English Recordings

"Frugal? Cheap is more like it!"

Situation:

Your sister is telling a story about your father at a family party. In the story, she politely says that your father was "frugal" when you were children (meaning that he always saved his money). You want to tease your father a little more, so you say:

"I could care less about climbing the social ladder or whatever."

Situation :

A lot of people work hard to get a higher-paying job and bigger house, but you don't like this. You're complaining about this way of thinking to a friend. You say:

"Louise has been killing it!"

situation:

You're in charge of a sales team. One of the salespeople on your team has sold a lot this week. Now you're in a team meeting. You want to tell everyone about her good performance.

"Pull up a little closer."

Situation:

You're riding in the back seat of your friend's car. Your friend has stopped at an ATM machine so you can get some cash. The machine is too far away from the car, so you ask him to move the car closer to it.

"He's always jetting off to exotic locations in far-off corners of the world."

Situation :

You have a cousin who's a famous photographer. He has a really glamorous job and travels a lot. You're telling a friend about him.

Warning: brain overload, shvoong.com

Scientists fear that a digital flood of 24-hour rolling news and infotainment is putting our primitive grey matter under such stress that we can no longer think wisely or empathise with others
Every day, just to keep up to date, that grey lump between your ears has to shovel ever bigger piles of infotainment — tottering jumbles of global-warming updates, web gossip, refugee crises, e-mails, fashion alerts, Twitters and advertisements. Now research suggests that we may have reached an historic point in human evolution, where the digital world we have created has begun to outpace our neurons’ processing abilities.
The result is that our data-numbed brains increasingly say “whatever” to the world’s troubles. The trauma we witness on our screens — and the indignation that it should spark — goes unprocessed as our minds seek refuge in simpler things, such as whether Su-Bo should have won Britain’s Got Talent. But the sense of mind-lag and unease that result from info-overload may be causing significant levels of anxiety and depression.
The concerns have been raised by two newly published studies which indicate that streaming digital news may now run faster than our ability to make moral judgments. Rapid info-bursts of stabbings, suffering, eco-threat and war are consumed on a “yes-blah” level but don’t make us indignant, compassionate or inspired. It seems that the quicker we know, the less we may care — and the less humane we become.
One fear is that habitual rapid media-browsing can, ironically, block our ability to develop wisdom. Researchers at the University of California, San Diego, announced recently that they had compiled compelling evidence that even the universal traits of human wisdom — empathy, compassion, altruism, tolerance and emotional stability — are hard-wired into our brains. In Archives of General Psychiatry, Professor Dilip Jeste says that neurons associated with those attributes seem to be sited primarily in areas of the prefrontal cortex — the slower-acting, recently evolved regions of our brain that are bypassed when the world feels stressful and our primitive survival instincts grab the controls.
So, while we are born with the capacity to grow wise, the media blitz of modern life can sideline it. “Psychosocially positive behaviours such as admiration and indignation are more work for the brain than basic emotions such as pain response,” Jeste says. “Constant bombardment by outside high-intensity stimuli is not likely be healthy. It may prevent people from having an opportunity to digest the information, match it with culturally resonant reactions and then execute well-considered behavioural responses.

