各種保存期限 英文怎麼說 sell by date; expiration date; best before date

1. Best if used by/use-by date.best before date: 最佳使用或食用期限:強調產品在此日期前保有最完整新鮮度等 過了此期限 雖可食用(edible)但品質或許變差(deteriorate)
2. Expiration date: 保存期限:超過期限請丟棄(toss it off)
3. Sell-by or pull-by date: 此期限是製造商用來告知商店何時將產品下架(remove.. from the shelves)
4. Guaranteed fresh: 用在易變質的烘焙食品(perishable baked food) 若超過此期限 仍可食用但不保證新鮮
5. Pack date:包裝日期 多用在罐頭或盒裝產品

http://homecooking.about.com/library/weekly/aa102102b.htm

過期產品 英文怎麼說

過期食品: expired food products ; outdated food products
過期: be past the expiration date
(食物)有效期限: expiration date
shelf life 保存期

Inspection on one of Taiwan's biggest middlemen traders (中盤商) led to scandals involving the sales of expired food products by two famous snack food companies less than one month before the traditional snack high season of Chinese New Year.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/12/28/327249/p1/Snack-makers.htm

牛津字典年度字: 窘迫的中產階級 Oxford English Dictionary Picks ‘Squeezed Middle’ as Word of the Year | NewsFeed | TIME.com

   It’s that time of year again: lexicographers (詞典編纂者) from the Oxford English Dictionary have come together to pick the one word or phrase that defines the past 12 months.
2011 is the year of the “squeezed middle,” as suggested by British Labour Party politician Ed Miliband. OED compilers from both the U.S. and the U.K. came together to review the buzzwords (流行熱門字)that “captured the flavor of the year”—including occupy(指類似佔領華爾街運動) , podcasting, hactivisim (非法入侵電腦或網路來達成政治目的: wiki:the use of computers and computer networks as a means of protest to promote political ends.), Arab Spring (阿拉伯之春), and an OED judge’s favorite, “bunga bunga”(義大利前總理的雜交性派對)—used in reference to Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s scandalous parties.

  Miliband discussed the word on BBC’s Radio 4 earlier this year, where he failed to clearly define who the “squeezed middle” exactly included, saying it referred to people “around the average income, but below and above the average income.” This obviously includes just about everyone, and after being called out by host John Humphrys, Miliband clarified: “I’m not talking about people on benefits, I’m not talking about people on six-figure salaries either; I’m talking about the broad middle class in this county who find themselves financially hard-pressed.”

   The OED in turn defines “squeezed middle” as “the section of society regarded as particularly affected by inflation, wage freezes, and cuts in public spending during a time of economic difficulty, consisting principally of those people on low or middle incomes.”
(牛津大辭典進一步將 squeezed middle 定義為: 在經濟不景氣中受通貨膨脹 停滯薪水及公部門支出縮減影響的社會中階或中低階層)
  Though critics of the choice say that it’s too vague and all-encompassing to have much meaning, the phrase seems fitting following last year’s winner: “big society.” Susie Dent, an Oxford dictionary spokesperson and judge, said that the list of words up for consideration this year was a “sober list for sober times.” Of “squeezed middle,” Dent defended the choice, saying in a statement that the “likelihood of its endurance as anxieties deepen made it a good global candidate for Word of the Year.”
And while it may feel like a loose definition, Dent says “it’s something that, in a way, we all feel we belong to.”

Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/11/28/oxford-english-dictionary-picks-squeezed-middle-as-word-of-the-year/#ixzz1f4F9pGsd

詐保 詐領保險金 英文怎麼說

詐保 : insurance scam (n.)  scam:(n.)欺詐
向保險公司詐領 to fraud the insurer
fleece insurers of their money
fleece (v.) 敲詐

Taiwan investigators yesterday interviewed a Taiwan businessman accused by mainland police of chopping off his own hand in an attempt to defraud his insurer, saying they would not prosecute the man on the strength of evidence furnished by mainland authorities alone.


Source: http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/intl-community/2011/11/29/324375/China-accuses.htm

2011/5/26 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC 英文聽力筆記

BBC 英文聽力筆記:

C1: Health Reforms: 健保改革:
The Department of Health has ordered a pause to make space to listen to the people worried about changes to the NHS. The BMA and the Royal College of GPs are two organisations who have concerns.
(1) The bills should be withdrawn and re-drawn.
(2) advisory group 諮詢團體 / listening exercise
(3) sweep away the tears of the NHS managers overnight
(4) operate the pilot schemes
(5) shadow consortium 影子財團
(6) deliver the value for money 划算

C2: Blocked Drains: 下水道阻塞

Baby wipes are causing havoc in our sewers. Reporter Melanie Abbott visits a sewage works to find out more.
Down the drains with a flusher - we count the cost of clearing up the baby wipes and face cleaners we insist on flushing down the loo.
(1) provide the perfect combination of sth
(2) blockage 阻塞
(3) machinery 大型機器
(4) shred 切碎
(5) conveyor belt 輸送帶
(6) parking enforcement notice
(7) really unappetizing looking pile of rags, mops and rubbish
(8) what is flushable and disposable
(9) break down in the sewage 在下水道分解
(10) moisture tissue 濕紙巾
(11) biodegradable (a.) 能進行生物分解的

C3: 50p rail fares 50 便士的火車票
Southern rail are offering 50p rail fares, but if they can do it today, why not all the time?

C4: Children's Nursery:

The death of a child in a nursery playground has highlighted how the regulator, OFSTED, does not always publish information which parents might view as vital.
(1) make an informed decision
(2) a distressing story 令人悲傷的故事
(3) constantly chatter away
(4) resurrect (v.) bring a dead person back to life
(5) inspection reports

C5: Peat 泥炭
Peat is at the centre of a gardening row. Even the government want to see it removed from our grow bags, so why do we find it so hard to wean ourselves off it?
使逐漸戒除惡習

C6:

A new report criticises conditions in ASDA's clothing factories, ASDA say the charity have got their facts wrong.

(1) with a clear conscience 問心無愧
(2) make a living wage
(3) be physically and verbally abused
(4)  sweatshop 血汗工廠


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b011cffn#p00h63p5

follow-up stories of DEHP and the cloud agents 起雲劑

http://englishnews.ftv.com.tw/read.aspx?sno=E2516270238AA3E9A00F4B63168F5693
Health Department orders safety certification for major food categories (2011/05/29)

The Health Ministry has ordered that five major types of food and beverages must prove that they are free from commonly used plasticizers before they can be sold The new measure will take effect from May 31. Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta announced the policy as the government attempts to calm public panic over the practice of adding the toxic plasticizers to foodstuffs.
再追塑化劑

塑化劑事件，現在也掃到了藥廠。知名的宏星製藥所生產的一款乳酸菌也被驗出含有塑化劑，緊急下架回收。而衛生署宣示，5月31號前，5大類食品沒有檢驗報告，必須下架停售。今天賣場貨架上，紛紛貼出檢驗報告，但有部分廠商只貼出切結書，仍然引起民眾疑慮。


Hong Shing Pharmaceutical made its name in traditional Chinese medicine herbal remedies. But now its good name has been negatively affected because plasticizer has been found in its top-selling “9 Hundred Million Lactic Acid” capsules.

Tsai Shu-chen
FDA Food Division Director
Its supply chain is from Yun Sheng Chemical through two other companies in a line that we are already familiar with and in control of.

As of Sunday, the FDA has listed 159 companies and 506 products known to be tainted by the carcinogenic plasticizers DEHP and DINP. In order to calm the public, Health Minister Chiu Wen-ta announced that May 31 has been set as a D-Day to end the practice of adding toxic plasticizers to foodstuffs.

Chiu Wen-ta
Health Minister
The quantities of DEHP and DINP discovered have been within safe limits. Currently, there is still more than one day left. There is still some time for us to review (progress) but the cooperation of the manufacturers has been very good. The companies are outstanding.

Because so many products need to provide inspection reports before they can be sold, currently the work schedules of inspection labs are full. On Sunday, some products such as Jin Jin Asparagus Juice only have an affidavit attached that says its test report will come out on June 1. Many consumers were avoiding such products to wait for the test report. The five major categories of food and beverages that must offer an inspection report before they can be sold includes sports drinks, fruit juices, premixed tea, jams, tablets and capsules. Starting from June 1, any products that cannot provide a report must be taken off the shelves until a report is provided.

