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臺大外語教學暨資源中心英語學習報第 430 期  發行日期 2022-08-01
臺大外語教學暨資源中心

 

  臺大外語教學暨資源中心英語學習報自 111 年 1 月起,改採月刊發行方式。將於每月 1 日出刊,並於每月 15 日更新本中心最新活動消息與活動花絮集錦。每期除介紹本中心最新活動訊息、E-freeway 軟體與館藏資訊外,亦提供英語學習資源與新聞時事練習,內容十分豐富多元,歡迎免費線上訂閱

 

本期焦點More

  Read more on VOA.

College-Educated Americans Have More Friends, Are Less Lonely, Study Finds

研究顯示受過大學教育的美國人有更多朋友,也較不孤單

Having a college degree might do more than potentially boost your bottom line; higher education might also lead to a more fulfilling family and social life. A recent study finds that people who graduated from college are more likely to have more friends and are less lonely than their counterparts with a high school diploma or less.

擁有大學文憑或許不僅有助於提高你的薪資水平,受過高等教育也能帶來更充實的家庭和社會生活。近期研究指出,相較於僅有高中文憑或高中以下學歷的人,大學畢業者能交到更多朋友,也較不易感到孤單。

 

 

◎ 中心活動集錦 - 混成式達人課程工作坊

本中心於 7 月 20 日舉行「混成式達人」課程的工作坊,共計有 20 多位同學參加。本次主題為「雅思口說測驗策略與技巧」(Strategies and Tips for IELTS Speaking Test),由中心英語專員主講,教導同學關於雅思口說測驗的答題技巧與注意事項,並播放示範影片給同學們參考。

 

◎ 111學年第一學期開設短期課程預告,歡迎報名

English Listening

課程開課日期:2022 年 09 月 20 日 - 2022 年 10 月 25 日
授課教師:外文系周昱翔老師
Course description:
背了這麼多年的單字,但是一碰到閱讀,總是龜速前進嗎 ? 一個字一個字看得很吃力?就算單字都認識,放在閱讀裡面就不太懂意思?每次遇到不認識的單字,究竟該停下來查字典還是繼續看下去?速度慢,所以閱讀量小,看得少,英文自然不會好,死記硬背單字文法是不夠的。然而,一味地追求速度並無法確保有好的理解力,只有好的理解力才能夠提升閱讀速度,也就是說,看得懂才能看得快。本課程從語意的角度出發,幫助學生了解一篇英文文章如何起頭、發展、與結尾,進而有感提升對英文閱讀的理解力。

更多詳情:請點擊


 
 
 
 
 
 
English Listening

課程開課日期:2022 年 09 月 23 日 - 2022 年 10 月 28 日
授課教師:徐維娟老師

想看新聞順便培養英語耳,就來上「國際要聞英語討論及聽力加強課」,短時間內幫你提升英文聽力及會話能力,上課主題囊括最新國際政治局勢、後疫情經濟脈動、通膨、少子化及老人社會等議題。

Course description:
本課程旨在透過討論每週全球要聞,引導同學勇敢開口說英語。上課內容涵蓋經濟、金融、政治、科技、軍事、醫藥、教育、文化、娛樂等領域。先聽標題新聞,隨即進行討論並各自發表意見。上課時密集練習,由淺入深地逐步訓練,進而提升同學的英語口語、聽力與發音。

 

更多詳情:請點擊

 

   

 

 
Efreeway Software                       

myET

Easy Test: TOEIC 口說寫作練習系統

Easy test 線上學習測驗平台是您學習語言及準備證照考試的必備利器。平台上包含 TOEIC、全民英檢、TOEFL iBT及IELTS 考試的完整模擬測驗。在參加官方測驗前進行自我評量,可以讓您更熟悉考試題型、加強應試技巧並適應各國口音,幫助您於各類考試中奪得高分。

Feature of the Week

Freeway to the World

 

The English Student

今天小編來介紹英語學習部落格 The English Student,該網站是由教學經驗豐富的 Jenny Kung 老師所建置。每篇文章皆搭配作者精心繪製的插圖,幫助學習者透過視覺輔助學習英語。文章包含各式主題,舉凡文化、飲食等應有盡有,也有閱讀、文法、片語、發音等相關介紹,每篇文章都非常值得閱讀,推薦給大家。

