The meaning of Christmas to me

When I was little , Christmas meant I can have a special gift from Santa and a happy holiday .
Christmas meant happiness then .
And now , I have grown up .
There's no gift and holiday on Christmas ...
So ... it means nothing to me ...
Oh , that's not true !
I'm just kidding :P

Everytime when Christmas comes , Taipei will be turned into a very beautiful city .
Christmas tree is everywhere in fornt of stores .
There are Christmas ornaments all over filling up the city .
The colorful and sparkling light from little bulbs prettify the whole street under the night .
Even it is cold December , red color which is high and low warm people up .
I guess I can smell the happiness in the air , and it feels like something good is going to happen .
I love this atmosphere sooooo much !
Friends will send Christmas card or candies to each other , and sometimes we play a game called " little angle " .
The most important is - my brother's birthday is on Christmas Eve .
We families will gather celebrating for him .
That makes Christmas even warmer .



Christmas is full of joy :)
So , as for me , Happiness is the meaning of Christmas .

National Treasure - Book of Secrets

If you have ever seen National Treasure I , you must go and see National Treasure II !
At the begining , we were afraid that II would be terrible - just like many other movies which were no planed for a sequal at first , but this one is great !

The protagonist is still Ben Gates ( Nicolas Cage ) .
This time , his great-great grandfather, Thomas Gates , a Civilian Hero , was accused the mastermind behind the Lincoln assassination .
It's such a huge humiliation to Ben's father , since he believed that the story about Tomas Gates he had heard from his grandfather is definitely true - Tomas can't be the head of conspiracy .
As a result , Ben set out to prove the innocence of his great-great grandfather .

The polt is compact and has no awkward moment .
In order to find the clues from Book of Secrets - a book which contains documents collected by Presidents for Presidents' eyes only , Ben even kidnapped the President !
This movie combines exciting adventure and a large amount of humor .
Riley - Ben's friend , is really a funny person , who is smart but always say something stupid making people have belly laugh !
With this kind of character like Riley , the whole movie becomes more interesting .

Of course , the process they were finding clues is also splendid .
I enjoy watching them solve those tough riddles .
When the answer was found in a smart way , I always marveled " how amazing ! " .

National Treasure II is a good movie worth watching , recommending it to everyone :)

p.s. Nicolas Cage is going to have no hair , my god !

Celebration Dinner

We went for celebration dinner tonight , since we got the second place in drama competition .
How can this dinner be so high and exciting ?

When eating our spaghetti in the restaurant , someone suggested that we can have a game called " king hour ".
We used 11 poker - from No.1 to No 10 and a king , sending out to everyone .
The one who got king can command two persons to do everything .
For example , the king may order No.1 kisses No.2 ( but king doesn't know who is No.1 and No.2 at first ) .
It was so exiting , especially when a boy and a girl was told to do something such as kissing , nose touching nose , two persons eating one noodle !!

We also saperated ourselves into 2 groups and have a competition .
The charade was so fun , but it ended in a tie .
In order to find out which team was the winner , we had a PK game .
Each team sent 4 persons out , and another team had to guess that these 4 who drunk the super spicy water .
It's a kind of like acting trials !!
Everyone was good at acting !! It's hard to figure out that he/her did drink it or not !!
( No wonder we got the runner-up , ha ha :P )
All people were extremely high and crazy !



So happy tonight :)
We had a great time .
It felt so good to get together with drama guys .
God knows how much I like these people !!

Rising seas 'to beat predictions'

BBC News
Monday, 17 December 2007


The world's sea levels could rise twice as high this century as UN climate scientists have previously predicted, according to a study.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change proposes a maximum sea level rise of 81cm (32in) this century. But in the journal Nature Geoscience, researchers say the true maximum could be about twice that: 163cm (64in). They looked at what happened more than 100,000 years ago - the last time Earth was this warm. The results join other studies showing that current sea level projections may be very conservative. Sea level rise is a key effect of global climate change. There are two major contributory effects: expansion of sea water as the oceans warm, and the melting of ice over land. In the latest study, researchers came up with their estimates by looking at the so-called interglacial period, some 124,000 to 119,000 years ago, when Earth's climate was warmer than it is now due to a different configuration of the planet's orbit around the Sun. That was the last time sea levels reached up to 6m (20ft) above where they are now, fuelled by the melting of ice sheets that covered Greenland and Antarctica.