環境荷爾蒙 英文怎麼說

環境荷爾蒙 英文怎麼說

環境荷爾蒙 : Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals = EDC

Apprehension is growing among many scientists that the cause of all this may be a class of chemicals called endocrine disruptors.
科學家愈來愈擔憂這些(男性生殖器官畸形等)起因可能是被稱做環境荷爾蒙的化學物質
They are very widely used in agriculture, industry and consumer products. Some also enter the water supply when estrogens in human urine — compounded when a woman is on the pill — pass through sewage systems and then through water treatment plants.
These endocrine disruptors have complex effects on the human body, particularly during fetal development of males.
環境荷爾蒙廣泛在農業及消費者產品中出現 有些甚至進入水源......

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/28/opinion/28kristof.html

統一發票 統一發票對獎 電子發票 英文怎麼說

 統一發票 英文: uniform invoice
統一發票開獎: uniform invoice lottery drawing 
receipt lottery
電子發票: electronic invoice

TAIPEI--Eight lucky shoppers are likely to each win a record NT$10 million (US$340,000), the amount that will be the new grand prize in Friday's uniform invoice lottery drawing, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) forecast yesterday.

The Uniform Invoice Lottery, better known as the receipt lottery, may up its highest winning prize to NT$10 million (加碼獎金到一千萬)by next year, according an announcement by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) yesterday.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2010/10/19/276704/Receipt-lottery.htm

塑化劑 致癌物 食品添加物 黑心 英文怎麼說

塑化劑 致癌物 食品添加物 英文怎麼說
塑化劑: the plasticizer Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, commonly abbreviated as DEHP
致癌物: carcinogen
食品添加物: food additive 
黑心產品: adulterated products 
遭污染的: tainted

DOH tracing path of harmful food additive 

The Department of Health (DOH)(衛生署) is trying to track down a poisonous food additive sold by a chemical company to unwitting (不知情的) makers of beverages and foodstuffs after ordering the removal of contaminated products from store shelves. (下令遭毒害的產品全面下架)

According to a local news source, this is the world's first case of foods and beverages being laced with (被攙有少量的) the plasticizer (塑化劑) Di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate, commonly abbreviated as DEHP. DEHP is a carcinogen 致癌物and can also disrupt the endocrine system and change hormone levels. (擾亂內分泌及荷爾蒙系統)
   In the meantime, prosecutors are questioning Lai Chun-chieh (賴俊傑), manager of Yu Shen Company (昱伸公司), which has been manufacturing the additive for a long time. According to sources, the company's monthly sales total NT$3 million. Lai, 57, was in police custody but had not been charged with any crime as of press time.
Protecting the Consumer
   DOH ordered on Friday, May 20, that beverages and foodstuffs laced with the additive be removed from store shelves nationwide, that consumers be refunded, and that all such unsold beverages and foodstuffs be impounded and destroyed. (被扣押銷毀)
   Total consumption of DEHP by public and private organizations came to more than 200 metric tons last year, according to DOH, which is trying to find out how much found its way to the food industry. (找出多少流入食品業) On May 19, Changhua County seized 127 barrels (25 kg each) of emulsifiers laced with plasticizers (攙有塑化劑的乳化劑) and about 10,000 kg of food product mixes from four food processing companies in Changhua County, Taichung City and New Taipei City.
Carcinogen's Harmful Effects
　According to media reports, the said additive, which contains the cancer-causing plasticizer DEHP, has been used as a substitute for palm oil, a legal ingredient but five-times more expensive, in the manufacture of an emulsifier. DEHP, an organic compound, is described as a cost effective general-purpose plasticizer which is used mainly for making plastic and PVC soft and pliable. While emulsifiers are a legitimate ingredient of food additives, plasticizers are not. (乳化劑/起雲劑) 是合法食品添加劑但塑化劑不是) Emulsifiers are added to sports drinks and fruit juices to give them a “clouded”and “rich” look. 乳化劑是被用來添加於運動飲料和果汁使飲料有濃稠的口感)
   Affected beverages and foodstuffs include fruit juices, jellies, yogurt drinks and yogurt tablets sold under such popular brands as Dahu Strawberry Farm, Sunkist, Taiwan Yes and others. The highest concentration found in these beverages and foodstuffs is 30 parts per million (ppm). An intake of 500 cc of such drinks could leave in the body enough of the agent to exceed the permissible amount in a 60-kg adult.
Young Energy Source Co., Ltd., maker of Taiwan Yes products, yesterday apologized to the public for its negligence in a press conference and in public statements published in the Chinese-language press. The company also told consumers to return the products they had bought for unconditional refunds. 無條件退費
Aside from causing cancer, long-time accumulation of DEHP in the human body could lead to feminization, said an official with the DOH's Food and Drug Administration (FDA). As such, women pregnant with male babies and boys in puberty among regular consumers of such products stand to be affected most, according to the FDA official.
However, according to Li Chun-chang, a professor with National Chengkung University, DEHP is a dangerous carcinogen, but would not accumulate if intake stops. Only long-term observation could determine whether a person's endocrine system has been affected, Li said, adding a urine test could readily reveal the amount of DEHP accumulated in the body.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/05/25/303658/DOH-tracing.htm

2011/5/19 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

BBC英文聽力筆記

C1: Rail Report:
Sir Roy McNulty's rail report recommends big changes to organisation and fare structures in a bid to reduce the burden on the taxpayer and bring costs in line with comparable European networks.
(1) in a nutshell 簡言之
(2) sufficiently conducive to
(3) bottleneck 瓶頸
(4) the rationale behind/for/of sth: 基本原理
(5) provide more car-parking capacity/facility
(6) franchise
(7) peak rate: 收費最高的使用高峰期 peak fare: 尖峰期費用

C2: Perfume:

City of London police warn consumers over online perfume fraud.
(1) a spate of reports on the fraud 一連串的....
(2) It is too good to be true
(3) counterfeit perfume 偽造 冒牌的香水

C3: typewriters 打字機

How old typewriters are transforming the educational prospects of blind children in Africa

(1) contract the measles 感染麻疹
(2) typist 打字員
(3) typewriters 打字機
(4) come about 發生

C4: Allotments: 
The government say a new law will stop the decline in allotments and make it easier for communities to force local councils to make more available.
(1) to be on the waiting list 等候名單
(2) add the value to the land

C5: West Coast Mainline
In the second of his reports on the West Coast Mainline franchise Mark Holdstock profiles the British train companies hoping to clinch the deal
(1) socially necessarily but not profitable
(2) bidder  投標者
(3) too ambitious time plan
(4) the consolidation  合併

C6: Comet:
The well known electrical store Comet could be sold by its French owners

http://www.bbc.co.uk/airplay/console/b0112y4g

2011/5/16 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

BBC英文聽力筆記
C1: Olympic Tickets: 倫敦奧運售票
Lord Sebastian Coe explains why you have to pay for your tickets before you know what you going to see.
(1) debit from your card or account  從帳戶扣款
(2)  second dip/chance  第二次機會
(3)  next in the queue 排下一個
(4) fork out 大把掏錢

C2: Profile Marketing: 個人資料行銷

The information people put on facebook that advertisers would love to get hold of
(1) remove ourselves from the clutches of advertisers 擺脫廣告戶的控制
(2) hold a grudge 心存怨恨
(3) to give a consent to use your data 同意是否使用你的個資
(4)  presenter (US: announcer) 廣播, 電視 節目主持人
(5) personality trait 人格特質
(6) arbitrary (a.) 武斷的
(7) opt out of sth 退出

C3: Focus DIY

We hear the problems facing customers of the Focus group DIY chain now that it’s gone into administration.
(1) sort out the mess 釐清混亂
(2) be allocated 分配
(3) When you buy in the distance, you should pay with the credit card.

C4: Face the Fact Preview:

John Waite talks to the body trying to improve standards in the school travel business.

(1) reputable 聲譽好的
(2) sound and straightforward
(3) jolly diligent = very
(4) telesales  電話銷售

C5: Bristol's radicalism: 布里斯托的激進主義根源
How do the protests against Tesco fit in with Bristol's image as a green city
(1) inconceivable (a.) = unthinkable
(2) nonconformalist 不認同主流思想的人
(3) Drink is cited as a facotr in the riot of the newly-opened Tesco.
(4) boil over = explode 惡化 爆發
(5) a quirky oddball 古怪的人
(6) anti-social (a.) 反社會的
(7) catalyst (n.) 催化劑
(8) self-appointed (a.) 自己任命為...
(9) divided (a.) 分裂的

C6: Fire Engines: 消防車
The overweight fire engines that are finally pulling their weight, five years after they were ordered. Our reporter Dan Johnson takes a ride on the new models on the streets of South Yorkshire.
(1) escort (a.) 護送隊

C7: Crusie Ship: 郵輪受困波羅的海
We hear what's happened to the 400 British passengers stranded on ship that has broken down in the Baltic Sea.

