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垃圾、名畫,傻傻分不清楚

We all want to get rich easily, if possible. There seems to be a new way of making money quickly - recently, a girl found a valuable painting in the garbage where another person apparently left it as trash. It's no trash. instead, it's worth 1 million US dollars.

Sounds tempting, right? But, before you start looking through your local garbage truck, remember to read today's Express, and prepare yourself with some good artistic sense.

Art? or Trash?
Mind venturing a guess?


 最新消息

◎ 第十三期自學包裹上線啦!

這個月的自學包裹已經上線啦,同學不知道發現了沒有呢?這次小編在中高級加入了新的題目類型 - Visuals,就是大家考IELTS常常搞得很頭痛的圖表啦。聽力跟閱讀則是討論最近很紅的社交網站。另外也還有中級的聽力閱讀文法題目,跟懷念老歌「明天會更好」的英文版~是的,大家快來練功吧......做完之後,明天你的英文會更好的!

◎ 視聽館English Freeway網路輔助英語教材新上線!

同學們是否還記得上期電子報介紹的E-touch?本期還將介紹另外一組「史上最強」英語學習軟體Clarity English。現在這兩套新軟體都上線了喔!耗資許多購買使用權,視聽館新購置這兩套軟體,專門提供給台大學生、職員以及助理們免費申請使用。身為台大人才有得用的,還不快把握機會申請來用用看!?...Clarity English ...E-Touch

◎ Clarity English - 老師與助教使用說明會

各位老師與助教,Clarity English不只是學生可以直接使用的套裝軟體,老師們也可以用它來當作課堂上的補助教材喔。老師的帳號有管理學生資料、監看學生進度與成績、以及使用所提供出題軟體做線上教材等等功能,一定對老師們的教學相當有幫助。12月5日Clarity英國總公司將派員來作老師管理使用的說明會,以全英文講解,希望老師們與助教能夠撥冗出席......詳細的說明會訊息請看這裡~

 

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 E-Freeway主題介紹

Randall’s ESL Cyber Listening Lab

這個網站提供了相當多的音檔和搭配練習題,內容包羅萬象,從生活化的電話留言、DVD租片、剪頭髮到學術性的高齡社會、日本經濟等的聽力練習都有喔。每個學習單元都有做清楚的難易度標示,讓使用者可以按照個人的程度和興趣選擇特定的學習單元做練習。音檔內容也很幽默風趣,小編在實際試用的時候可是自己也笑得東倒西歪呢~......一起來笑得東倒西歪學英文!

Clarity English: Study Skills Success- Vocabulary

咚咚隆咚鏘!看過來看過來,視聽館最近購置了史上最強「免費」線上英語學習系統-Clarity English!別擔心別擔心,免費兩字之所以打了個引號,不是因為有什麼要額外收費的玄機,而是—這個免費只針對台大人而已啦!若非台大人,可沒那麼容易有機會使用這套史上最強線上英語學習系統喔!所以呀,身為台大人,千萬別放過這個彌足珍貴的機會哪!這次介紹的是Clarity English中超級實用的字彙養成課程!...... 我要練字彙基本功!

Self-Access Centre: Listening Advice Sheets

香港科大語言中心提供了一系列簡短有力的聽力自我訓練講義,針對學生在面對日常生活中的真實語料(亦即非特別為教學所錄製的英文片段)所提出的教戰手則!依主題分為:如何聽新聞、如何聽課堂演講、看電影學英文、美式英語v.s.英式英語、從對話中學英文、聽歌學英文。...... 趕快來汲取教戰手則!

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 館藏介紹

An Inconvenient Truth: A Global Warning

同學們,雖然最近很冷,可是大家沒有忘記全球暖化是件很嚴重的事情吧?嗯?問我為什麼在寒冷的時候提起全球暖化,難道是希望地球再暖一點...?並不是的!小編是要提醒大家,冬天很冷的時候就會想吹暖氣,就不想騎腳踏車而騎摩托車,這些都會加劇全球暖化的!

呃,其實更真實的理由是,小編這一期想要介紹的新進館藏,正是去年引起廣大迴響的全球暖化紀錄片An Inconvenient Truth。剛好趁著高爾上個月得到諾貝爾獎,大家來看一下這部得獎的紀錄片,了解一下全球暖化吧。

快告訴我這不願面對的真相吧!

