English Recordings

Haroun Tazieff the Polish scientist, has spent his life-time studying active volcanoes and deep caves in all parts of the world. In 1948, he went to lake Kivu in the Congo to observe a new volcano which he later named Kituro. Tazieff was able to set up his camp very close to the volcano while it was erupting violently. Though he managed to take a number of brilliant photographs, he could not stay near the volcano for very long. He noticed that a river of liquid rock was coming towards him. It threatened to surround him completely, but Tazieff managed to escape just in time. He waited until the volcano became quiet and he was able to return two days later. This time, he managed to climb into the mouth of Kituro so that he could take photographs and measure temperatures. Tazieff has often risked his life in this way. He has been able to tell us more about active volcanoes than any man alive.

Antique shops exert a peculiar fascination on a great many people. The more expensive kind of antique shop where rare objects are beautifully displayed in glass cases to keep them free from dust is usually a forbidding place. But no one has to muster up courage to enter a less pretentious antique shop. There is always hope that in its labyrinth of musty， dark， disordered rooms a real rarity will be found amongst the piles of assorted junk that little the floors.
No one discovers a rarity by chance. A truly dedicated bargain hunter must have patience， and above all， the ability to recognize the worth of something when he sees it. To do this， he must be at least as knowledgeable as the dealer. Like a scientist bent on making a discovery， he must cherish the hope that one day he will be amply rewarded.
My old friend， Frank Halliday， is just such a person. He has often described to me how he picked up a masterpiece for a mere $50. One Saturday morning， Frank visited an antique shop in my neighbourhood. As he had never been there before， he found a great deal to interest him. The morning passed rapidly and Frank was about to leave when he noticed a large packing case lying on the floor. The morning passed rapidly and Frank just come in， but that he could not be bothered to open it. Frank begged him to do so and the dealer reluctantly prised it open. The contents were disappointing. Apart from an interesting-looking carved dagger， the box was full of crockery， much of it broken. Frank gently lifted the crockery out of the box an suddenly noticed a miniature painting at the bottom of the packing case. As its composition and line reminded him of an Italian painting he knew well， he decided to buy it. Glancing at it briefly， the dealer told him that it was worth $50. Frank could hardly conceal his excitement， for he knew that he had made a real discovery. The tiny painting proved to be an unknown masterpiece by Correggio and was worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

We have all experienced days when everything goes wrong. A day may begin well enough， but suddenly everything seems to get out of control. What invariably happens is that a great number of things choose to go wrong at precisely the same moment. It is as if a single unimportant event set up a chain of reactions. Let us suppose that you are preparing a meal and keeping an eye on the baby at the same time. The telephone rings and this marks the prelude to an unforeseen series of catastrophes. While you are on the phone， the baby pulls the tablecloth off the table， smashing half your best crockery and cutting himself in the process. You hang up hurriedly and attend to baby， crockery， etc. Meanwhile， the meal gets burnt. As if this were not enough to reduce you to tears， your husband arrives， unexpectedly bringing three guests to dinner.
Things can go wrong on a big scale， as a number of people recently discovered in Parramatta， a suburb of Sydney. During the rush hour one evening two cars collided and both drivers began to argue. The woman immediately behind the two cars happened to be a learner. She suddenly got into a panic and stopped her car. This made the driver following her brake hard. His wife was sitting beside him holding a large cake. As she was thrown forward， the cake went right through the windscreen and landed on the road. Seeing a cake flying through the air， a lorry driver who was drawing up alongside the car， pulled up all of a sudden. The lorry was loaded with empty beer bottles and hundreds of them slid off the back of the vehicle and on to the road. This led to yet another angry argument. Meanwhile， the traffic piled up behind. It took the police nearly an hour to get the traffic on the move again. In the meantime， the lorry driver had to sweep up hundreds of broken bottles. Only two stray dogs benefited from all this confusion， for they greedily devoured what was left of the cake. It was just one of those days！

So the debate over the Purple heart is more than a medical or clinical dispute about how to determine the veracity of injury. At the heart of the disagreement are rival conceptions of moral character and military valor. Those who insist that only bleeding wounds should count believe that post-traumatic stress reflects a weakness of character unworthy of honor. Those who believe that psychological wounds should qualify argue that veterans suffering long-term trauma and severe depression have sacrificed for their country as surely, and as honorably, as those who've lost a limb.