C8:

What's the future for the England-Scotland Union after the Holyrood elections?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01132z0#p00gz7fm

2011/5/13 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

BBC英文聽力筆記
C1: Playing Fields: 挽救英國運動場
The ten million pound fund to protect playing fields in England - but is it enough money to save the many pitches under threat of developers?
(1) to fend off developers 阻止房產開發商
(2) leveling 夷為平地
(3) It's a question of hanging on to it. 保有 不放棄
(4) progress from there, as a younger kid kicking balls in local playing fields

C2: Ryanair's Charges: 廉價航空: 瑞安航空針對某些座位額外收費

Does Ryanair's new ten pound charge to pre-book a seat constitute a shift in the budget airline's business model?
(1) priority boarding 提早登機
(2) revenue stream
(3) There is still a lot to come on board ancillary charges 附加費用
(4) with the extra legroom 多餘的伸腳空間
(5) roll out to another route 推展到另一路線
(6) long-haul 長途的

C3: The Future of British Countryside 英國鄉村景觀前景

We examine our connection to our landscape and the challenges it faces in the future.
(1) aesthetic value of the landscape 自然景觀的美觀價值
(2) make headway 取得緩慢進展
(3) nostalgia 懷舊

C4: Train Tickets: 將近半數旅客因不事先訂票而無法想折扣
How half of rail passengers travelling for leisure are missing out on ticket discounts by not booking in advance
(1) last minute travel 臨時的旅遊
(2) trick of the trade
(3) You can really get good savings just a few weeks ahead.

C5: Tesco in Bristol: 布里斯托真的需要新的特易購?
Tesco has vowed to reopen a store in Bristol which was at the centre of serious street disturbances. We’ll ask why there is such strong feeling about one supermarket.
(1) opposition to the corporate giant
(2) minuscule (a.) 極小的
(3) to cut corners to make the biggest profit
(4) look for aggravation and violence
(5) squatters 佔用房子的人

C6: Blockbuster Exhibitions: 賣座展覽爭議:

The National Gallery's limiting entrance to its forthcoming exhibition on Leonardo Da Vinci. Why organise a high profile event and then stop people coming?
(1) Great works of art should not be viewed through a melee of people  (n.) 混亂的群眾
(2) culture vulture  文化狂熱份子
(3) to bring in the revenue and fill the coffer 增加收入
(4) a slow burning and fueling process
(5) put sb. off sth 使...失去熱情


 http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010xyyb#p00gxw7g

2011/5/12 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

BBC英文聽力筆記
C1: Transport Review on Snow: 大雪的交通政策檢討:
We hear criticisms from the Transport Select Committee about how transport organisations failed customers during the winter weather last December. Are they justified?
(1) The motorways were halted. 英國高速公路
(2) The welfare of passengers should be looked after by the airport authorities.
(3) pilot scheme 試驗性的計畫
(4) paltry /insufficient information passed onto the customers

C2: Furniture Prices:  家具價格上漲
Furniture manufacturers and retailers from the wood panel industry are worried that government subsidies to burn wood to generate electricity are causing the price of wood to rise.

(1) biomass generators 生質能發電機
(2) wood burning electricity
(3) chipboard 碎木膠合板
(4) unintended consequences 無心的後果
(5) a zero-sum game :零和遊戲 : 一方贏一方輸的局面
(a win-win situation: 雙贏局面)

C3: Local Government Spending Snapshot: 地方政府支出簡介

BBC research finds there is a North South divide in spending on adult social care.
(1) disproportionate effect 不成比例的結果
(2) disparity 懸殊
(3) It is the fog of war problem : 戰爭迷霧: 無論戰前如何計畫 戰爭發生時也無法掌握戰況和敵情

C4: Howard Schulz: the founder of Starbucks: 專訪星巴克總裁
The founder and CEO of Starbucks tells Winifred about why he felt the company lost its soul a few years ago and his efforts since to put it back on track.
(1) steer clear of troubled water 避開災難
(2) only to drink a simple cup of coffee from a dazzling long menu
(3) disrespectful 對...不尊重
(4) a sense of intimidation and confusion
(5) hubris 傲慢
(6) be under the microscope
(7) unequivocally 斬釘截鐵地

C5: History of Pay TV:   收費電視歷史
The UK first ventured into the world of Pay TV back in the 1960s. Phil Tinline has been investigating why BSkyB weren't the first to bring us pay as you go viewing.
(1) third-rate 三流的
(2) hook up with = partner with 與..合作
(3) keen to try their hand 急於試身手
(4) to square up with: 與...結清帳
(5) close a deal

C6:

Ofgem's response to Scottish and Southern's recent misselling conviction. To report a case of misselling call the Consumer Direct hotline on 08454 04 05 06 and select option one.

C7 First Great Western:
FirstGroup is the first company to hand back a rail franchise since privatisation. It will end in 2013, rather than 2016. Firstgroup wants to rebid for the franchise and get a better deal.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y30t#p00gwwhm

2011/5/11 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

 BBC英文聽力筆記:
C1: Calls for Major Changes to the Work Capability Assessment:
New calls for changes to the way people with health conditions whose symptoms can fluctuate daily - such as MS, HIV and Parkinson's - are assessed for benefits.
(1) people with fluctuating conditions  起伏不定的病情
(2) arthritis 關節炎
(3) give a snapshot of  簡要說明
(4) hold the job down 保有工作

C2: Scottish and Southern Energy Prosecuted:
The power ginat Scottish and Southern Energy has been found guilty of misleading selling practices.
(1) cold-call 銷售商品電話
(2) criminal prosecution 刑事訴訟
(3) wonderful energy sales scripts
(4) printout 電腦列印文件
(5) clipboard 寫字版
(6) doorstep sales
(7) verdict 裁決

C3: The Government has turned down plans for a new passenger and freight boat linking the Isles of Scilly with Penzance. Fiona Clampin reports.

 (1) retain the tourism 保有旅遊業
(2) upgrade 升級
(3) let the dust settle 待情況明朗

C4: PPI scam: 英國銷售保護險詐騙

The Ministry of Justice is warning people to beware of text messages they receive claiming they could be eligible for compensation for mis-sold Payment Protection Insurance.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010y0sk#p00gw5pl

速成課程 實物課程 英文怎麼說

速成課程 英文怎麼說 : a crash course
實物課程  英文怎麼說 : an object lesson

2011/5/9 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC 英文聽力筆記

BBC 英文聽力筆記
C1: Which? 1: 消費者議題: 保險爭議與信用卡收費
The consumer campaign group's new executive director explains how Which? plans to fill the gap left by the government body, Consumer Focus, which disappears in 2013.
(1) PPI issue: misselling of a policy where self-employed or unemployed can't claim
PPI= PAYMENT PROTECTION INSURANCE英國銀行過去為衝業績 把產品賣給自己本身為雇主失、業者或是不了解該產品的個人，但該保險卻無法讓因失業或生病無法支付債務時的客戶獲得保障，
(2) The regulators seem to sleep on the job (把...拖延到第二天) They have been alert to this problem on an industrial scale
(3) flex your muscles 顯示力量 實力 (作為警告)
(4) surcharges; rip-off charge 索價過高
(5) categorically 斷然地
C2: Olympic Tickets Payment: 倫敦奧運訂票自5/9開始自帳戶扣款
From tomorrow money can be taken from your account to pay for your allocated Olympics tickets
(1) There will be resell opportunities.

C3: Royal Mail: Suffolk 居民抱怨英國郵務系統二流的服務

Residents in one Suffolk village say they are paying for a first-class mail service but getting only second-class delivery.
(1) They don't get their letters on a daily basis but every other day.不是每天收到信 而是每隔一天才收到

C4: Rabbit Farms: 英國兔肉需求有多少?

How much demand is there for rabbit meat farmed in the UK? A business owner planning several rabbit farms says he'll now adopt a free-range system after claims of battery farming.
(1) free-range: 放養的
(2) battery farming: 密集養殖場

C5: Back to Work: 失業問題
An American entrepreneur thinks he has the answer to Britain's unemployment problem
(1) reciprocal responsibilities 互惠
(2) reduction of grants and doles 減少撥款與救助金
(3) The approach should be straight away
C6: Energy Series: Energy Savings:  再生能源所節省的費用

How you could shave up to 30% off your heat and power bills by using low-tech solutions. We'll give you details of schemes that will help to pay for them.
(1) to exploit sth
(2) There are still some pitfalls to look out for.
(3) to crack up 崩潰

C7: Which?2:
The consumer campaign group's new executive director discusses how consumers can make sure they get the best deals on energy.

