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Words and Their Stories: From Couch Potato to Cabin Fever

大家都聽過 “couch potato”是比喻一個整天窩在電視機前的人; 那 “mouse potato”呢? 一天到晚宅在家裡的人要怎麼形容? 本期的電子報將告訴您這些生活方式的英文用語!

 

photo from: wikimedia commons


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    98學年度第二學期 台大視聽教育館MyET英語口說競賽 結果揭曉

詳情請見

http://homepage.ntu.edu.tw/~ntuavc/myet_contest_result/myet982a-result/982a.htm

 


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◎  台大「研究生線上英文」課程「成績優異獎」出爐囉!

98學年上學期第三階段選出成績最優秀的同學十名獲獎。視聽教育館特別請這些善用網路資源學習的高手們,用兩三百字的篇幅跟我們一起分享英文學習的秘訣與心得。各位電子學習報的同學,快來看看行家們是如何利用視聽教育館的各項多媒體資源來學英文的吧!
成績優異獎得獎名單:http://clarity.avcenter.ntu.edu.tw/announce/98-1-3-award.htm

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 E-Freeway主題介紹

feature of the week

Many Things

ManyThings 網站提供學習者豐富的英語資源,"Interesting Things for ESL Students"是這個網站主要學習資源,可以幫助學習英文為第二語言的學生,有一個更有效且有趣的學習平台,另外提供各式主題的影片做學習喔。

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Members Only資源介紹

本次介紹在Clarity English系統裡的Study Skills Success之寫作單元,介紹如何有效率的來寫一篇論說文,以及一些注意事項,並且利用PQRS的分析技巧來避免寫論文常犯的錯誤,另外提供實際的解說來教導如何撰寫論說文。此套教材附上了不同寫作技巧的範例,相信各位一定能夠吸收其精華,大家都可變成寫作達人!


Admissions Offices Turn to Social Networking

Facebook要認真寫,因為你申請的學校正在看!Facebook或寫部落格等社交網站工具,似乎成為學生和學校溝通的管道之一,招生人員敘述他們的確會利用搜尋引擎和社交網站查詢申請人的資料,大致來說,線上社交網站似乎佔有一席之地,成為招募新生的利器了!詳情請看本期Advanced English

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 館藏介紹

1870年左右,短笛在法國 大放異彩,成為非常重要的樂器,因為當時法國人喜歡跳舞,各劇院、酒館、舞 廳都擁有或大或小的樂團,而由短笛所流洩出來的輕快又活潑的樂音,最受巴黎人的喜愛。這張唱片包括了11首從1872年到1919年間的短笛獨奏曲,快來視聽館資料室想聆聽短笛所譜出的明亮、輕快活潑的樂曲吧!


 英語宅急便   

Words and Their Stories: From Couch Potato to Cabin Fever

American terms to describe active and inactive lifestyles.


Some unusual words describe how a person spends his or her time.  For example, someone who likes to spend a lot of time sitting or lying down while watching television is sometimes called a couch potato. A couch is a piece of furniture that people sit on while watching television.

Robert Armstrong, an artist from California, developed the term couch potato in nineteen seventy-six.  Several years later, he listed the term as a trademark with the United States government.  Mister Armstrong also helped write a funny book about life as a full-time television watcher.  It is called the “Official Couch Potato Handbook.”

Couch potatoes enjoy watching television just as mouse potatoes enjoy working on computers.  A computer mouse is the device that moves the pointer, or cursor, on a computer screen.  The description of mouse potato became popular in nineteen ninety-three. American writer Alice Kahn is said to have invented the term to describe young people who spend a lot of time using computers.

Too much time inside the house using a computer or watching television can cause someone to get cabin fever. A cabin is a simple house usually built far away from the city.  People go to a cabin to relax and enjoy quiet time.

Cabin fever is not really a disease.  However, people can experience boredom and restlessness if they spend too much time inside their homes.  This is especially true during the winter when it is too cold or snowy to do things outside. Often children get cabin fever if they cannot go outside to play. So do their parents. This happens when there is so much snow that schools and even offices and stores are closed.

Some people enjoy spending a lot of time in their homes to make them nice places to live.  This is called nesting or cocooning. Birds build nests out of sticks to hold their eggs and baby birds. Some insects build cocoons around themselves for protection while they grow and change.  Nests and cocoons provide security for wildlife.  So people like the idea of nests and cocoons, too.

The terms cocooning and nesting became popular more than twenty years ago.  They describe people buying their first homes and filling them with many things.  These people then had children.

Now these children are grown and have left the nest. They are in college. Or they are married and starting families of their own far away.  Now these parents are living alone without children in their empty nest. They have become empty nesters.


Story from: http://www1.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/words-stories/Words-and-Their-Stories-From-Couch-Potato-to-Cabin-Fever-89327752.html

 
 
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