English Recordings

The Convenience Society, or con for short

The other day I took my younger children to a Burger King for lunch and there was a line of about a dozen cars at the drive-through window . Now, a drive-through window is not a window you drive through, but a window you drive up to and collect your food from, having placed your order over a speakerphone along the way; the idea is to provide quick takeaway food for those in a hurry.
We parked, went in, ordered and ate and came out again, all in about ten minutes. As we departed, I noticed that a white pickup truck that had been last in the queue when we arrived was still four or five cars back from collecting its food. It would have been much quicker if the driver had parked like us and gone in and got his food himself, but he would never have thought that way because the drive-through window is supposed to be speedier and more convenient.
Americans have always looked for ways to increase confort. It is an interesting fact that nearly all the everyday inventions that take the difficulties out of life- escalators, automatic doors, passengers lifts, refrigerators, washing machines, frozen food, fast food – were invented in America, or at least first widely used here. Americans grew so used to seeing a constant stream of labour-saving devices, in fact, that by the sixties they had come to expect machines to do almost everything for them.
The moment I first realized that this was not necessarily a good idea was at Christmas of 1961 or ´62, when my father was given an electric carving knife. It was an early model and not as light as the ones you can buy today. Perhaps my memory is playing tricks on me, but I have a clear impression of him putting on googles and heavy rubber gloves before plugging it in. What is certainly true is that when he sank it into the turkey, it sent pieces flying everywhere and then, the blade hit the plate with a shower of blue sparks and the whole thing flew out of his hands and shot across the table and out of the room, like a creature from Gremlins movie.
My father was always buying gadgets that proved to be disastrous- clothes steamers that failed to take the wrinkles out of suits but caused wallpaper to fall off the walls in whole sheets, or an electric pencil sharpener that could consume an entire pencil (including the tips of your fingers if you weren’t quick) in less than a second.
But all of this was nothing compared with the situation today. Americans are now surrounded with items that do things for them to an almost absurd degree- automatic cat-food dispensers, refrigerators that make their own ice cubes, automatic car windows, disposable toothbrushes that come with their own ration of toothpaste. People are so addicted to convenience that they have become trapped in a vicious circle: the more labour-saving devices they buy, the harder they need to work; the harder they work , the more labour-saving appliances they feel they need.
When we moved into our house in New Hampshire, it was full of gadgets installed by the earlier owners, all of them designed to make life a little easier. Most, however, were completely useless. One of our rooms, for instance, came equipped with automatic curtains. You flicked a switch on the wall and four pairs of curtains effortlessly opened or closed. That, at least, was the idea. In practice what happened was that one opened, one closed, one opened and closed repeatedly, and one did nothing at all for five minutes, and then started to produce smoke. We didn’t go anywhere near them after the first week.
Automatic curtains, electric cat-food dispensers and clothes steamers only seem to make life easier. In fact, all they do is add expense and complication to your existence.

Gift of the gab
Chatting to babies in a particular way boosts their intelligence and gives them a head start in life, a new study has found. Speech and language therapist, Dr Sally Ward, selected 140 nine-month-old children from Manchester. She then gave 70 of the parents detailed advice about the best way to communicate with their child and left the other 70 without guidance. The “communicating” parents were told to spend at least 30 minutes every day talking to their child, without any background noise, about subjets which their infant might take an interest in. More than six years later, and after regular checks had been kept on their progress, the children had IQ tests. Those in the talking group were, on average, a year and three months ahead of the other group. Nine children had IQs in the gifted category, whereas none in the non-talking group was as bright.
In a separate study at the American Academy of Paedriatics, experts have warned about the dangers of children under the age of two watching television. Research has shown that exposure to television is responsible for anything from delayed speech to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The problem with television is that it confuses infants, who block out the background noise coming from it. They consequently learn to ignore all noise, and this includes speech. Paedriatic and language specialists also disapprove of radio, which has much the same effect on a child’s language development.

I really like my sister's raspberry jam!

- Jimi Hendrix was such a cool dude.
Not really, he died choking on his own vomit

If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say she's acting that way because she's still in love with him.

When you are pulled over fixing a flat tire, use your hazard lights so their blinking will alert other drivers that you are stopped.

IMPORTANT: Training must be conducted without exposing the trainee to a fall hazard.

Such behaviour by unscrupulous drivers creates a hazard for traffic safety in all of Europe.

It would be foolish to think you did it on purpose, what happened had to happen.
You did it on purpose.

I didn’t do it on purpose.

How am I going to do it on purpose?

The tiles may come unstuck if you use that low-quality adhesive to fasten them.

I peeled off the skin of the apple, then cored it and cut it into wedges.

Avocado wedges with a chicken or ham sandwich on the side.