C8: Outdoor Advertising:
This week's Face the Facts investigation is into missing sports advertising promised to charities at televised events. John Waite hears how the outdoor advertising business as a whole has taken off.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01104bz

2011/5/6 You and Yours Listening Notes BBC英文聽力筆記

BBC RADIO 英文聽力筆記'

C1: I-Pod Factory: An NGO based in Hong Kong, says it's uncovered illegal working conditions in a factory in China which produces products for the computer company Apple.

(1)Supplier Foxcon said they followed the code of conduct 鴻海宣稱他們遵守蘋果的行為準則

(2)Civil rights organization 民權團體

(3) fit it with….mismatch 符合…不符合 

C2: British Waterways: British Waterways is launching a scheme to improve access to Britain's 2000-mile canal network. Peter went to have a look.

(1) waterway: 水路 航道

(2) canal: 運河 灌溉渠

C3: Regional Airports:  Plymouth airport is going to close in December according to its owners, Sutton Harbour Group. We look at how regional airports in the UK are faring and round up other news from the airline industry.

(1)     be scaled back to

(2)     crop up : 突然

(3)     magic bullet 快速解決方法

(4)     Regional airports require heavy subsidies from taxpayers.

C4: Energy series: Heat Pumps: 熱汞

In the third of our series considering the pros and cons of domestic micro generation for green heat and power Kevin Mousley looks at ground and air source heat pumps.

(1)     be calibrated to 被校準…

(2)     windmill: 風車

(3) The heat pump needs to be closely fit with your property.

C5: Summer of British Film: Why has the UK become such a popular location for blockbuster movies? 英國成為賣座鉅片拍片熱門地方

C6: Top Jobs:

An advert for a job as a racing car driver is available on the Jobcentre PLus website. It pays a hundred thousand pounds a year, but is it genuine or a stunt?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010t6nw#p00gsfb5

世界末日 末世論的預言 英文怎麼說

(1) prophecy of cataclysimic earthquake from Teacher Wang 王老師的強烈大地震預言
(2) 世界末日的謠言: the doomsday gossip 
(3) 世界末日: apocalypse
(4) 謠言: groundless talk

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/foreign-affairs/2011/05/12/302067/Prophecy-of.htm

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/national/national-news/2011/05/11/301921/Rumors-of.htm

2011/5/5 You and Yours Listening Notes (BBC英文筆記)

(BBC英文筆記)
C1: General Medical Council Hearing: 英國全國醫學總會聽證會
We hear about the General Medical Council's plans to discipline doctors behind closed doors without having a full public hearing. Should patients be included in their deliberations?

(1) deliberations 商議 審議
(2) confrontational litigation system

C2: Contracts for Life: 終身合約代表的意義?
you buy a guarantee for life or sign up to a service for life, what does it mean? Does it cover you for the whole of your life, the life of the goods you've bought or the life of the contract?
(1) singularly unhelpful 異常地...
(2) offer me as a goodwill gesture
(3) tariff 價目表
(4) monthly direct debit  每月直接扣款
(5) a one-off offer 絕無僅有的

C3:Premium Water 高價瓶裝水
Winifred tastes some of the premium water brands being sold to consumers, including water from an iceberg 15,000 years old, and asks if it's worth splashing out.
(1) naturally carbonated water 天然氣泡礦泉水
(2) background reading
(3) high mineral-content water 含高度礦物質的
(4) bottled water 瓶裝水
(5) sparkling 起泡的
(6) blind tasting
(7) fizzy or still 氣泡或不起泡的
(8) tap water 自來水
(9) hold out 抵抗 倖存
(10) with plenty of body: 濃郁 香醇
(11) imperceptible (a.) 小得無法察覺的

C4: Energy Series: Wind: 綠能: 風力發電

As a study out this week says that UK wind farms operate at only 20% capacity, Kevin Mousley asks if it is worth generating wind power to generate energy in your home.
(1) take it off the shelf
(2) wind turbine 風力發電渦輪機
(3) densely populated area 人口密集區
(4) feed-in tariff  政府電力收購制度 = FIT
(5) CHP = combined heat and power


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010t6pd#p00grjrd

2011/4/27 You and Yours Listening Notes (BBC 英文筆記)

C1: Buying a Mobile: 根據 Which? 調查,超市是購買手機的最佳地點:
Which? has found that the best place to buy a mobile phone is from the supermarket. 8000 customers rated their experience in terms of value for money and customer service.
(1) walk away with a happy contract 輕易獲得....
(2) Mobile phones have become commodities almost in the same way as you pick up your groceries.
(3) sign up to a contract
(4) Talktalk scores the worst for landline customers. 陸線

C2: U-turn on anaerobic digesters: 厭氧消化槽政策180度大轉彎
Farmers fear government enthusiasm is waning for digesters which use rotting waste to create gas and generate electricity. Returns are so attractive some farmers are growing crops just for digesters.
(1) measure sth out: 取出所需的量
(2) to deposit its waste 做堆肥
(3) government premium
(4) carbon footprints 碳足跡
(5) porridge= oatmeal 麥片粥
(6) perverse economics 顛倒曲解的經濟學
(7) to square with sth = be consistent with sth : 與...一致

C3: Helping by Phone: 新的智慧型手機應用程式也能幫你做善事

Mobile company Orange has developed a Smartphone app called "Do Some Good" which allows users to help charities.
(1) small bite size task
(2) tap into the crowd 利用開發...

C4: Coastguard Service Changes: 海岸警衛隊部署將被刪減
The government has extended the consultation period on controversial plans to reduce 18 coastguard stations to eight.
(1) put ... on hold 延期 中斷
(2) seafaring (a.) 海上航行的
(3) to sign the petition against the downsizing of the coastguard 簽署請願書...
(4) take sth on board : 接納採納....

C5: Social worker crisis: 社工職業急需改革

Former Labour Cabinet Minister Lord Adonis says the social work profession is in need of urgent reform.
(1) to recruit the best and the brightest

C6: Playstation Network Data Breach: 索尼Playstation 遭駭客入侵 客戶資料外洩
Over 70 million users of Sony's online gaming network are being warned that their personal details, including credit card information may have been stolen.

C7: Ryanair ads: 廉價航空瑞安廣告遭禁播:
The Advertising Standards Authority bans ads featuring a bikini-clad model and the promise of Spring sun because some of the featured destinations - which included Glasgow - were not warm enough.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010mryz#-

2011/4/26 You and Yours Listening Notes (BBC 英文筆記)

C1: Saving for Our Destination:
Consumers are less likely to cut back on holidays than at the start of the recession and more likely to cut back on discretionary spend on socialising - like drinking and dining out.
(1) to look for the best available options
(2) The other side of coin is... (用來表示on the other hand 另一方面) 
(3) no improvement of insolvency= bankruptcy破產
(4) Things are holding up well for those remaining in the market.
(5) downsize 精簡 裁員
(6) disposable income 可支配的稅後收入

C2: The Tourism Industry:
With a number of countries in Europe looking to tourism to boost their economies can Ireland, Portugal and the UK rely on it to create jobs and fill the coffers?增加國庫收入
(1) heed the call/advice 注意 聽從
(2) a broad brush approach : 不考慮細節的方法

C3: Heathrow Airport:
Julian Worricker goes to Heathrow to see what it offers the consumer as a destination experience.
(1) divided opinions 意見分歧
(2) look in the context of ... 瞭解來龍去脈

(3) Capacity is constrained.
(4) What constitutes a good regime? 管理體制

C4: Ash Cloud Technology:
EasyJet is working on a new technology system called AVOID. It's effectively a weather radar for ash allowing pilots to make adjustments to the plane’s flight path to avoid any ash.

(1) AVOID: Airborne Volcanic Objects Identifier and  Detector
(2) It is not about passing costs to customers but about not incurring loss.

C5: All Inclusive Holidays:全包式套裝的假期行程
With the increasing popularity of All Inclusive holidays, we discuss the impact for local economies.
(1) be on a tight budget
(2) The margin is so cut.