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 英語宅急便


One Person's Trash Is Another Person's Treasure

大家不知道有沒有幻想過在意想不到的地方找到價值連城的寶物?嗯,對大部分人來說,這應該只是一個幻想。不過有些人就是那麼幸運,在路上走都會撿到名畫。嗯哼,就讓我們來看看MonaLisa兩姊妹的發財夢吧。

Mona: Phew. You really stink! Where have you been?!

Lisa: The dumpster downstairs.

Mona: Why? Did you accidentally drop something valuable in the garbage?

Lisa: No. I was just trying to get rich.

Mona: Hm-mm. You lost me there. You were trying to get rich by sitting in a rubbish skip?

Lisa: You see, I read on the paper this morning that a woman in New York found a painting when she scavenged rubbish bins for discarded articles of bric-a-brac. It turned out that the painting was a stolen painting of a really famous painter. The painting’s estimated value is about one million US dollars! Although she returned the painting to its original owner, she was rewarded fifteen thousand US dollars, still a fortune for someone as poor as I am.

Mona: Ok, now I am starting to get some inklings of what you are trying to do. I do hear stories like that from time to time. But there must be cleaner ways to do it.

Lisa: I consider it necessary sacrifice for getting rich. There is an old Chinese saying that describes exactly that: “You cannot get hold of a tiger’s son without going into the tiger’s house.”

Mona: Er, there may be a Chinese saying like that, but your translation is definitely lousy.

Lisa: Ok, “the tiger’s cave” may be better than “the tiger’s house”. But anyways, you have to dig deep for the good things.

Mona: I don’t even want to ask how deep you dug. So did anything turn up?

Lisa: Not really. The only thing that remotely resembles a painting is this 1000-piece glow-in-the-dark jigsaw puzzle.

Mona: Urgh! Take it away from me, it stinks even more than you do. I recommend this news story to you. (Handing Lisa the newspaper she is reading.) That is what I call a clean treasure hunt.

Lisa: (Reading) “A Berlin student found a baroque painting stashed in a second-hand couch she bought at a flea market.” Wow, the painting fetched her 19,200 euros. Sitting on a sofa bed seems much more comfortable than diving into a garbage bin. Hmm… where is that dusty armchair Grandma forced us to accept as a family heirloom?

(Lisa went to the storage room and, moments later, came out triumphantly.)

Lisa: Mona! We are going to be rich. I think I found a really valuable painting!

Mona: What?!

Lisa: See, this brightly colored painting is painted on a wooden panel, just like the “Mona Lisa.” I think this is probably some modernist parody of Leonardo Da Vinci’s masterpiece. The artist turns it into an abstract painting to express the modern sense of alienation and anxiety

Mona: Hahahahaha. Lisa, seriously, you are not so much of an art aficionado as you might imagine. That wooden panel is our old closet door that I found in the garbage when I was five, and I was painting you. Lisa, I declare that you have found an authentic piece of trash, congradulations!

 

Wordbank:

stink (v) 發臭
baroque (n) 巴洛克
dumpster (n) 大型垃圾裝卸卡車
stash (v) 存放;藏匿
you lost me there (idiom) 你把我弄糊塗了
couch (n) 長沙發;睡椅
rubbish (n) 垃圾;廢物
fetch (v) 售得;取來
skip (n) [英] 廢料車
euro (n) 歐元
scavenge (v) 在...中尋找有用之物
heirloom (n) 傳家之寶
bin (n) 箱子
triumphantly (adv) 得意洋洋地
discard (v) 丟棄
panel (n) 板子
bric-a-brac (n) 裝飾品;骨董
parody (n) 諷刺性模仿
fortune (n) 財富;鉅款
abstract (adj) 抽象
inkling (n) 略知;暗示
alienation (n) 疏離
lousy (adj) [口]很爛
anxiety (n) 焦慮
turn up (v ph) 出現;發生
aficionado (n) ...迷;...狂

remotely (adv) 極少地;一點點地

closet (n) 櫥櫃
jigsaw puzzle (n) 拼圖
authentic (adj) 貨真價實的

 

PS. The image at the top of this issue is authentic trash as well, produced by your humble editor. So take heart. Art hasn't sunk that low yet.

 

相關連結:

The Independent: Lucky dip: art scavenged from skip valued at m

New York Times: One Person's Trash is Another Person's Lost Masterpiece

Reuters: Student finds baroque painting inside old sofa

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編輯:黃郁婷

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