'Robust' work
The researchers say their study is the first robust documentation of how quickly sea levels rose to that level. "Until now, there have been no data that sufficiently constrain the full rate of past sea level rises above the present level," lead author Eelco Rohling, of Britain's National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, said in a statement. Rohling and his colleagues found an average sea level rise of 1.6m (64in) each century during the interglacial period. Back then, Greenland was 3C to 5C (5.4F to 9F) warmer than now - which is similar to the warming period expected in the next 50 to 100 years, Dr Rohling said. Current models of ice sheet activity do not predict rates of change this large. However, they also do not include many of the dynamic processes already being observed by glaciologists, the researchers said. "The average rise of 1.6m per century that we find is roughly twice as high as the maximum estimates in the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report, and so offers the first potential constraint on the dynamic ice sheet component that was not included in the headline IPCC values," explained Dr Rohling. Last year, a separate study found sea level rise projections could be under-estimating the impact of human-induced climate change on the world's oceans. Stefan Rahmstorf, from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Germany, and colleagues plotted global mean surface temperatures against sea level rise, and found that levels could rise by 59% more than current forecasts.


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Drama contest

The drama contest is came on on Sunday .
We arrived Taipei school area early in the morning in order to have enough time preparing .
That was a wonderful day - great weather , good mood , everything's so fine .
One of the most interesting part is when the actors making up for their characters .
Upper classmates applied so much cosmetics to actors face , making them ... haha .. looked a kind of funny .
But this is necessary , or the audiences can't see their face clearly .
We also repaired our stage properties , using a great deal of adhesive tapes to firm them .

At 3:45 , we stepped on the stage .
Light on , and light off .
When I backed to myself , we were already bathing in a brust of clap and cheer .
Suddenly , all the painstaking seemed gone , leaving only happinss .
We had done our best playing a perfect drama , so wheather be awarded the prize or not , we were always the best in our mind .

When waiting for other departments' performances over , we went to ECO office eating something . Rounding a turn , suddenly everyone started to say his/her feeling during this drama contest . It's so warm that everybody laught happily and we looked like a big family .

Due to this competition , I met lots of people , and we had become very good friends . In addition , we drama guys were so united that really moved me . I'm so glad I did join this activity , hence can have such a fantastic experience .



Oh ... I forget to say something important ...
That is ...
We ... Eco ... got the second place in this competition ultimately !!

A creative person

When it comes to a creative person , Hayao Miyazaki is the first one who flashes through my mind .Hayao Miyazaki ( 宮崎 駿 ) is a prominent director of lots of animated films which win universal praise , and also , a co-founder of Studio Ghibli .


Almost everyone knows some Hayao Miyazaki's works . My neighborhood Totoro , Kiki's delivery service and Princess Mononoke are all famouse animations when we were little . His works just acompany us growing up . With a mysteriously unknown world and lots of magical characters , Spirited away has become my favorite one . Always , Hayao Miyazaki put warm and fragrant elements into creations , thus touching me deeply in the heart .


Miyazaki ' s films are not only full of magic and marvellous things that make people's imagination soar , but also suggest some important common themes to audiences , such as environmental protection ( ex : Princess Mononoke ) , antiwar thinking ( ex : Nausicaa ) , or maintaining a pacifist ethic . This is what I believe the most important part . Through these works , he conveyed his concern to the world , telling us how vital environmental protection and anti-war are . Combining animated films with important issues is really creative . With his creative style , Hayao Miyazaki has already become a legendary animated film director .

Transformers

I've seen " Transformers " recently , and trust me , it is really an amazing creation !



Sam - the protagonist one day found his new car actually a robot , he and his friend than realized that they are in a tug of war between Autobots and Decepticons .
Autobots and Decepticons are two races of robotic aliens , and with the different faith , they have already waged a war for centries .
This time , the battle came to earth .
Sam had to work with Autobots fighting evil Decepticons , saving mankind's survival .

