[ Journals ] 5

　　The inspiration for the modern Olympic Games started in Greece more than 2,000 years ago. These games were originally a religious festival, which at their greatest lasted for five days. Only men could compete, and the sports included running, wrestling, and chariot racing.
　　Today’s Olympic Games are quite a bit different. First of all, there are two varieties: Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. They each boast many men and women competing in a multitude of sports, from skiing to gymnastics. They are each held every four years, but not during the same year. They alternate so that there are Olympic Games every two years. The Olympics are not held only in one country, either. They are hosted by different cities around the world. The ceremony is a spectacular display, usually incorporating the traditional dances and culture of the host city.
　　The highlight of the opening ceremony is the lighting of the Olympic flame. Teams of runners carry the torch from Olympia, the site of the ancient Greek games. Although the games have changed greatly throughout the centuries, the spirit of competition is still alive and the flame represent that.


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I. Summarize

　　Greek people had race their Olympic Games at least 2,ooo years ago which inspired today’s Olympic Games. But there are some differences between today’s and ancient’s Olympic Games. For example, women were not allowed to join the game in ancient times but they can today. And the game has two types: Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics. One more thing is that today’s Olympic games are not held in only one country.
　　Besides, there’s a very special and important event is the opening ceremony. Teams of people carry the torch from the origin of Olympic games and light the flame to the host city. People thought it is the symbol of Olympic spirit.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
inspiration noun 啟示; 啟發
boast verb 包含
multitude noun 大眾; 民眾
gymnastic adj. 體操的
incorporating adj. 複合的
alternate verb 輪流

ii. useful / phrases
lasted 持續
throughout 完全; 遍及
competition noun 比賽; 競賽


III. The reason I chose this article

　　Olympic Games will hold in our near country, Mainland China, 2008.
　　I remembered there was an issue that politicians contented about since we are one of the countries in Asia, and we are so closed to Mainland China, so we should have the rights to carry the Olympic flame. And one of the presidential candidates promoted his politics as to win over the authority to hold Olympic games in Taiwan. I don’t know if there is any fascination in this, but It seems a really popular topics to talk resently.

[ Journals ] 4

　　Up to about 1915, movies were short and programs were made up of several works. Then, D.W. Griffith and other others began to make longer films which provided the same powerful emotional appeal as did melodrama and presented spectacles far beyond what the theater cloud offer. Consequently, after World War I, increasing numbers of the spectators deserted the theater for the movies. This trend was accelerated in the late 1920s as a result of two new elements. In 1927 sound was added to the previously silent film, and thus one of the theater’s principal claims to superiority vanished. In 1929, a serious economic depression began. Since audiences could go to the movies for a fraction of what it cost to see a play, theatergoing became a luxury which few could afford, especially as the depression deepened.
　　By the end of World War II, the American theater had been reduced to about thirsty theaters in New York City and a small number of touring companies originated there.


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I. Summarize

　　Ｇo to a movie when someone is free seems to became a popular habit since half a century ago. How can it become? By the time in the middle of the 1910s, some movie makers began to make longer films which provided the same powerful emotional appeal as did melodrama and presented spectacles far beyond what the theater cloud offer. After World War I, more people started a choose movies over theater because films were less expensive.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
melodrama noun 通俗劇
spectacle noun 公開的大型展示表演
accelerate verb 加速
fraction noun 小部分, 微量
theatergoing noun 看戲, 觀劇

ii. useful / phrases
consequently adv. 因此, 所以
desert adj. 無人的; 荒涼的
previously adv. 事先, 預先


III. The reason I chose this article

　　I like to go to movies when I have some extra money and free time. And since I've read this article, I know going a movie when someone is free seems to became a popular habit since half a century ago. Nowadays people are often go to movies instead of go to theater to watch a play because it’s less expensive. And it seems alike now. It is cost more money to go to a show and most we students can’t offer it.

[ Journals ] 3

　　A colony of small waterbugs living in a pond noticed that every once in a while, one of their fellow bugs would climb up a lily stem and never be seen again. They agreed that if this should ever happen to one of them, they would return to tell the others about their journey. Sure enough, the day came when one of the bugs found himself going up the stalk and crawling onto the lily pad at the top. He fell asleep in the warm sunshine, and when he awakened, he stretched himself, only to hear a crackling sound as his old outer fell off. He sensed that somehow he was lager, cleaner, and freer than ever before. Spreading his wings, he flew into the air as a beautiful green dragonfly. Suddenly he remembered his promise. But then he realized why none of the others had ever returned. He couldn’t go back and tell his friends what to expect because he was no longer a part of their world. Besides, one day they, too, would experience the wonderful freedom he now enjoyed.

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I. Summarize

　　A story of a colony of dragonflies living in a pond and they will face a transformation every once in a while. But no one knows what the world outside of the little pond like, and why no one returned after their transformation. So some of them made a promise that no matter which one of them once had their transformation, they must return to tell others their feelings. One day a dragonfly woke up and found out that his transformation but also found out that he was not belonged to the part of the pond anymore. He finally realized why there was no one returned.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
waterbug noun 『昆蟲』水蟲, 水生椿象
a colony of 一群
pad noun (睡蓮等水生植物的) 浮於水面的大葉

ii. useful / phrases
realize verb 了解; 完全知道
spread verb 張開; 伸直


III. The reason I chose this article

　　I don’t like bugs in fact. But I had the memory of playing with flying bugs when I was little. My father caught some flying bugs like dragonflies and beetles, and tight a cotton thread on it. Then he gave to me, so I can “fly” it like flying a kite. It’s kind of cruel but when I was a child, there were bugs every where.

