[MUSIC] Flower Dance

Today I want to introduce a music called "Flower dance".  This music is brisk and graceful to me. If you are looking for a song that is suitable to studying, I think this one is a good choice.

In the beginning, you can hear a dialogue.  This dialogue is coming from a movie called Spacemen.
Here is the dialogue:
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”They serve the purpose of changing hydrogen into breathable oxygen,” she explains, rewriting the laws of chemistry and biology without a backward glance. “And they’re as necessary here as the air is, on Earth.”

”But I still say…they’re flowers.”

”If you like.”

”Do you sell them?”

“I’m afraid not.”

”But, maybe we could make a deal.”

”What do you mean?”

”Oh, you see, you won’t have to send them anywhere.  I’ll pay for them, and then, I’ll leave them here, for you.”

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The last two sentences are not existing in this music. I think the reason is that the graceful melody has already conveyed the meaning of the last two sentences.

By the way, Here is another version of the music.  It's covered by piano and violin. It's elegant, too.

Assignment #10 Edx

   This week our teacher introduced a great website called edX. There are a lot of interesting lessons on this website. With this website, you can learn a lot of knowledge on the internet. Every lesson has some questions or tests just like what we do in school. Some lesson even has a discussion post. If you participate that discussion you will get one "point" (I think if you don't have enough points you will fail the class). I think the teacher want to encourage his/her students to express what they are thinking about the lesson.
     
Here are some lessons I choose in that website:

 1.  The science of everyday thinking -- from the university of queensland.

 I choose this lesson because I am wondering how people "thinking" about everything.

 2.  Introduction to Italian opera -- from Dartmouth university.

 If I have an opportunity I always want to visit some Europe countries. Because of the stunning architectures and fantastic artworks. So I choose this lesson as well.

3. Terrorism and counterterrorism -- from Georgetown university

Sadly, 2016 was not a peace year at all.  Terrorist attacked a lot of countries and It seems like they will not stop. It is an international problem so I think it is necessary to learn more about it. After all, no one can promise that Taiwan will not be attacked by terrorists in the future.

Assignment #9 TED Talk

    This week our teacher and some of my classmates introduce a very good website which called TED Talks. I have listened to all the five speeches. And the most impressive speeches to me are"Photos from a storm chaser" and "Don't eat the marshmallow".

    In the speech "Photos from a storm" I saw a lot of beautiful pictures about storms and tornadoes, which is hard to been seen in Taiwan. and my thought is as same as the speakers-- They're lovely monsters.  Although those storms look gorgeous, they can destroy everything in a few seconds. Right now we are facing a very big challenge called global warming. The weather is becoming more extreme. Some animals are about to die out. If we can't stop that.  Maybe we will encounter some serious disasters that didn't happen in Taiwan before such as tornadoes in the future. We should try our best to stop or delay global warming.

     About another speech "Don't eat the marshmallow", I think it is very useful to me. It's a very interesting speech.  I hope I can remind that speech while I want to be lazy. The speech tells us the importance of being a disciplining person.  Discipline is always a key to success in every field.

     There are a lot of interesting speeches in TED. I think I will spend some time on it. It is a good chance to practice English and a good method to learn some knowledge.

Assignment #6 Steve Jobs’ Talk

This week we talked about Steve Jobs' speech in 2005 Standford commencement. Here are some good words and sentences from that speech.

1.  calligraphed  (adj.) : Written or printed in calligraphy.
    example : I really want to learn how to write in calligraphy because it is very  beautiful.

2.  diagnose (v.)  : To say exactly what an illness or the cause of  the problem is.
     example :  Four years ago my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer.

3.  intellectual (adj.)  : Connected with or using a person's ability to think in a logical way and understand things.
     example :  Wearing glasses makes him look more intellectual.

4.  dogma (n.)  :  A belief or set of beliefs held by a group or organization, which others are expected to accept without argument.
     example: Do not obey all the dogma which was created by old generation. People should think whether it is appropriate now or not. For example, when the dogma tells you that homosexual marriage is wrong.  You should use your brain and think by yourself.

5.  intuition (n.) : The ability to know something by using your feelings rather than considering the      facts.
     example : My father thinks that people who make decisions by their own intuition, not by the facts and situation, is irrational.

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Here are five good sentences in the speech

1: Stay hungry, stay foolish.

2: Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition.

3: The only way to truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work.

4.: Don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice.

5: Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

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I like Steve Job's three stories in that speech. His three stories are connecting the dots, love and loss, and death.  All of those stories are useful.