C6: For the Love of Camper van: 野營車
Comedian Tom Wrigglesworth on why we love to love and hate the camper van in equal measures.
(1) mobile car

C7: Slow Travel:
Is travel more about the destination or the journey to getting there? We hear about the slow travel mindset from Professor of Tourism and author Les Lumsdon.
(1) embrace it wholeheartedly

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b010m2f8#p00gl1zc

2011/4/20 You and Yours Listening Notes (BBC英文筆記)

C1: Facebook Criminals: 聽障人士在臉書上遭詐騙
Deaf people are receiving fraudulent e-mails via Facebook inviting them to invest money in companies which - it is claimed - will give them impressive returns.
(1) freeze their assets 凍結資產
(2) cyber fraud 網路詐騙
(3) Make sure your password is hard to crack. 確保你的密碼難以破解

C2: Silver Prices: 銀價自2008年以來 已漲四倍
In times of economic uncertainty gold prices tend to rise but, in the last 8 years, silver has outperformed gold and has nearly quadrupled in value since 2008. Is silver a good investment?
(1) Gold is a deep, liquid market. 易變現的 (that can be changed into cash)
(2) Silver is a by-product of copper mining and even gold mining.
(3) derivative 衍生物
(4) It could be a bubble.
(5) to hedge against silver 避險..
(6) The currency is wobbly. 不穩定的
 

C3: No Room to Swing a Cat:
It has been revealed that our children are getting bigger but that train seats are getting smaller. Mark Stevenson muses on why spaces getting smaller even though we are getting larger.

C4: Australian Coastal Cities: 澳洲沿海城市面臨大量人口移入
Coastal areas in eastern Australia are suffering from a spectacular population growth fuelled by migrants and people forced out of some of the world's most expensive cities. Phil Mercer reports.
(1) congestion 塞車
(2) crumbling infrastructure 崩塌的基礎建設
(3) be ballooned to a bursting point  膨脹到爆炸的程度
(4) unassuming 謙遜的
(5) extreme weather events, rising sea level ...
(6) the haves and the have-nots
(7) Most of it land is uninhabitable. 大部份土地不適人居

C5: School Budget Cuts: 預算刪減迫使Tewkesbury 中學每周五提早一小時下課
Tewkesbury School is going to close an hour early every Friday to save money. How will this affect the pupils and how are other schools coping with enforced budget cuts?
(1) new academic year : 新學年

C6: Men with Eating  Disorder: 因健保不再允許男女混合病房, 有厭食和暴食的男患者被安置在精神病房或其他科病房而非該專科病房
Because mixed gender wards are no longer allowed in hospitals, men with eating disorders are being placed on psychiatric and other medical wards rather than in specialist in-patient units.

BBC Radio 4: Point of View: The ecological sublime : Listening Notes and Transcript

Listen to: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b00xj18g
Read the transript : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12241405

Fear of ecological destruction causes us to pity and protect nature rather than oppose it, says Alain de Botton

   The environmental dangers that now face mankind put non-scientific philosophical types like me in an awkward situation. We have to acknowledge that we can have precisely nothing interesting to say on the two most important questions in the air right now, namely: "What is going to happen to the human race?" and "What should we do about it?" It is not from a philosopher that you stand to be enlightened.
Nevertheless, maybe there is still a point in trying to reflect on, rather than simply solve our ecological dilemmas. It remains valid to try to fathom what the idea of planetary abuse has done to our minds. We may ask what the awareness of the environmental crisis has done to our inner landscape, how it has altered the human psyche.
    We can begin by observing that there is nothing new for mankind about confronting the possibility of its own destruction. The feeling that the present order - the neat fields, the ordered laundry cupboards, the full granaries - might soon disappear would have been intensely familiar to any inhabitant of medieval Europe. You need only study the carvings on the sides of the cathedrals to see that our imaginations have for centuries been haunted by visions of Armageddon.
Power
   However, we have grown used to conceiving of our present environmental situation as unparalleled. Perhaps it's because we have learnt of it through the media and because for the daily paper, everything must necessarily be novel. There never was a Lisbon earthquake or a sack of Rome. No one has ever murdered their children or wasted their money. This isn't to deny some intensely novel features behind our anxieties, just to insist that we should probably carefully separate out the familiar, long-standing morbidity of homo sapiens from the particular features of the current predicament.

   We might do worse than to date our present ecological awareness to the moment when the two bombs exploded over Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These weapons showed us not only that mankind was perishable (an very old thought), but that it was perishable through human action (rather than because of disease-bearing rats). In other words, that we have acquired the power to commit species suicide.

   We have always known ourselves to be short-sighted and murderous. We have only in the past few generations learnt that we are also very powerful. We have been blessed with enough intelligence to alter our fates in a way no other animal can, while being denied enough wisdom to keep our baser sides under control.Yet despite similarities, environmental destruction differs from its nuclear counterpart in a crucial component. Generals who blow up bombs know they want to kill people. Chief executives who manage lorries transporting milk from depots to supermarkets generally have no motives more sinister than the wish to make some money for their shareholders.
When we use ample water to brush our teeth or fly to Florence to see some Titians, aggression is far from our minds. However, we are now daily reminded that innocent everyday actions have a cumulative destructive potential greater than an A-bomb. We have been asked to reconceive of ourselves as unthinking killers.
   The destruction is occurring not primarily through what any one of us has done, but through what we are doing collectively as a race. We are implicated in a crime we cannot control singly. Salvation must be collective. So we are guilty, but also unusually powerless.
Mystery
  Murderers have it easy in this respect, beside the ordinary citizen of the modern world. They can at least free themselves from sin by repenting and then changing their ways through their own willpower. They have no need to secure simultaneous agreement from six billion others across 193 countries.
Yet for us to give up altogether, to do nothing, is not an option because we are sternly reminded that if everyone thought this way, we would be lost. We are returned to the Christian injunction to avoid despair not because there is anything to feel especially cheerful about, but because hope is equated with humanity and a concern for other people.
The ecological situation has forever changed our relationship to nature. An unusually warm spring day cannot now be what it was for Chaucer and Wordsworth - a manifestation of the mystery and power of the non-human realm. Since our beginnings, the experience of nature involved an encounter with "the Other". The mountains and valleys reminded us that the planet was built by something other than our own hands, by a force greater than we could gather, long before we were born, and set to continue long after our extinction. We could go into nature and see that we were the playthings of forces that laid out the oceans and chiselled the mountains.
   How mindsets have changed. The equation has been reversed. Nature doesn't remind us that we are small, but rather provides chilling, awesome evidence of our size and strength. We glance up to the snows of Mount Kilimanjaro and think of how quickly our coal generators have heated the earth. We fly over the denuded stretches of the Amazon and see how easily we have gashed the planet.
Nature used to terrify us, now we terrify ourselves. We are responsible for the early flowering of those Wordsworthian daffodils. Our fingerprints are all over the uncannily early return of the migratory birds. We control not only the traffic and the planes, but also the very cycle of the seasons.
Empathetic powers
We have in response to our situation become hysterically sentimental towards nature. We take pity on her. We treat all of her like a wounded panda. We have come far from the attitude of the ancient Greeks, who saw nature as their adversary, potentially generous, but at heart a foe. We have lost all sense of the ancient fight and now feel responsible. Despite our puny frames and lifespans, we have even succeeded in feeling guilt towards glaciers.
   The role of the commentator on the environment is at one level to enable us to notice changes that are occurring. But at another level, it is also a question of getting us to care. And this is a tall order, for we are being asked to worry about the possible reduction in the number of our species three generations hence, when we all have to deal with a far more imminent problem - our own death.
   We are being asked to worry about other people who are not yet born as much as we worry about ourselves. Never before in the history of humanity have we been asked to care so much about others of whom we know so little. Our empathetic powers have been stretched to breaking point.

This may be where art has to come in. It is artists who are going to have to help us to picture - literally and figuratively - dangers which are generally invisible and are therefore constantly subsumed under the weight of our more mundane or personally intense concerns. Artists may have no solutions, but they are the ones who can come up with the words and images to make visible and important the most abstract and impersonal of challenges.

   The environmental crisis forces us to find our feelings of awe elsewhere, out in the universe. Science should matter to us not only because it helps us to control parts of the world, but also because it shows us things we will never master. Thus we would do well to meditate daily, rather as the religious do on their God, on the 9.5 trillion kilometres which comprise a single light-year, or perhaps on the luminosity of the largest known star in our galaxy, Eta Carinae, 7,500 light-years distant, 400 times the size of the sun and 4 million times as bright.
We should punctuate our calendars with celebrations in honour of VY Canis Majoris, a red hypergiant in the constellation Canis Major, 5,000 light-years from earth and 2,100 times bigger than our sun. Nightly - perhaps after the main news bulletin and before the celebrity quiz - we might observe a moment of silence in order to contemplate the 200 to 400 billion stars in our galaxy, the 100 billion galaxies and the three septillion stars in the universe.
Whatever their value may be to science, at least the stars can be of use as solutions to our megalomania, self-pity and anxiety.