I at first thougt that only boys will love this kind of movies , and robots are so childish .
That was a terrible mistake .
We girl like it so much , too !
Those robots all have their own unique characteristics and emotions - just like human .
They act vivid other than stiff like a piece of iron .
I admire Transformors' animation manufacture , since they made those extremely complex actions so splendid and glorious .
The frame is so cool when they transform form car into giant robot .



This film really attracts me !
It also contains lots of fun plots making people laugh .
I like the word which Sam's father told him : No sacrifice , no victory .
I guess through this battle , Sam did come to realize the true meaning of this word .

" English village " opens in Taiwan

By Caroline Gluck
BBC News, Taiwan
Thursday, 13 September 2007


It has been billed as Taiwan's first English language "village" - and it has just opened for business.
Every day, 120 students travel by school bus to the Happy English Village in Taoyuan county - about an hour from the capital, Taipei, for English immersion classes. The "village" is actually attached to one of the county's elementary schools. Ordinary classrooms have been transformed to look like an airport waiting room and customs area - complete with the fuselage of a real plane donated by a Taiwanese airline company. There are other themed rooms including a hotel; a bank; a pharmacy, general store; restaurant and coffee bar; science and cookery rooms and a dance studio. It is the idea of a non-profit organisation, the King Car Education Foundation, which has spent $1m on the project which it operates in a joint venture with the local county authority.

Global market
General director, Morgan Sun, says he got the idea after visiting similar immersion English villages which had opened in South Korea. "Ten years ago, when I visit Korea, I found they spoke very poor English, like Japan," he told me."But when I visited last year, I found they have lots of English villages, and they improve their young generation, they speak better English than Taiwan kids." Mr Sun, like many parents in Taiwan and in many parts of Asia, believes that a good command of spoken English is vital for younger generations to be able to compete in a fiercely competitive global market. In Taiwan, children start learning English at third grade (from the age of nine) in elementary school. But it is estimated more than 60% of all families in Taiwan's large cities send their children to private English classes - which can start from kindergarten. Not only can they be expensive, classes are often crowded and the quality of teaching is variable.Many local papers were quick to report that Taiwan ranked poorly in the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) in 2006 - used by many British and other foreign universities to assess the English ability of students - citing the figure as evidence that current methods of language teaching need to be improved. Taiwan ranked 17th among the top 20 countries which had the highest number of people taking the language-proficiency test: behind Japan, South Korea, and Vietnam. Mr Sun, from the King Car Education Foundation, told me that too much emphasis was given in schools to rote-learning and exams. "English education is still like 40 years ago: you just remember the words and grammar and pass the test."But we have very few chances to talk to foreigners. I hope this village has lots of different foreigners they can talk to face to face and (it will give the children) confidence and interest to learn better English."


Life experiences
At the Happy English Village in Taoyuan, foreign volunteer teachers interact with groups of 12 children in each class. The emphasis is on speaking. There are no lectures or written tests.The children I spoke to certainly seemed to be enjoying their experience. "I feel good at this school," 10-year-old Kent Lee told me.
"It's different from my normal school."
"It's fun here. There are so many places to play, like a science class, a bank, a shop and airport," said 11-year-old Tony Yu.
For now, the children spend just two days at the village. But the King Car Education Foundation hopes that in the future youngsters will be able to stay for a week at a time. It's also looking at other sites to open similar villages. Several other county governments in Taiwan are also actively drawing up their own plans to create their own English language immersion centres.
"I think the immersion method, with the hands on and more realistic environment is much more meaningful to the students", said retired American schoolteacher, Marlin Martin, one of 24 volunteer foreign teachers at the English village.
"They can relate their learning in class to something that's real to the world. (With) rote memorization, the knowledge doesn't stick; because there's nothing to hang it on in the kids' life.
"Students really have to have life experiences to remember what we're really trying to teach them."