I tore the letter in half
you can't tear him away from his computer

I push shopping carts as if im driving a car.

Supermarket shelves

Put some music on

Do you want to stand in the corner?
Do you want me to put you to stand in the corner?

she waved goodbye to him
she gave them a wave

Do I need special insoles for my shoes?

the cat licked the cream off the cake

I licked my finger

This is definitely the most delicious breaded soy we have ever tried!

This was the most insane hail storm or storm in general I have ever seen!

National symbols of Argentina

shift yourself, will you!
I can't shift this nail
Don't worry about cleaning that up, the day shift will do it in the morning.

Move the gear shift lever to give the desired forward speed.

I can't use my hand until the cut on it heals over

I crammed all my things into a case.
His car was crammed with boxes

Do you want me to put you in time-out?
Do you want me to put you in the corner?
Do you need a time-out?"

the text has been deleted.

1. They did it for kicks.
2. She kicked up a real fuss.
3. The poor man has kicked the bucket.
4. He is alive and kicking.
5. He was only kidding.
6. No kidding!
7. Stop kidding me.
8. And so we killed two birds with one stone.
9. She was dressed to kill.
10. They are different in kind.
11. There was food of all kinds.
12. They are two of a kind.
13. We have to give him the kiss of life.
14. Kiss your father goodbye.
15. There was a knock at the door.
16. He knocks around with the same gang.
17. Knock it off!
18. The men knock off at six.
19. The picture was knocked down to him for £500.
20. They knock about the streets all day.
21. This is the land of plenty.
22. This is no man's land.
23. It was a land of milk and honey.
24. He landed me in trouble.
25. The cat was lapping up its milk.
26. The waves lapped against the side of the ship.
27. This wedding lark cost me a fortune.
28. They think that's a great lark.
29. My father gets up with the lark.
30. I live in the last house but one.
31. They paid him their last respects.
32. We can last out until the end of the winter.
33. You haven't seen the last of me.
34. He breathed his last.
35. At long last we are here!
36. It is a late summer.
37. That's what my late husband used to say.
38. It happened in the late 19th century.
39. He did it just for a laugh.
40. He who laughs last laughs longest.

1. You are treading on thin ice.
2. They put on some music to break the ice.
3. I haven't got the foggiest/slightest idea.
4. You mustn't speak ill of your parents.
5. We can ill afford the time.
6. He hasn't an inch of common sense.
7. She is every inch a lady.
8. There was not an inch of room.
9. They searched every inch of the place.
10. They were within an inch of the body.
11. I had no inkling that you were here.
12. There is an inkling of truth in what he says.
13. This job involves little work.
14. Don't involve me in the argument.
15. That involves a large labour force.
16. Don't get involved in that businesss.
17. I'm in a jam.
18. He jammed his fingers in the door.
19. The room was jammed with people.
20. The door has jammed.
21. This is just the job.
22. You have to make the best of a bad job.
23. What a good job you were here.
24. Join us in a glass of champagne.
25. The joke was on Peter.
26. I did it for a joke.
27. They spent the evening cracking jokes.
28. He jumped at the chance.
29. He was jumping for joy.
30. You have to jump in at the deep end,
31. That car has jumped the lights.
32. Don't jump to conclusions.
33. I'm keen on that girl.
34. You have keen eyesight.
35. I'm not very keen on custard.
36. Tom is very keen on cycling. He is a keen cyclist.
37. Keep it under your hat.
38. He keeps asking me the time.
39. Keep your town tidy.
40. What kept you?

(Apr 25th 2012)bbb 10th anniversary"
I went to attend "bbb 10th anniversary", last night.
I already talked about "bbb Korea" in my Chinese entery on last week.
Since I`m tired now, I`ll very briefly talk about that anniversary.
We bbb volunteers were invited to the "bbb 10th anniversary" yesterday evening, and we had a good time together.
We congratulated one another and others who have worked as a bbb volunteers and share our warm heart.
To date, nearly 4,000 volunteers across Korea provide interpretation free services in 18 different languages 24/7 through mobile phones.
I`m so sleepy now, I`ll talk in more detail tomorrow.

1.poor
2.pour
3.pure

This is a story of a girl I met.
I saw her walking into the shop to buy a box of tissues. I didn't know why she can be so calm after knowing the result--yeah, she just answered the phone which is telling her the result of interview.
Then, I saw her began to cried after leaving the shop.
She didn't talk about this with friends. She just wanted to be left alone.
She gave a sigh that can be hardly heard.
"What's happened?" I asked.
"I thought I could share good news with him. But interview failed."
She sent IM messages to him when she found he's online. However, he changed the status to "away" soon.
"I am too noisy, haha."
Was she?
What a tough night.