BBC Radio 4: Point of View: "News' and concentration Listening Notes and Transcript

Listen to the broadcast: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00xb105

Read the transcript  : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12191104

Alain de Botton on our inability to concentrate.

  We pay a price for all the information we consume these days - and it's knowing less, says Alain de Botton.

One of the more embarrassing difficulties of our age is that most of us have quite lost the ability to concentrate, to sit still and do nothing other than focus on certain basic truths of the human condition.
The fault lies in part with our new gadgets. Thanks to our machines, of which we are generally so proud, the past decade has seen an unparalleled assault on our capacity to fix our minds steadily on anything. To sit still and think without succumbing to an anxious reach for a machine has become almost impossible.
(1) succumb to =  give in to 屈服於 抵擋不住...
 
  But we can't just blame the machines. There is a deeper issue at stake - the feeling, so rife in modern secular culture, that we must constantly keep up with what is new.
The obsession with current events is relentless. We are made to feel that at any point, somewhere on the globe, something may occur to sweep away old certainties. Something that if we failed to learn about it instantaneously, could leave us wholly unable to comprehend ourselves or our fellow human beings.
(2) be at stake: 有風險 成敗難料
(3) be rife: be abounding 充滿...
(4) be relentless: persistent :持續的
(5) instantaneously : immediately 瞬間地

Novelty
   The news occupies in the secular sphere much the same position of authority that the liturgical calendar has in the religious one. Its main dispatches track the canonical hours with uncanny precision. Matins have here been transubstantiated into the breakfast bulletin and Vespers into the evening report.
(6) liturgical: related to liturgy: ceremonial 禮拜儀式的
(7) dispatch: 新聞報導 電訊
(8) canonical : appearing in the biblical canon.conforming to orthodox or well-established rules or patterns, as of procedure.按照基督教規的 經典的
(9) uncanny (a.) 不可思議的 難以解釋的
(10) To change (one substance) into another; transmute ; 實體變換 : 基督教中 麵餅和葡萄酒變成基督的血 剩餅酒外形
(11) matins: 晨禱
(12) vespers: 晚禱

   The prestige of the news is founded on the unstated assumption that our lives are forever poised on the verge of a critical transformation, thanks to the two driving forces of modern history - politics and technology. The earth must therefore be latticed with fibre-optic cables, the waiting rooms of its airports filled with monitors, and the public squares of cities ribboned with the chase of stock prices.

(13) lattice (n.) 格柵

  Contrast this with how religions think of what is important. For the faiths there is seldom any need to alter insights or harvest them incrementally through news bulletins. The great stable truths can be written down on vellum or carved into stone rather than swilling malleably across hand-held screens.
  For 1.6 billion Buddhists, there has been no news of world-altering significance to their faith since 483 BC. For their Christian counterparts, the critical events of history came to a close around Easter Sunday in 30 AD, while for the Jews the line was drawn a little after the destruction of the Second Temple by the Roman general Titus, in 70 AD.
(14) incrementally 逐漸增加地
(15) vellum 羊皮紙
(16) swill 使晃動 流動
(17) malleably 易成形 可鍛造地
 
  Even if we do not concur with the specific messages that religions schedule for us, we can still concede that we pay a price for our promiscuous involvement with novelty. We occasionally sense the nature of our loss at the end of an evening, as we finally silence the TV after watching a report on the opening of a new railway or the tetchy conclusion to a debate over immigration.
  It is then we might realise that - in attempting to follow the narrative of man's ambitious progress towards a state of technological and political perfection - we have sacrificed an opportunity to remind ourselves of eternal, quieter truths which we know about in theory, and forget to live by in practice.
(18) concur = agree 同意
(19) promiscuous (a.) 雜亂的
(20) techy = tetchy 動輒發怒的
  Fasting
   Rather than letting us constantly catch up on "news", religions prefer to keep reminding us of the same old things, according to strictly timetabled routines.
The Book of Common Prayer, for instance, decrees that its subscribers should always gather at 6.30pm in the evening on the 26th Sunday after Trinity, as the candlelight throws shadows against the chapel walls, to listen to a reading from the second section of the Book of Baruch. Just as on the 25th day of January they must always think of the Conversion of Saint Paul, and on the morning of the 2nd of July reflect on the Visitation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and imbibe the moral lessons of Job.
(21) decree 裁定 判決
(22) imbibe: to absorb sth, especially information 吸收 接受知識

   How free secular society leaves us by contrast. It expects that we will spontaneously find our way to the ideas that matter to us and gives us weekends off for consumption and recreation. Like science, it privileges discovery. It associates repetition with punitive shortage, presenting us with an incessant stream of novelty. For example, we are enticed to go to the cinema to see a newly released film, which ends up moving us to an exquisite pitch of sensitivity, sorrow and excitement. We leave the theatre vowing to reconsider our entire lives in light of the values shown on screen, and to purge ourselves of our decadence and haste.
   And yet by the following evening, after a day of meetings and aggravations, our cinematic experience is well on its way towards obliteration. Just like so much else which once impressed us, but which we soon enough came to discard - the majesty of the ruins of Ephesus, the view from Mount Sinai, that poetry recital in Edinburgh, the feelings we had after putting down Tolstoy's Death of Ivan Ilyich.
(23) aggravation: exasperation. 惱怒
(24) recital (n.) 贅述
  In the end, all modern artists share something of the bathetic condition of chefs, for whereas their works may not themselves erode, the responses of their audiences will. We honour the power of culture, but rarely admit with what scandalous ease we forget its individual monuments. Three months after we finish reading a masterpiece, we may struggle to remember a single scene or phrase from it.
Wisdom
   Our favourite secular books do not alert us to how inadequate a one-off linear reading of them will prove. They do not identify the particular days of the year on which we ought to reconsider them as the holy books do, in the latter case with 200 others around us and an organ playing in the background.

    There is arguably as much wisdom to be found in the stories of Anton Chekhov as in the Gospels, but collections of the former are not bound with calendars reminding readers to schedule a regular review of their insights.
  We are reluctant to admit that we are simply swamped with information and have lost the ability to make sense of it. For example, a moderately industrious undergraduate pursuing a degree in the humanities at the beginning of the 21st Century might run through 800 books before graduation day. By comparison, a wealthy English family in 1250 would have counted itself fortunate to have three books in its possession, this modest library consisting of a Bible, a collection of prayers and a compendium of lives of the saints - these nevertheless costing as much as a cottage.
(25) compedium: 彙編 概要

Elevate
  If we lament our book-swamped age, it is because we sense that it is not by reading more, but by deepening and refreshing our understanding of a few volumes that we best develop our intelligence and our sensitivity.
We feel guilty for all that we have not yet read, but overlook how much better read we already are than St Augustine or Dante, thereby ignoring that our problem lies squarely with our manner of absorption rather than with the extent of our consumption.

  We are often urged to celebrate not only that there are so many books to hand, but also that they are so inexpensive. Yet neither of these circumstances should necessarily be deemed unambiguous advantages. Consider the immensely costly and painstaking craftsmanship behind a pre-Gutenberg Bible - a product of a society which wished to elevate individual books into objects of extraordinary beauty so as to emphasise their spiritual and moral significance.

   Though technology has rendered it more or less absurd to feel gratitude over owning a book, there remain psychological advantages in rarity. We can revere the care that goes into making a Jewish Sefer Torah, the sacred scroll of the book of Moses, a copy of which will take a single scribe a whole year and a half to write out by hand, on a parchment made from the hide of a ceremonially slaughtered goat which has been soaked for nine days.
(26) revere: To regard with awe, deference, and devotion 尊敬
We should stand to swap a few of our swiftly disintegrating paperbacks for volumes that would proclaim, though the weight and heft of their materials, the grace of their typography and the beauty of their illustrations, our desire for their contents to assume a permanent place in our hearts.
(27) disintegrate: 瓦解 崩潰
   The need to diet, well accepted in relation to food, should be brought to bear on our relation to knowledge, people, and ideas. Our minds, no less than our bodies, require periods of fasting.

2011/4/6 You and Yours Listening Notes

C1: NHS reform: neglect and abuse in UK health service
 The elderly are the greatest casualties of the misguided determination to see patients as consumers and thr NHS as business rather than a caring service.