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I'm so glad to see that Taiwan has such a good place for learning English :D Those places emerging in English village such as hotel , airport , restaurant , coffee bar are all where we might go when go abroad in daily life . Combining English with real world occasions makes learning useful and efficent . It is not fight on the paper this time ! You do face the foreigners and speak to them , tell them what you need . The most important is : when you feel happy , learning is not that difficult . I think it must be an interesting and impressive experience to visit English village . I want to go experiencing once , too !

drama contest is approaching :)

The school drama contest is about to come on soon , so we are getting busier and busier these days .
I participate in stage properties group , and that's fun cause i enjoy creating things .
Among the whole drama , one scene happens in the MRT platfrom , therefore we have to make a information desk and access .
That's such a big challenge !! Especially the huge MRT information desk !!



But we finished it within 1 week .
( we thought it might take us far more than 1 week at first . )
With only cardboard boxes and adhesive tape , we had to figure out lots of way making it strong enough .
Wrapped with silver paper and blue MRT mark , it do like a real information desk !
Ha ha , people were all supprised that how can we make such an enormous and complex thing .

The access is wonderful , too.



Hey , it is pretty cool because the red doors will open and close when people pass it !
(How do we make it ? Oh ... this is a top secret . )
Still , even finished the biggest two stage properties , we have so many works to do .
( we got to find out a solution to move them to school in Taipei area . the information desk is too big ! it might broken during conveyed . )
Tired but happy and confident , I hope that ECO can get the championship in the end !!

The Suite Life of Zack and Cody

( opening credits of The Suite Life of Zack and Cody * )

I've been watching this show for more than one year , and I love it sooooo much !!!
Zack and Cody are twins who live in Tipton Hotel's suite .
Tough look alike , they have totally different personalities .
It's hard to define them ... two sweethearts or ... the biggest disaster !
The whole syory is about these two young boys monkey around all day in the hotle , making their mom , friends Maddie and London , the manager Mr. Moseby nerve-racking .
You have no idea how interesting this show is until you watch it .
Zack and Cody are so cute and naughty , thus always making me laugh hard .
I am wondering why they never lack for tricky ideas !

If you want to watch it , turn to disney channel .
These recent days , the show will be presented in English pronounced with Chinese captions .( maybe only on weekend night , i'm not really sure .)
Not only " The Suite Life of Zack and Cody " , but also " Hannah Montana " and " that's so Raven " (these two are also very fun shows )have this activities - 原音重現 .
I can both enjoy the show and improve my listening :D

Blueman - Earth To America !

PART I
A. Transcribe the complete text
Your attention please
Thank you for choosing earth as your planetary vehicle
We hope you enjoy the many wonderful features of this planet as you hurtle through cosmos
Please note however
That in the event of continued inaction in the face of global warming
Your seat cushion can be used as a flotation device
Also
Please take a moment to locate this planet's emergency exits
As you can see
There aren't any
Earth to America !
Can your hear ?
Sending out a message
Loud and clear
Can you hear ?
B. What do you think of this performance?
This performance uses a very unique way publicizing the danger of earth caused by global warming . It impresses people and stricks me when seeing the words " AS YOU CAN SEE , THERE AREN'T ANY ( exit ) ". He's right , we have only one earth and no elsewhere can go .( stop hopefully expecting that there will be another planet letting us move in in the future , the global warming is right now ! ozone hole is getting bigger and bigger right now ! acid rain is everywhere right now ! we are suffered from all these right now ! ) It is essential for us to put " stop global warming " into practice other than just know it .

PART II
A. In what ways do you think you are already a global citizen?
We were all born in the earth , so I think everyone has right to become a global citizen . I am one part of this world , participating in lots of human activities ( such as economy) . I always read the global news from Yahoo News . Concerning international news make me keep the same pace with world .
B. How can you become a better global citizen?
As we know , the environment has been cruelly injured . Being a global citizen , I enjoy sources on the earth , thus having responsibility to pertect the earth . Although my strength is small , if everyone can contribute his/her own strength , the gathering power most be strong . To become a better global citizen , I'll try my best doing the environmental protection , providing my effort.