Apps for Learning English

 

Freeway to the World

LibriVox

LibriVox 原為一個非營利的線上數位圖書館,由加拿大作家 Hugh McGuire 於 2005 年所創立,旨在將版權共享的書籍,以有聲形式讓大眾免費取得。書目種類繁多且分類仔細,涵蓋小說、詩歌、戲劇、宗教、商業、建築、藝術、教育、法律、歷史、哲學、自傳、自然等主題書籍。多年來經由來自全球各地的自願朗讀者的努力,目前有聲書藏書量已達五萬本。只要透過手機下載 APP,即可將自己喜愛的書籍音檔以 mp3 格式分類收藏,打造自己專屬的英語有聲圖書館喔!

English Learning Video
English Learning Video 

Top 10 Jokes in English: Can you understand them?

學英文學得有點累嗎?不妨來點輕鬆的冷笑話吧!
你聽過 Dad joke 嗎(注意不用所有格)? 意思就是為了想要耍幽默而講的冷笑話,就像爸爸常講的那種笑話類型(咦?)。這類型的笑話常使用明顯的雙關語、諧音等大玩文字遊戲的梗,並讓聽者覺得很無厘頭。想知道 "I'm hungry."、"I pulled a muscle digging for gold." 還有 cantaloupe(哈密瓜)隱藏著什麼笑話梗嗎?趕快來聽聽 Vanessa 講解英文中 10 個常見的 Dad joke 吧!
*小編溫馨提醒,觀賞之前最好多準備幾條棉被,因為這些冷笑話真的是冷到爆!

 
周樹華老師英語學習 Q&A

英語老師不需要有美國口音

英語做為國際語言 ( English as an International Language 簡稱EIL ),讓人理解 ( intelligible ) 說話內容,達到溝通目的最為重要。因此,有沒有美國口音一點都不重要。可惜的是,我們的英語環境充滿了「美國口音」的焦慮,模仿不存在的「母語人士」( Native Speaker ) 的「美國口音」是學英語的目標,老師有「美國口音」代表敎英語的能力,選教材要「美國口音」的影音檔。這個狹隘的觀念,產生不少負面影響。 事實上,在使用英語為溝通工具的國際場合,多數情況是不準確的發音阻礙了溝通,造成誤解,而不是口音。只要發音清楚易懂 ( intelligibility ),不因念錯字而導致意義的誤解,雖然我們說的英語沒有美國口音,但都說的很不錯! 我們的本國籍老師都是最適任的英語教師,瞭解學生學習的問題及困難,都是過來人,跟學生站在一條船上。口說英語也不必借重外師,瞭解一些發音的原則,可以自修也可以在教學上幫助學生。提供的投影片,老師們可於教學時多加利用。

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 創意總監教你做簡報:用 PowerPoint 打動人心的 31 個視覺法則

創意總監教你做簡報:用 PowerPoint 打動人心的 31 個視覺法則

身為上班族,誰都免不了上台簡報。 你的簡報總是讓觀眾印象深刻,還是哈欠連連?本書由曾任廣告創意總監的簡報達人親自撰寫, 用 31 個 GOOD & BAD 簡報實例教你抓住老闆、觀眾、客戶的心。 讓你花最少的力氣,做出最有效的簡報。

 
 

 

College-Educated Americans Have More Friends, Are Less Lonely, Study Finds
VOA News|ALL ABOUT AMERICA
December 28, 2021 1:26 PM (source)

College-Educated Americans Have More Friends, Are Less Lonely, Study Finds

研究顯示受過大學教育的美國人有更多朋友,也較不孤單

December 28, 2021 1:26 PM

Dora Mekouar

  VOA News 搶先看 

研究指出:相較於僅有高中文憑的人,大學畢業者擁有更多朋友,也較不易感到孤單。美國生活調查中心(Survey Center on American Life)所長考克斯(Daniel Cox)表示,對於沒有大學文憑的人而言,因原本扶持他們的宗教、婚姻、工會等傳統制度近年來已逐漸式微,故影響其交友甚劇。由此可見,整體而言美國人的社交圈正急遽縮減。

Having a college degree might do more than potentially boost your bottom line; higher education might also lead to a more fulfilling family and social life. A recent study finds that people who graduated from college are more likely to have more friends and are less lonely than their counterparts with a high school diploma or less.