Better safe than sorry, Guardian

Americans stock up to be ready for end of the world
Recession and the constant threat of terrorist attacks have given new life to the ingrained survivalist instinct
Tess Pennington, 33, is a mother of three children, and lives in the sprawling outskirts of Houston, Texas. But she is not taking the happy safety of her suburban existence lightly.
Like a growing army of fellow Americans, Pennington is learning how to grow her own food, has stored emergency rations in her home and is taking courses on treating sickness with medicinal herbs.
"I feel safe and more secure. I have taken personal responsibility for the safety of myself and of my family," Pennington said. "We have decided to be prepared. There all kinds of disasters that can happen, natural and man-made."
Pennington is a "prepper", a growing social movement that has been dubbed Survivalism Lite. Preppers believe that it is better to be safe than sorry and that preparing for disaster – be it a hurricane or the end of civilisation – makes sense.
Unlike the 1990s survivalists, preppers come from all backgrounds and live all over America. They are just as likely to be found in a suburb or downtown loft as a remote ranch in the mountains. Prepping networks, which have sprung up all over the country in the past few years, provide advice on how to prepare food reserves, how to grow crops in your garden, how to hunt and how to defend yourself. There are prepping books, online shops, radio shows, countless blogs, prepping courses and prepping conferences.
John Milandred runs a website called Pioneer Living, which is one of the main forums for discussing prepping. It provides a range of advice for those who just want to store extra food in case of a power cut, to those who want to embrace the "off the grid" lifestyle of America's western pioneers. "We get inquiries from people from all walks of life. We had a principal from a school asking us to talk to their children. We have doctors and firemen and lawyers," he said.
Milandred lives in Oklahoma and, should society collapse around him, he is well placed to flourish. Indeed, he might not notice that much. His house has a hand-dug well that gives him fresh water. He grows his own food. He has built an oven that needs neither gas nor electricity. He can hunt for meat. "If something happened, it really would not affect us," he said.
There are several reasons for the rise of prepping. The first is that, in the post-9/11 world, mass terror attacks have become a fear for many Americans. At a time when US diplomacy is focused on preventing Iran getting nuclear weapons and terror experts continue to warn of "dirty bombs" on American soil, it is no surprise that many Americans feel threatened. Added to that paranoia has come the recession. Suddenly, millions of Americans have been losing their jobs and their homes, reinforcing a feeling that society is not as stable as it once seemed.
Hollywood has caught on. A succession of films, such as 2012, The Road, The Book of Eli and Legion, have tapped into an American Zeitgeist that is worried about the end of civilisation.
"Prepping masks a wide range of stances and ideologies. But the more people are prepared, the more they are likely to have an apocalyptic way of thinking," said Professor Barry Brummett, of the University of Texas-Austin.
Even government officials have accepted that the financial crisis posed a threat to social order. In recent testimony before Congress, treasury secretary Tim Geithner admitted that top-level talks had been held on whether the US could enforce law and order in the wake of a collapse of the financial system.
Certainly, Tom Martin agrees. He runs the American Preppers Network, which helps provide a wide range of resources. Martin, a truck driver who lives in Idaho, believes that more and more people will become preppers. "Millions of people now have the mindset that they want to be prepared for something, but don't know what to call it," he said.
That rings true with Pennington. In the 1990s, survivalism was the province of anti-government militiamen or loners in the woods. But preppers are more concerned with stocking up on food and water and relearning skills so that they can fend for themselves.
To that end, Pennington has set up a website called Ready Nutrition, which teaches basic food skills to prepare for a time when pre-packaged goods at a supermarket might not be available: "Prepping is not taboo, like survivalism. There is no negative connotation to it. We are not rednecks. In many ways, our ancestors were preppers. So were the Native Americans. It is just going back to being able to look after yourself."

2000 bilingual phrases – 19
1. He did it at my expense.
2. We'll do it regardless of expense.
3. That is true to a certain extent.
4. I have credit to the extent of £10,000.
5. She has almond eyes.
6. My property goes as far as the eye can see.
7. I did it in the twinkling of an eye.
8. He could see it in his mind's eye.
9. It's something that hits you in the eye.
10. He didn't take his eyes off her.
11. It's very pleasant to the eye.
12. She is the apple of his eye.
13. Something caught his eye.
14. Keep an eye on him.
15. He rolled his eyes.
16. That man always turns a blind eye.
17. That star can be seen with the naked eye.
18. She has an eye for detail.
19. This boy has eyes like a hawk.
20. She was crying her eyes out.
21. The solution was staring me in the face.
22. You have a face as long as a poker.
23. It's difficult to keep a straight face.
24. You have lost face.
25. You have to save face.
26. She slammed the door in his face.
27. I'm going to smash your face in.
28. She turned red in the face.
29. You have to face the facts.
30. Let's face it.
31. Face the wall.
32. You have to face the music.
33. My room faces north.
34. They were facing each other.
35. I failed in maths.
36. My strength is failing me.
37. Words fail me.
38. He failed to answer the invitation.
39. We'll have problems when the food supplies fail.
40. This man is a failed musician.

2000 bilingual phrases – 18
1. How else can it be done?
2. Much else remains to be done.
3. That woman achieved her ends.
4. And that was the end of it.
5. It rained for days on end for nearly two months.
6. Does the end really justify the means?
7. I did what he wanted in the end.
8. It did me no end of good.
9. The poor man was at his wit's end.
10. At last we have gained our ends.
11. I'm afraid you've got the wrong end of the stick.
12. These racist attacks must be brought to an end.
13. We are making both ends meet.
14. You're doing all that to no end.
15. You'll never hear the end of it.
16. He ended up eating it.
17. The car ended up in my garden.
18. They engaged the enemy.
19. The line is engaged/busy.
20. They've been engaged for five years.
21. Oddly enough I was not afraid.
22. We have had enough of him.
23. We have enough and to spare.
24. It never entered my head.
25. I'm going to enter the car for the race.
26. I should have never entered politics.
27. I have enrolled for the summer school.
28. I can't enter into details now.
29. This never entered my plans.
30. There is a 'No entry' sign.
31. The competition attracted many entries.
32. I'll get even with you.
33. I stand an even chance.
34. I'll love you for ever and ever.
35. Thank you ever so much.
36. It's the coldest day ever.
37. What ever did he say?
38. Every man for himself.
39. We meet every once in a while.
40. He is every inch a patriot.

castigate
When she was caught stealing for the second time, Maya knew her mother would castigate her.