The first story connecting the dots tells you that you should be more confidence about your heart, your intuition. It is important for students. You should follow your heart.  Take some lesson you really interested in. Because the only way to truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. Maybe you will find out that lesson you took before has a lot of benefits for you.

The second story is Love and loss.  Life is not always smooth sailing. There are a lot of obstacles in your life.  You should learn from those failures. You aren't truly successful if you didn't experience a great failure. Just remember that when God closes a door he always opens a window.  And keep going  with your passion.

My favorite story is the third story-- death.  Our time is limited. Don't waste time living someone else's life.  Everyone is an individual, is special.  Don't just follow other people's opinions to live. Your life must be created by yourself instead of other people. Just follow your heart and feel comfortable to be the special one. Been different from others is not a wrong thing at all.    

Assignment #5 English song - Safe & Sound- Taylor Swift

Safe & Sound - Taylor Swift

I remember tears streaming down your face

When I said 'I'll never let you go'

When all those shadows almost killed your light

I remember you said 'Don't leave me here alone'

But all that's dead and gone and past tonight.

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

Don't you dare look out your window

Darling everything's on fire

The war outside our door keeps raging on

Hold on to this lullaby

Even when the music's gone

gone

Just close your eyes

The sun is going down

You'll be alright

No one can hurt you now

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

(INSTRUMENTAL)

Just close your eyes

You'll be alright

Come morning light

You and I'll be safe and sound

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It is the main song of the movie "The Hunger Games".

And "The Hunger Games" is a very famous novel.
The novel was adapt into a movie in 2012.

The singer of this song is Taylor Swift.
She was born on December 13,1989 in America.

Here is some vocabulary I learned from this song:

1.  streaming (Noun or Verb): any flow of liquid or gas.

    example: By the time she saw the miserable news, her tears streaming down her cheek.

2.  rage (Noun or Verb) :extreme anger

   example: Tony was trembling with rage when he knew that his brother got bullied in school.

3.  instrument (Noun) : a device that is used to make music

   example : In this semester I join the NTUB hot music club. The instrument I want to learn is bass.

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There are some reasons I choose this song. First reason is the MV's background.  I think that style is very beautiful.That color and the landscape let me associated with the feeling about lonely and calm. It made me feel comfortable.

Besides the background, the combination of those singer's voice is amazing. Taylor's voice is so clear Also, I think the lyrics are great. The melody of this song made it become a very great lullaby. Just like the lyrics said. (I was listening to this song while I was doing this assignment. As time goes by, I really want to go to sleep.)

By the way, when I was a high school student, I usually listened to  this song before slept. This song is very good for sleep.

In sum,  I think it's a great song. Because of the voice, melody ,background, and lyrics. Those reasons make me listen to this song for years and it will continue.  When it comes to the song, the first thing I think is peaceful.

Assignment #4 Six Minute English

This week our teacher introduced a website called 6 Minute English.  I think this website is very good.  Because of the great design and the interesting topics. I think this is one is the hardest webiste to train your listening ability.  The talking speed is very fast.  And the vocabulary is harder.

The episode I choose is "Is loneliness in our genes?".  In this episode, the speakers and professors said that loneliness exists in our genes.  The reason why loneliness exists in our genes is that in some situation we have to tolerate high level of loneliness. So, loneliness is not totally a bad thing.

The speakers also discuss about social software.  They wonder if social software make people feel lonely.  The professor says that there is not enough evidence to support the theory that social software let people feel lonely. Because they don't have great research showing that we are more lonely than we were ten or twenty years old.

The above-mentioned is this article's summary.  There are more interesting episodes like this in the website. In sum, It's a great website to train your listening ability.

Assignment #3 ESLPod.Com

This week our teacher introduced a website called ESL podcast.  I think this one isn't better than ESL Cyber Listening Lab.  Here are my opinions:


1. In ESL Cyber Listening Lab.  you can choose the level you want to practice.  But in ESL podcast, you can only see the topics and the categories.

2. There are no exercises in ESL podcast. On the other hand, You can do some exercises in ESL Cyber Listening Lab.

3. The speaker's talking speed is very slow. Besides, there are no scripts about what he said.


Even though there are some disadvantages of the websites, there are still some advantages of the website:


1. You can download those files. If you do that, you can practice your listening ability without internet.  All you need is a cellphone or a MP3 player.

2. ESL podcast has more articles than ESL Cyber Listening Lab.  There are more than 1800 articles in ESL podcast.


In sum, i still prefer ESL Cyber Listening Lab  because that website is very complete. But I still want to admire the author of ESL podcast. Because the website has over than 1800 articles. The author needs to be very patient and enthusiastic to achieve that scale.  It's definitely not an easy job.