(1) endemic (a.) 流行的 難以擺脫的
(2) heavily decorated soldier 被授勳的
(3) scores and scores of harrowing experiences 另人斷腸的
(4) be molded over endlessly 

C2: Ofgem Online Advice

How to make sure you get the best deal on energy.

C3: Stem Cell Update

Eight British patients who paid thousands of pounds for a controversial stem cell treatment in Holland are embarking on legal action.
(1) give patients false hope
(2) The doctor was struck off 被除名

C4:

With three retail chains going bust in the past week, we ask will there be a bloodbath on the high street as the effects of the recession and tax changes kick in?

C5:  部份消費者抱怨任天堂新的3D產品導致頭暈眩

It's Nintendo's fastest selling console ever but some players have complained the new device leaves them feeling sick and dizzy. Will this have any effect on sales?
(1) Children under 6 should not play Nintendo in 3D at all. 

C6: Housing Panel:

Industry experts give their verdict on the current state of the housing market.
(1) be in line with the expectation

爆肝 英文怎麼說

爆肝: acute liver failure
http://edition.cnn.com/HEALTH/library/liver-failure/DS00961.html

Acute liver failure occurs when your liver rapidly loses its ability to function. More commonly, liver failure develops slowly over the course of years. But in acute liver failure, liver failure develops in a matter of days.

Acute liver failure can cause many complications, including excessive bleeding and increasing pressure in the brain. Another term for acute liver failure is fulminant hepatic failure.

Acute liver failure is a medical emergency that requires hospitalization. Some causes of acute liver failure can be reversed with treatment. But in other situations, a liver transplant may be the only cure for acute liver failure.

Signs and symptoms of acute liver failure may include: 猛爆性肝炎症狀可能有:

• A yellowing of your skin and eyeballs (jaundice) 皮膚及眼球變黃
• Tenderness in the upper right area of your abdomen  腹部右上方疼痛
• Nausea 反胃
• Vomiting 嘔吐
• A general sense of not feeling well 感覺不適
• Difficulty concentrating 注意力不集中
• Disorientation or confusion 茫茫然
• Sleepiness 想睡
• Muscle tremors 肌肉顫抖

打馬賽克 英文怎麼說

(1) 將影像模糊化: blur images  模糊的影像: blurry images

 

AFP:Swiss court orders Google to blur images on Street View

瑞士法院裁定谷歌必須將Street View 影像模糊以保護隱私

(AFP) –

ZURICH — A Swiss court said Monday that it has ordered Internet giant Google to make all images of individuals and vehicle plates unrecognisable on its Street View picture map, so as to comply with privacy rules.

(2) censored images: 遭審查刪除的影像
As it turns out, the goriest images were censored, and many pictures of American soldiers killed in combat were not allowed to be shown until later.

Read more: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,994297,00.html#ixzz1IojJiMFv

(3) censor images with a mosaic 打馬賽克

2011/4/1 You and Yours Listening Notes

C1: VAT loophole 海峽群島的增值稅漏洞

The Chancellor has signalled a crackdown on (取締) the sale of cheap CDs and DVDs from the Channel Islands.
(1) LVCR
(2) The loopholes are exploited.
(3) political gesture
http://www.vatloophole.co.uk/lvcr-covered-bbc-channel-islands-tv/569/


C2: The South Downs南唐斯丘陵從4月開始正式成為英格蘭國家公園

Having taken sixty years to become a National Park, we hear from the woman who has campaigned for the South Downs to receive National Park status for the last decade.
(1) iconic landscape
(2) serial compainer or one-issue

C3: High Speed Rail 新的聲音科技使預定高鐵沿線的居民能聽到一小時內28台火車經過的聲音

New sound technology enables people living near the proposed route of the high speed rail line will be able to hear what the twenty eight trains an hour would sound like.
(1) collect signatures on the petition 收集請願書簽名
(2) industrial, commercial and residential properties 工業區商業區及住宅區的建物

C4: Valuable Consumer Data 信用卡公司如何利用消費者購物的歷史來清楚知道消費者需求

How card companies use customer purchase histories to build up a picture of consumer needs and wants.
(1) aggregate and anomalize
(2) Is a service or invasion?


C5: Misleading Websites: OFT 取締不實特價的網站Webuyanycar.com
The Office of Fair Trading has clamped down on misleading web offers from the website Webuyanycar.com
(1) enforcement action 執法
(2) instant hit
(3) reappraisal 重新評價

C6: DAB follow-up 數位廣播DAB 後續報導 (Digital Audio Broadcasting)

David Blunkett MP speaks up for listeners frustrated by the limitations of DAB radio.
(1) 90 percent of coverage 百分之九十覆蓋率
(2) The burble, the breakaway and the lack of good sound
(3) a big overclaim of DAB

C7: Beach Cash:

Headlines about a poor seaside council spending money on trips to the beach for local children are not what they seem.
(1) splash out on sth 花大錢...
(2) economically disadvantaged 經濟弱勢者
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt4h1

2011/3/31 You and Yours Listening Notes

C1: High Street Shopping: 英國銷售現況
As four out of ten items in supermarket trolleys are discounts or special offers, we find out how the downturn is affecting the high street.
(1) On the plus side
(2) turn the corner 好轉
(3) Sales figures are grim.令人擔憂的銷售數據
(4) CBI 英國產業聯合會
(5) High street sales are subdued at the moment.
(6) feel the pinch at this moment 經濟困難
(7) Price comparison promise
(8) Hard pressed consumers are much more conscious of values, bargains and quality.
(9) The shift has gone away from cheap throwaway/disposable fashion towards to fewer better quality purchases.
(10) It is the middle products being squeeze.
(11) blood bath 大屠殺
(12) phony war 戰爭狀態

 C2: Speed Cameras Switched Back on 測速照相機恢復運作 但費用從何而來
Oxfordshire speed cameras were switched off last year after a 40% cut in their Road Safety Grant provided by central government. But now they're being switched back on - so who's paying for them?
(1) penalty tickets  罰單
(2) reduce casualties on the road 減低道路傷亡人數


C3: Mobile Phones in Classrooms 學校是否該允許學生攜帶手機到校 以減低IT設備費用

With substantial cuts to their budgets, schools are considering using pupils’ mobile phones in the classroom rather than spending money on expensive IT equipment. But is it a good idea?
(1) obsolete (a.) 淘汰的
(2) loads of technology 許多的
(3) clear protocol in the classroom 教室清楚的協議
(4) hand-held device 手提的裝置
(5) Mobile phones have a disruptive influence on the class. 擾亂的


C4: Online Shopping: 線上購物

Morrisons confirms it won’t launch its service until 2013. But will that be too late?
(1) multi-channel 多元管道
(2) Consumers are much more empowered and knowledgeable.
(3) hassle (n.) 麻煩

C5: Prescription Charges 蘇格蘭4/1起廢除處方籤收費

Prescription charges will be abolished in Scotland tomorrow leaving England as the only UK country which continues charging patients. The BMA calls this a 'tax on the poor' and want it scrapped.
(1) bureaucratic (a.) 官僚作風的

C6: Gambling Laws: 博奕法規鬆綁是否能挽救酒吧?

Proposals have been made for a relaxation of gambling laws in order to boost the economy. But is gambling in pubs a good idea?
(1) deregulation 解除管制
(2) margin of error 誤差幅度
(3) liberalization 自由主義
(4) Gambling keeps you mentally alert.

C7: Scotch whiskey 蘇格蘭威士忌

Scotch whiskey producers are celebrating another year of record exports, but how is their whisky enjoyed in other countries?
(1) international reputation for its quality.
(2) impressive rival
(3) outsell by a long way


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt3pm

過勞死 英文怎麼說

過勞死: Karoshi = death from overwork

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/2011/03/15/294686/Overwork-confirmed.htm

The Council of Labor Affairs (CLA) has ruled that an engineer who died last year was the victim of overwork and the deceased man's family is entitled to labor insurance compensations. In a report released at an investigative hearing on March 14, Fu Huan-jan, director of CLA's Department of Labor Safety and Health, announced an engineer with computer memory chipmaker Nanya Technology Corporation, surnamed Hsu, died from Karoshi, a Japanese term meaning death from overwork.
According to Fu, occupation factors triggered cerebral-vascular symptoms in the man.
After Hsu died in January of 2010, his family suspected he died from overwork and duly requested that CLA initiate investigative procedures to look into his workload before his death. The CLA complied by forming a panel of 17 experts, who have found that Hsu died from “occupational diseases.”
According to Fu, Hsu's family is entitled to Labor Insurance compensation equivalent to Hsu's salary for 45 months.
Members of Hsu's family and representatives from Nanya were invited to the hearing.
Karoshi as a cause of death was first recognized in Japan.