1104

November 4th is our " class day " ( cause our class number in senior high is 1104 ) , so we have a little party in someone's home !!
( Our senior high is very different from other schools . In HSNU , one number will only be used once , so every class has it's own class number and class day . )


It has been lots of months that I didn't see my classmate after graduated , and today's party was a little bit like classmate reunion .
We , more than 20 girls , just stayed in my friend's home , sitting on the sofa , eating snacks , and kept on chattering .
That's fun !! Because we had so much new exprience about our university life want to share to each other .


Our lunch was made by ourselves - sushi and dumpling .



well ... these dumplings looks interesting ... ( and a kind of cute ... right ? )
but trust me they were delicious !
However , we " overproduced "( haha , we just learned this word from economics principal ) and left a large amount of dumplings .
The best way to deal with this problem was playing a game .
We didn't punish the loser but punished the on who sat next to her !!
( She had to eat the dumpings . )
How crucial ...
I was out of luck ... cause my neighbors were kept on losing !!!
And I had to kept on eating !!!




How cheerful today .
It's good to see the best old friends .
Of course, we will meet each other again on the next 11/04 !

Revise my Comprehensive English Enhancement Plan

Common European Framework
I think my CEF level is between B1 and B2 . Maybe reading ability is better ( B2 ) , because I have already had a large quantity of practices in senior high . But listening is weak . And I'm not really sure which level of speaking do I stand , since we don't have many oppotyunities to speak .

Revise my CEEP
My goal is still passing the GEPT中高級 .
The orginal plan need some adjustments and add something new .
This is the new plan after revised .

1 . Reading Advance according to the schedale arranged by the magazine itself . Memorizing the new vocabulary .
2 . Reading CNN ( made by LiveABC ) . Trying to learn the world news written in English . CNN's compact disk is really useful . Using it well can improve my listenling and speaking ability indeed . ( and go to the real CNN website sometimes . )
3 . Watching HBO ( or Star movies , Cinemax ) in my spare time . It's my interest and can learn English as well . They always use colloquial words , so it won't be too difficult to understand . I can find some interesting usage during their concersation , and it's fun !

These are workable and won't take too much time a day .
I hope I'll put my plan into practice .

click

After finishing our accounting exam this afternoon , we decided to have a " movie night " tonight .
( to reward our efforts for studying financial accounting whole week !!)

Will ... although we call it " movie night " ... the truth is that there's no even one theater here in sanshia :(
We just bought some foods and went to someone's room watching DVD .
( but it's still fun * )



It's such a funny film called " click ".
Story is about a man - Michael who is tired of enduring those " meaningless " activities with his families .
In his world , " work first " .
Once he gets a one-of-a-kind remote comtrol , which can change his life .
As clicking the botton , he can pass any part of life that he doesn't want to experience .
Sounds great !
But problems just appeare one by one ...
Michael misses too much brilliant life he could have enjoyed with families and leaves unlimited regret .

However , he luckily obtains a second chance to run his life again - with a whole new attitude .

He makes a conclusion at the end
"Family first "

I totally agree what he said .
I can feel it that my parents are getting older and I am goning to become a grown-up leaving home soon .
Time is crucial .
Who knows how much time do I still can have
to spend with my families ?
I love them more than anything .
All what I want do is make them happy .
Their happiness is my happiness .
To me , Family first .

My Comprehensive English Enhancement Plan for 2007-2008 School Year

1. Special goal

My parents hope that I can study abroad for master's degree , and that means I'll have to take the test of TOELF or IELTS someday . TOEIC is also important to students like us majoring in economics and maybe are going to spend our future on business . So getting good grades on it is necessary . It is such a big , long plan to get all these qualifications , now passing the GEPT 中高級 is my first goal . Lots of challenges are there waiting for me , I must have to face them step by step and spare no efforts preparing =) .


2.Specific Actions that you think will be effective to achieve that goal

Improving my English ability on all aspect (reading , listening , especially writting) is essential . Reading Advance everyday can memorize some new words , strengthen my reading ability . My dad gave me a series of English reference books called - Ho's Complete English Grammer , studying them might help improving my poor grammer . Learning English from movies and English songs as I always do . This can make English learning fun and efficent . Last but not least , grasping all opportunities to speak English .