronic: (especially of a disease or something bad) continuing for a long time
20) fatigue: extreme tiredness
21) syndrome: a combination of medical problems that commonly go together, which might show the existence of a particular disease or mental condition
22) mammary: glands  an organ in a woman's breast that produces milk to feed a baby, or a similar organ in a female animal
23) ovaries: either of the pair of organs in a woman's body which produce eggs, or the part of any female animal or plant that produces eggs or seeds
24) lymph: a colourless liquid which takes useful substances around the body, and takes waste matter, such as unwanted bacteria, away from body tissue in order to prevent infection
25) spinal: cord the set of nerves inside the spine that connect the brain to other nerves in the body
B. Existentialism

Existentialism is a term applied to the work of certain late 19th- and 20th-century European philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual. While the supreme value of existentialist thought is commonly acknowledged to be freedom, its primary virtue is authenticity. In the view of the existentialist, the individual's starting point is characterized by what has been called "the existential attitude", or a sense of disorientation and confusion in the face of an apparently meaningless or absurd world. Many existentialists have also regarded traditional systematic or academic philosophies, in both style and content, as too abstract and remote from concrete human experience.
Søren Kierkegaard is generally considered to have been the first existentialist philosopher, though he did not use the term existentialism. He proposed that each individual—not society or religion—is solely responsible for giving meaning to life and living it passionately and sincerely ("authentically"). Existentialism became popular in the years following World War II, and strongly influenced many disciplines besides philosophy, including theology, drama, art, literature, and psychology
C. The myth of sisyphus

The Myth of Sisyphus is a philosophical essay by Albert Camus. It comprises about 119 pages and was published originally in 1942 in French as Le Mythe de Sisyphe; the English translation by Justin O'Brien followed in 1955.
In the essay, Camus introduces his philosophy of the absurd: man's futile search for meaning, unity, and clarity in the face of an unintelligible world devoid of God and eternal truths or values. Does the realization of the absurd require suicide? Camus answers: "No. It requires revolt." He then outlines several approaches to the absurd life. The final chapter compares the absurdity of man's life with the situation of Sisyphus, a figure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same meaningless task of pushing a boulder up a mountain, only to see it roll down again. The essay concludes, "The struggle itself is enough to fill a man's heart. One must imagine Sisyphus happy."
The work can be seen in relation to other absurdist works by Camus: the novel The Stranger (1942), the plays The Misunderstanding (1942) and Caligula (1944), and especially the essay The Rebel (1951).


D. Respiratory system

The respiratory system (called also respiratory apparatus, ventilatory system) is a biological system consisting of specific organs and structures used for the process of respiration in an organism. The respiratory system is involved in the intake and exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide between an organism and the environment.
In air-breathing vertebrates like human beings, respiration takes place in the respiratory organs called lungs. The passage of air into the lungs to supply the body with oxygen is known as inhalation, and the passage of air out of the lungs to expel carbon dioxide is known as exhalation; this process is collectively called breathing or ventilation. In humans and other mammals, the anatomical features of the respiratory system include trachea, bronchi, bronchioles, lungs, and diaphragm. Molecules of oxygen and carbon dioxide are passively exchanged, by diffusion, between the gaseous external environment and the blood. This exchange process occurs in the alveoli (air sacs) in the lungs.
In fish and many invertebrates, respiration takes place through the gills. Other animals, such as insects, have respiratory systems with very simple anatomical features, and in amphibians even the skin plays a vital role in gas exchange. Plants also have respiratory systems but the directionality of gas exchange can be opposite to that in animals. The respiratory system in plants also includes anatomical features such as holes on the undersides of leaves known as stomata

E. Biological system

A biological system is a complex network of biologically relevant entities. As biological organization spans several scales, examples of biological systems are populations of organisms, or on the organ- and tissue scale in mammals and other animals, the circulatory system, the respiratory system, the nervous system, etc.
On the micro to the nanoscopic scale, examples of biological systems are cells, organelles, macromolecular complexes and regulatory pathways.
A biological system is not to be confused with a living system, which is commonly referred to as life. For further information see e.g. definition of life or synthetic biology.