[ Journals ] The Story of Storks

　　The story that babies are brought into the home by the stork may have started in northwestern Europe, where the stork is a commonplace sight and is well respected. The stork has white feathers, black wind quills, and a red beak and legs. It stalks fish and other small water creatures in meadows and marshes. Sometimes it is seen in high places such as steeples or chimneys, standing on one leg.
　　The stork has often been regarded as a sign of good luck. Whenever a pair of storks built a nest on a housetop, the Romans regarded it as a sign of good fortune given by Venus, the goddess of love. The stork was also regarded as a good-luck bird in Germany and the Netherlands. These superstitions persist today. In some places, wheels are put on the tops of houses to give storks nesting places.
Centuries ago, there was already a belief that the stork flew over a house where a birth was about to take place, bringing good luck to the family. The story of storks delivering babies probably arose from this superstition and from many fathers’ and mothers’ difficulty in explaining to their other children where the new baby came from. It is quite understandable that parents should use the symbol of good luck and guardian of the home to help explain the arrival of a new member of the family.

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I. Summarise

　　The story talks about the origin of the superstition that babies are brought into the home by the stork. Because the stolk has often regarded as a sign of good luck in northwestern Europe, where the stolk is a commonplace sight and is well respected, there was a blief that when the stolk flew over a house where a birth was about to take place, may bring good luck to the family. The story of stolks delivering babies probably arose from this superstition. And when many parents have difficulty in explaining to their children where the new baby from, they can tell this story as an explanation.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
quill noun 鳥羽
stalk verb 靜悄悄捕吃...
steeple noun 尖塔
chimney noun 煙囪
gaurdian noun 守護神

ii. useful / phrases
regard A as B 將A視為B
supersition noun 迷信
arise from... 起因於...
understandable adj. 可理解的


III. The reason I chose this article

　　After finished reading this article, I think this explaination may be better than Chinese parents' explaintion. Because since we were little, whenever we ask father or mother where we came from, the answer always be "Picked up on the road side," or "Someone put a baby in front of my house." These make our children feel sad about I might be the needless child, doesn't it?

[ Journals ] 1 The Mad Emperor

　　Recently a group of historians from all over the world announced its list of the ten greatest tyrants of all time. The unanimous choice for number-one tyrant was Nero, the third-century Roman emperor.
　　The deranged ruler may have picked up many of his sadistic tendencies from his immediate ancestor. His widowed mother, Agrippina, was the sister of Caligula, the gleeful and insane ruler who tortured and murdered hundreds of Romans. Agrippina married the emperor Claudius. She convinced him to disinherit his natural son, Brittannicus, and make Nero his successor. She then severed Claudius poison mushrooms before he could change his mind.
　　Nero’s tyranny was most brutally expressed in his treatment of his own family. Upon ascending the throne at the age of 16, he committed his first recorded murder. He gave his rival, Brittannicus, a fatal potion to drink during a meal. The other guests were alarmed at the youth’s death spasms, but Nero called it “an epileptic fit” and calmly went back to eating.
　　The Nero dealt with his mother. After she started meddling in governmental matters, he sent her out for a sail on a sabotaged boat. When she survived her ordeal, Nero had her executed.
　　Nero’s marriage also reflected his bloodthirsty personality. His first marriage, to his 13-year-old stepsister, ended when he had her banished and then murdered. He killed his second wife when she scolded him for coming home late. He obtained his third and final wife by having her husband eliminated.

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I. Summarize

　　This article is talking about the tyrant, Nero, and his tyranny. Nero, the third century Roman emperor, may have picked up of his immediate ancestor. His mother’s brother, Caligula, was the gleeful and insane ruler who tortured and murdered hundreds of Romans. And his mother poisoned Nero’s stepfather after she make sure Nero would be the successor. And Nero was sadistic to treat his family. For example, he killed his stepbrother when he was 16; killed his first and second wife just cause something made him unhappy. And he also killed his mother, who made him to be the successor of his stepfather.


II. Vocabulary words and phrases

i. new words/phrases
tyrant
1. in ancient Greece, a ruler who had seized power without legal right to it
2. any person who exercises power in a cruel way
unanimous
1. acting together as a single undiversified whole
2. in complete agreement
deranged
- driven insane
immediate ancestor
insane
1. afflicted with or characteristic of mental derangement
2. very foolish
tendency
1. a general direction in which something tends to move
2. a characteristic likelihood of or natural disposition toward a certain condition or character or effect
gleeful
- full of high-spirited delight
successor
1. a person who follows next in order
2. a thing or person that immediately replaces something or someone
ordeal
1. a severe or trying experience
2. a primitive method of determining a person's guilt or innocence by subjecting the accused person to dangerous or painful tests believed to be under divine control
eliminate
1. do away with
2. kill in large numbers
3. terminate, end, or take out

ii. useful words/phrases
fatal
1. bringing death
2. having extremely unfortunate or dire consequences; bringing ruin
pick up…
- to acquire by study or experience
convince somebody to Verb
- to bring (as by argument) to belief, consent, or a course of action
scold somebody for something


III. The reason I chose this article

　　I chose this article because the name “Nero.” My favorite rock music drummer’s name is Nero, too. After I read this article, I was wondering whether he now this mad emperor or not. I think maybe he knew it! Because rock’n’roll drummers always look crazy when they play drums. And this article was from one of my extra reading materials that teacher gave me before the CUEE. So, this is my second time to read this article and find out it is still interested me.