護身符 英文怎麼說

護身符: an amulet (通常是珠寶首飾)
(a piece of jewellery that some people wear because they think it protects them from
bad luck, illness,etc)

護身符:talisman ( an object that is thought to have magic powers and to bring good luck)
護身符:lucky charms: (符咒等) 像是日本御守(omamori)

2011/3/25 You and Yours Listening Notes

C1: IPad-2 and 3Ds Launches: 蘋果Ipad 2及任天堂3Ds 上市
New product launches - especially in new technology - are glitzy affairs designed to capture media attention. How important are they to the success of a new product?
(1) game console 遊樂器
(2) flagship store 旗艦店
(3) the sucessful launch day 首次上市
(4) springboard 出發點
(5) What if the hype backfires?

C2: Rail Complaints: 火車客訴

Edward Walsh of the Association of Train Operating Companies answers complaints about the rail network - including a change allowing "regulated" fares to rise 3 per cent above inflation
(1) hold back venting his frustration
(2) to give their side of story
(3) price hike 價格上漲 oscillation 浮動
(4) This is part of government's policy to switch the burdern from taxpayers to passengers.
(5) franchise : 國家給予的特別經營權

C3: Lego builds its Business 樂高如何建立其積木王國

From the humble plastic brick, Lego's profits are now towering. We find out how Star Wars and Indiana Jones have helped inspire a new generation of builders and boosted sales by 50%.

(1)on the crest of ... 在..的頂端
(2)stick to the ethos of good quality
(3) they’ve turned things around


C4: Budge Travel: 低價旅遊
We analyse the effect of the Budget on the travel industry with air transport consultant John Strickland
(1) The shine has come off that good news 使..相形失色
(2) taxation  稅制
(3) per-plane tax instead of per-passenger tax

C5: Open Water Swimming 在開放水域游泳
Peter takes a cold water dip in Hampstead Ponds in London to find out first hand why there's a surge of interest in this pastime.
(1) sterilized pool 消毒的泳池

C6: Customer email adresses lost: Play.com及Trip Advisor 遺失大批顧客電郵地址

Music and film retailer Play.com and travel website Trip Advisor face investigations by the Information Commission after admitting that some of their customer e-mail addresses have been stolen.

C7: Tesco Pricecheck:  特易購更改退費規定
Tesco have changed the rules covering its price pledge refund scheme to limit refunds to £20.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zm3j1#p00fxfm5

隔代教養 英文怎麼說

隔代教養: grandparenting

Grandparents raising grandchildren

Skipping a generation

Millions of grandparents are filling in for missing or misguided parents

Jun 14th 2007 | chicago | from the print edition

http://www.economist.com/node/9340256

  SOME kinds of non-traditional family get more attention than others. In the 1990s welfare reform flashed a spotlight on America's poor single mothers. More recently, ballot initiatives on gay marriage and unions have put more children with two mothers or a pair of fathers in the public eye. By contrast, children being brought up by their grandparents rarely attract public interest. Yet over the past few years federal and state governments have quietly been fiddling with their policies in order to help these families more effectively.

   Grandparents are now raising an awful lot of America's poorest and most troubled children. In 2000, the first time that the Census Bureau took a proper count, 2.4m grandparents were bringing up their children's kids. To put that in perspective, fewer than 2m poor American families now receive formal welfare payments under Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the programme that sparked a fierce national debate when welfare was reformed a decade ago.
  Many of those grandchildren are in poor shape. For starters, the events that have left them parentless usually mean that their lives have been hard. In most cases, the parents are missing because of drugs, prison, mental illness, or a history of neglecting or abusing their child.

   Moreover, the grandparents in these families tend to have their own limitations. A 2003 study by the Urban Institute, a centre-left think-tank, found that among grandparents responsible for raising children, 37% had incomes below the federal poverty threshold, and 66% were low-income (less than twice the poverty level). One-third of the grandparents raising children had not finished high school, and 62% had no college education. There is also an obvious generational gap in energy levels: whereas 70% of the grandparents were over 50 years old, the study found, 70% of the children were 11 or younger. Statistics apart, it is also clear that many of these grandparents did not do a good job of bringing up their own children.

   One way federal and state governments have tried to help is by tweaking elderly-assistance programmes to account explicitly for grandparents' needs. In 2000, when Congress renewed the Older Americans Act (a collection of goodies for retired folk) it added a new programme offering the states grants to help grandparents.

  Some states now offer better information and counselling: on what kind of health care is available, how to help with homework and so forth. Bruce Carver, who co-ordinates many services for old people in western Kentucky's Pennyrile region, says that one popular part of the new programme has been respite care. This pays for the grandparents to have someone else mind the kids for a few weeks when school is out, since the teachers can no longer give them a breather everyday.
  Two problems still stand out, however. One is mental health. A study last year by the Chapin Hall Centre for Children, at the University of Chicago, focused on child-rearing grandmothers in a couple of Chicago suburbs. It pointed to a link between the grandmothers' symptoms of depression and the grandchildren's emotional and behavioural troubles, but found that many of these families were not getting the help they needed.
   The other problem involves custody. For various reasons, such as a private agreement with the parents or some sort of dispute, grandparents often do not have formal custody. Yet without it, many find it extremely difficult to obtain the health care to which their grandchildren are entitled, or to get them into a convenient public school. Some grandparents also face a deeply painful choice: whether to fight for custody when the parents want their children back but still seem unfit. A legal battle generally means the grandparents attacking their own children in court.

from the print edition | United States

雙薪家庭 英文怎麼說

雙薪家庭: dual-earner household
賺錢養家的人: breadwinner
頂客族: DINK= Dual Income, No Kids

參考:

The Spousal Safety Net

By NANCY FOLBRE

 Nancy Folbre is an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
In today’s economy, men are lucky if they have a wife in their portfolio. Traditional women’s jobs have been hit less hard by recession than men’s jobs. Many married women have softened the financial impact of their husbands’ unemployment by finding jobs or increasing their hours of paid work.
As a result, dual-earner households are becoming more dual. A recent briefing paper by Kristin Smith of the Carsey Institute of the University of New Hampshire documents a sharp uptick in historical trends. Wives now contribute 47 percent of family income in married-couple households where the wives are employed.

Kristin Smith, Carsey Institute,
University of New Hampshire

Professor Smith explains that increased reliance on wives’ earnings largely reflects a recession-related decline in men’s employment and earnings.
Past estimates have suggested that the effect of a husband’s unemployment on his wife’s participation in paid employment — termed the added-worker effect — is small.
But in the past, unemployment was often temporary. Today, the average duration of unemployment has reached a record high.
Not surprisingly, we now see evidence of a significant added-worker effect – more specifically a husband-without-a-job effect.

In a just-published article in the journal Family Relations, Professor Smith and her colleague and co-author Marybeth J. Mattingly offer a fascinating comparison of how wives responded when husbands moved out of paid employment between May of 2004 and May 2005 (a period of economic expansion) and between May 2008 and May 2009 (a period of recession).
Wives increased their hours of paid employment significantly more in the second period, helping explain why their relative contribution to family income increased. Declines in family wealth (such as the value of a home) probably intensified the effect of persistently high unemployment rates among men, pushing married women to accept jobs they might have refused in the earlier period.
The spousal safety net didn’t help all couples, because not all wives were able to find employment. Also, it’s unlikely that the increase in wives’ earnings fully compensated for the decline in husbands’ earnings, because, as Professor Smith points out, women employed full-time year-round earn, on average, about 83 percent of what their male counterparts earn.
One wonders if men who stopped working for pay began doing more work around the house. Research on the time use of men without jobs in the United States finds that they don’t devote much more time to housework and child care than other men. However, husbands who become more dependent on a wife’s earnings over time are likely to be more responsive.
Pooling income and housework doesn’t magically guarantee economic security. As the sociologist Jacob Hacker points out in The Great Risk Shift, unemployment of either spouse can jolt family income. Some married couples have fallen into what Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi call the two-income trap, borrowing more than they afford.
But married men – who tend to be better educated and more affluent than single men both before and after marriage — clearly benefit from their wives’ earning potential.
Perhaps the traditional marriage vow needs an update: For better or worse, for richer or poorer, in expansion or recession, in short-term or especially long-term unemployment.

http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/12/the-spousal-safety-net/#more-84613