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.