The dispute over the Purple Heart illustrates the moral logic of Aristotle's theory of justice. We can't determine who deserves a military medal without asking what virtues the medal properly honors. And to answer that question, we have to assess competing conceptions of character and sacrifice.

It might be argued that military medals are a special case, a throw-back to an ancient ethic of honor and virtue. These days, most of our arguments about justice are about how to distribute the fruits of prosperity, or the burdens of hard times, and how to define the basic rights of citizens. In these domains, considerations of welfare and freedom predominate. But arguments about the rights and wrongs of economic arrangements often lead us back to Aristotle's question of what people morally deserve, and why.

•(Jan 4th 2012)
Hi, everyone, how are you today?
(/how are you doing today? )(/how have you been?)
Today I`d like to briefly talk about my one day in order to practice describing it in English.
• Early this morning, my husband gave me ride to school, and then he went to climb 阿mountain, and I taught children.
• I will substitute teach this class for a week because the regular teacher got married.
• When I finished work , thankfully, a teacher who I knew gave me a ride to a subway station。
• I met one of my friends at the subway station, and then we went to a small music hall together.
• There we had a good time listening to live piano.
• Oh, before went in playing hall , we went to a café and had coffee with snacks.
• The performance was an informal, young women’s piano recital .
• They are housewives, but they are also trying to develop their own talent while managing their homes.
• So even though it was a small piano recital, I believe it gave them pure pleasure and happiness while they were preparing for this performance.
• Sure their family members, husbands, and kids also must have been proud and happy (as well).
• On the way home, I had sea food and chopped noodles for dinner with my friend
•

Today`s pictures:
• The first picture: The poster for the piano recital.
• The second picture: A coffee cup in the café and sea food chopped noodles that we had today.
• The third pictures: Movie posts on the safe door of subway station. I took it when I was waiting for my friend in a subway station.

~~♡Thank you for reading. Please correct my mistakes. Good night! ~~♡

tenable

If the labour office determined that a particular emigration was tenable, it was to be directed overseas to German settlement districts if possible, especially those in South America.
Like the Latin kingdom, the independence of the Mamluk Empire was then neither tolerable nor tenable and by 1273 it had been suppressed, leaving the Nizaris of Syria to look to the imamate in Iran for spiritual guidance.

admonition

Although Antony attracted a number of followers, all of them lived a strictly eremitic (solitary) life, with each monk living on his own, though they did occasionally come together for worship, group teaching, and admonition.
Other bishops pointedly addressed the Merovingians as ‘Catholic kings’, perhaps as a sly admonition of how they were supposed to behave towards the church.

thither

And as he desired nothing more than to be with his two Houses, so he would repair thither as soon as he could possibly do it with his honour and safety.
It is tempting to suggest that when Cogitosus in the mid or late seventh century described Kildare as ‘a monastery city as we call it’, justifying the term city on the grounds of the innumerable people flocking thither, he was innovating.

litany

The council’s documents made no mention of Pius IX’s “Syllabus of Errors”, which, by condemning a litany of errors of the modern world, including freedom of religion and speech, was plainly at odds with the American political system.
By the end of the early medieval period, then, litanies to the saints were common, popular, and used in a variety of settings.

tedious

With its low earnings, tedious working conditions, and long hours, agriculture continued to be the principal source of income for most people.
Despite the tedious text, it signalled, perhaps even created, that most heady moment when God’s covenanted people appeared to speak with a united and passionate voice.

I usually drive, but once in a blue moon I need to use a bus.

One day, I went downtown by bus, which takes about 40 minutes from my place. I'm thrilled to do something unusual, so that day was no exception.

After I finished my errands and I happily bought 5 doughnuts at a doughnut shop in front of the bus-stop, I got on a bus to get back home.

But you know, it is only natural that when I'm chilling out and feeling nice and relaxed, I also feel a wave of drowsiness. You can guess what happened.