Overall, Americans in general are experiencing a "friend recession," according to Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

"Americans have fewer close friends today than we did in the early '90s. But some groups were particularly affected in that they seem to have experienced a much more dramatic decline over that time period," Cox says. "And there are two groups that really stood out. The first is men. And the second one is people without a college degree."

The Survey Center of American Life interviewed 5,054 people this past summer and found that Americans with a college degree feel more socially connected and civically engaged and are more active in their communities than people who didn't attend college. As a result, college graduates report feeling less lonely or isolated.

"If you look at the traditional institutions supporting Americans without a college degree, they were — in no particular order — religion, marriage and unions," Cox says. "Unions were primarily financial, but they also offered a lot of social support and social connection and feelings of belonging as well. The decline of unions, the decline of marriage and the decline of religion have all disproportionately affected the noncollege group. … I feel pretty strong that those three things are at the heart of this story."

Previous research shows that people who didn't go to college are less likely to marry. A 2013 survey of people born between 1957 and 1964 found that both men and women who didn't finish high school were less likely to marry than their counterparts with more education.

A 2012 study found that college-educated women were much more likely to get married than women who dropped out of high school.

Cox points to research that shows that people who are married tend to have larger social networks and more close friends and report feeling lonely less often.

Today, 65% of college-educated Americans over age 25 are married, while 50% of people with a high school diploma, or who dropped out of high school, have put a ring on it. There was a much smaller educational divide in 1990, when marriage rates among the college educated were at 69%, compared with 63% for those who didn't attend college, according to a Pew research poll.

Pew also finds that Americans are less religious overall. The percentage of Americans who say they're "religiously unaffiliated" rose from 17% in 2009 to 26% in 2018 and 2019. It's the continuation of a trend first documented by Pew in 2007.

When it comes to union association, the percentage of workers who belong to a union has almost halved since 1983, when 20% of U.S. workers were union members. Union membership had dropped to 10.8% by 2020.

The loss of religious, associational and marital connections hits people who didn't go to college the hardest, according to Cox. The American Community Life Survey found that about 1 in 10 (9%) college graduates say they have no immediate social connections. That number rises dramatically among Americans without a degree, where almost 1 in 4 (24%) say they have no close friends.

"They are becoming increasingly socially isolated; their social networks are shrinking," Cox says. "We found the number of close friends that they have — if you look back to where they were in the '90s, there wasn't much of a disparity between those with a degree and those without. But now there's a pretty large disparity in the number of close friends that they have."

This social and civic decline among those without degrees can be mitigated by finding alternative social outlets to offset the decline in religious participation, associational life and marriage, Cox says.
 

Language Notes

註 1:counterpart 於本文為名詞,意指對應的人

註 2:recession 於本文為名詞,意指衰退

註 3:unaffiliated 於本文為形容詞,意指無關聯的

註 4:disparity 於本文為名詞,意指差距

註 5:civic 於本文為形容詞,意指市民的
 

BACK TO CONTENT

Check your comprehension!

Choose the BEST answer to each of the questions below. After you finish, highlight the parentheses to reveal the hidden answers.

1. ( D )  According to the article, which institution does NOT support Americans who didn't go to college?
            (A) Religion
            (B) Marriage
            (C) Unions
            (D) Family                   
2. ( A ) The word "outlet" in the final paragraph is closest in meaning to _________.
            (A) release                                                                                         
            (B) media
            (C) shop
            (D) socket
3. ( D ) According to the article, which is NOT true about Americans?
            (A) Married people tend to feel less lonely.
            (B) Americans have become less religious in the past decade.
            (C) Union membership had decreased greatly since 1983.
            (D) College graduates have no close friends.

編譯:外語教學暨資源中心 編輯小組

 

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