◎　Self-Study Package

一個月一次的自學包裹又來啦！這次聽力是關於埃及圖坦卡門王的死因有何新發現，閱讀是包括姚明在內的中國名人發起拒吃魚翅運動，文法則有慣用語的練習，內容精彩豐富，大家快來看看吧！......來去練習

◎　電子報編輯公告

Advanced雜誌三月份已有一半內容上線，其餘部份最慢下週一推出，若有讀者有收聽上的問題，請先參考網頁內「更新狀況」的說明。......來去看看

◎　英文小老師諮詢服務（長期公告）

英文小老師服務線上預約系統已經啟用，時間地點和諮詢的內容在網頁上也都可以看到喔，歡迎大家多多利用。...... 我要預約

The Online Books Page

想閱讀原文小說，圖書館卻借不到書嗎？沒關係，在The Online Books Page網站裡，提供了至少25000本書，除了文學名著外，還包括了政治、教育、科技、歷史、法律等等類別的書籍線上版呢！趕緊泡杯茶，踏入這個虛擬「圖書館」，閱讀書籍吧！… 我要看書

遠流字典通

由視聽教育館採購，免費提供大家於台大校園內使用的遠流字典通收集了19萬個英文字彙及30多萬筆漢英用詞，包括現代英文用語，除了像一般紙本字典以字母順序排列方便查閱外，還可以依照詞性分類來做查詢喔！而且查詢方式不限中、英文，相當於一本結合了英漢與漢英功能的字典！... 我要查字典

Top-up Listening 1

這本 Top-up Listening 1 的內容其實並不難，所教的也是生活英語中常會遭遇到的情境，適合聽力較差的讀者從基礎開始重新訓練，而對於英文聽力已經嚇嚇叫的讀者來說，或許太過簡單。不過如果想再把一些自己平時沒注意到的小地方多加磨練，或者借用當中所教的口語發音習慣來加強口說，講出更道地的英語口音，或許也是很棒的選擇唷。...... 再看一點介紹

Find your own diamond!

八歲小孩都能挖到寶了，你是否也摩拳擦掌、躍躍欲試呢？

Cartier: Hey, have you heard about the two eight-year-old kids that found a 2.5-carat diamond? It’s so incredible!

DeBeers: No, what’s that? Where did they find the diamond? In the backyard of their house?

Cartier: Of course not. They went to the Crater of Diamonds State Park, Arkansas, in their spring break and found the diamond there.

DeBeers: In a state park? I can’t imagine myself digging for diamonds in a park.

Cartier: Actually you can. That is the world’s only diamond-producing site open to the public. The policy there is “finders keepers.” Any diamonds, rocks, or minerals you unearth are yours, regardless of their value.

DeBeers: But how do we common people tell which stones are precious? That is, literally, “All that glitters is not gold.”

Cartier: The Park has staff members called “interpreters” who are assigned to tell people what they have found. So all you have to do there is grab anything that looks valuable to you and take them to the counter to be “interpreted.”

DeBeers: Sounds pretty easy. But I doubt how valuable these diamonds could be? I mean, if the field is open to the public, certainly the diamonds yielded there won’t be of any high quality?

Cartier: I don’t know. But this one found by the Duncan kids, which they subsequently named Duncan Twins Diamond, was worth thousands of dollars. That’s about a hundred thousand NTD!

DeBeers: What? I didn’t know it was that valuable! Now I begin to envy them.

Cartier: Now you know what I am talking about. If I find a diamond as large, I will call it “Cartier Starlight.” Oh my god, it’s just such a wonderful name. Sounds extremely expensive!

DeBeers: Indeed, but I wonder whether you will ever find it.

Cartier: Hey, I stand a great chance! The news report said that, on average, two diamonds are found every day there.

DeBeers: Yet diamonds as large and precious as you would call Cartier Starlight are not to be discovered everyday.

Cartier: Don’t be so pessimistic, old fellow! Will you go with me in the summer? We are definitely going to make a great fortune, digging out lots and lots of diamonds!  

DeBeers: I guess it’ll be fine with me just to wait for your good news. I am afraid the petty stones I found there won’t even be enough to cover the traveling expenses.

 

Wordbank：

carat (n) 克拉	interpret (v) 解釋，說明
unearth (v) 發掘	yield (v) 出產
regardless of (ph) 不管	subsequently (adv) 隨後
glitter (v) 閃閃發光	stand a chance (ph) 有希望（成功）
assign (v) 指派	pessimistic (adj) 悲觀的
grab (v) 抓取	petty (adj) 小的，瑣碎的

 

相關連結：

abcNews：Young Texas twins find 2.5-carat diamond at Arkansas park

Crater of Diamonds State Park：http://www.craterofdiamondsstatepark.com/