Of course, I missed my stop.

When I woke up, I realized that the bus was in a garage! I forced my eyes to open and looked around my seat. Nobody was there! Oh. My God!...but, wait! Wait...I could see cigarette smoke rising around the driver's seat. Thank goodness! The driver was smoking after his day's work.

I stood up suddenly. The driver looked at me with blank surprise. He said to me, "why are you here?" I said, "I don't know." I was embarrassed and rushed to get off the bus.

The driver asked me where my house was. I was too embarrassed to have a conversation with him, but anyway I answered where I should've gotten off. I started walking without knowing where I actually was or which way I should go.

The bus driver was kind enough to follow me with his big bus, and he told me that he would take me to my place. It was evening, and I don't remember how I felt at the time. I must have had mixed feelings; both relief and shame.

When the bus pulled over at my place, I said to him, "thank you very much," andhanded one doughnut out of the box to him, and rushed to get off the bus.

Several months later, I realized that I should've paid him for the bus fare! I left him without paying a penny! I also regret that I gave him only one doughnut while holding the other four in my hand!

lol

（^^）

The Hatheld Puffin is a modern aero-plane, but its designer, Mr John Wimpenny, is finding it difficult to get it off the ground. The reason for this is that this plane is also a bicycle. Its pilot has to pedal hard to get it into the air. After Mr Wimpenny had the plane built, it was tested thoroughly. In 1961, it was the first man-powered aircraft to fly half a mile. While being flown by a champion amateur cyclist in 1963, the plane crashed on an airfield. Since then, Mr Wimpenny has had it rebuilt. He has had the length of the wings increased so that they now measure 93 feet--almost as long as those of a Dakota. Many people have shown interest in this new and unusual sport. But though air cyclists may learn how to fly over short distances, and may, eventually, even get across the English Channel, it is doubtful whether they will ever cycle across the Atlantic.

Last Christmas, the circus owner, Jimmy Gates, decided to take some presents to a children's hospital. Dressed up as Father Christmas and accompanied by a 'guard of honour' of six pretty girls, he set off down the main street of the city riding a baby elephant called Jumbo. He, should have known that the police would never allow this sort of thing. A policeman approached Jimmy and told him he ought to have gone along a side-street as Jumbo was holding up the traffic. Though Jimmy agreed to go at once, Jumbo refused to move. Fifteen policemen had to push very hard to get him off the main street. The police had a difficult time, but they were most amused. 'Jumbo must weigh a few tons,' said a policeman afterwards, 'so it was fortunate that we didn't have to carry him. Of course, we should arrest him, but as he has a good record, we shall let him off this time.'

The salvage operation had been a complete failure. The small ship， Elkor， which had been searching the Barents Sea for weeks， was on its way home. A radio message from the mainland had been received by the ship's captain instructing him to give up the search. The captain knew that another attempt would be made later， for the sunken ship he was trying to find had been carrying a precious cargo of gold bullion.
Despite the message， the captain of the Elkor decided to try once more. The sea bed was scoured with powerful nets and there was tremendous excitement on board went a chest was raised from the bottom. Though the crew were at first under the impression that the lost ship had been found， the contents of the chest proved them wrong. What they had in fact found was a ship which had been sunk many years before.
The chest contained the personal belongings of a seaman， Alan Fielding. There were books， clothing and photographs， together with letters which the seaman had once received from his wife. The captain of the Elkor ordered his men to salvage as much as possible from the wreck. Nothing of value was found， but the numerous items which were brought to the surface proved to be of great interest. From a heavy gun that was raised， the captain realized that the ship must have been a cruiser. In another chest， which contained the belongings of a ship's officer， there was an unfinished letter which had been written on March 14th， 1943. The captain learnt from the letter that the name of the lost ship was the Karen. The most valuable find of all was the ship's log book， parts of which it was still possible to read. From this the captain was able to piece together all the information that had come to light. The Karen had been sailing in a convoy to Russia when she was torpedoed by an enemy submarine. This was later confirmed by naval official at the Ministry of Defiance after the Elkor had returned home. All the items that were found were sent to the War Museum.