English Recordings

True eccentrics never deliberately set out to draw attention to themselves. They disregard social conventions without being conscious that they are doing anything extraordinary. This invariably wins them the love and respect of others， for they add colour to the dull routine of everyday life.
Up to the time of his death， Richard Colson was one of the most notable figures in our town. He was a shrewd and wealthy businessman， but most people in the town hardly knew anything about this side of his life. He was known to us all as Dickie and his eccentricity had become legendary long before he died.
Dickie disliked snobs intensely. Though he owned a large car， he hardly ever used it， preferring always to go on foot. Even when it was raining heavily， he refused to carry an umbrella. One day， he walked into an expensive shop after having been caught in a particularly heavy shower. He wanted to buy a $300 watch for his wife， but he was in such a bedraggled condition than an assistant refused to serve him. Dickie left the shop without a word and returned carrying a large cloth bag. As it was extremely heavy， he dumped it on the counter. The assistant asked him to leave， but Dickie paid no attention to him and requested to see the manager. Recognizing who the customer was， the manager was most apologetic and reprimanded the assistant severely. When Dickie was given the watch， the presented the assistant with the cloth bag. It contained $300 in pennies. He insisted on the assistant's counting the money before he left —— 30，000 pennies in all！ On another occasion， he invited a number of important critics to see his private collection of modern paintings. This exhibition received a great deal of attention in the press， for though the pictures were supposed to be the work of famous artists， they had in fact been painted by Dickie. It took him four years to stage this elaborate joke simply to prove that critics do not always know what they are talking about.

<예문>---------------------------그는늦게자고늦게일어난다He keeps late hours.

아침늦게까지자다sleep late into the morning.

I sleep late at night and wake up late in the morning. 밤에늦게자고아침에도늦게일어나지.

have a late night 밤늦게자다

keep late hours 늦게자고늦게일어나 다

I stayed up too late and woke up exhausted. 너무늦게자고아침에일어나니굉장히 피곤하던데.

I used to sleep very late at night. 저는 밤에매우늦게자곤합니다.

I don't know why I slept so late 내가어 제왜그리늦게잤는지모르겠네,요

We, uh, we had a late night. 어제늦게 잤거든요

"It doesn't matter for their health if people are night owls or early birds," a researcher at the Chinese University of Hong Kong said. "But irregular sleeping habits can lead to insomnia." 홍콩중국대학교의한연구가는"늦게 자든지, 일찍일어나든지는건강상문제 가없어요. 그렇지만, 불규칙하게잠을 자는습관을들이면불면증이올수있 죠."라고 말했다

-(2012.2.3)<My new class.>- I haven’t written an entry in English for a while. • Moreover, I've been going to sleep late and consequently waking up late recently. • My eyes have been feeling uncomfortable, and easily turn red. • So I'd like to change this bad habit. • From tomorrow, I have to go to school and teach children all next week. • Today, I'd better go to sleep before midnight. • It's already 11:51. @.@/ Good night! I'll go to bed right now! • Tomorrow, I've got to leave early in the morning and I also have to stay outside the whole day, and I will come back home late in the evening. Ah~~ I'd better say “bye~”!

(※ Oh, one more thing: Today's picture is my new Chinese class's students. From this February we've begun studying a new book. They are really wonderful classmates/students. I'm always thankful to them. I took it yesterday afternoon during my class. ("cranetrain"，Thank you very much for your reading and for your correction.

On some issues, questions of virtue and honor are too obvious to deny. Consider the recent debate over who should qualify for the Purple Heart. Since 1932, the U.S military has awarded the medal to soldiers wounded or killed in battle by enemy action. In addition to the honor, the medal entitles recipients to special privileges in veterans' hospitals.

Since the beginning of the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, growing numbers of veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and treated for the condition. Symptoms include recurring nightmares, severe depression, and suicide. At least three hundred thousand veterans reportedly suffer from traumatic stress or major depression. Advocates for these veterans have proposed that they, too, should qualify for the Purple Heart. Since psychological injuries can be at least as debilitating as physical ones, they argue, soldiers who suffer these wounds should receive the medal.

After a Pentagon advisory group studied the question, the Pentagon announced, in 2009, that the Purple Heart would be reserved for soldiers with physical injuries. Veterans suffering from mental disorders and psychological trauma would not be eligible, even though they qualify for government-supported medical treatment and disability payments. The Pentagon offered Two reasons for its decision : traumatic stress disorders are not intentionally caused by enemy action, and they are difficult to diagnose objectively.

Did the Pentagon make the right decision? Taken by themselves, its reasons are unconvincing. In the Iraq War, one of the most common injuries recognized with the Purple Heart has been a punctured eardrum, caused by explosions at close range. But unlike bullets and bombs, such explosions are not a deliberate enemy tactic intended to injure or kill; they are (like traumatic stress) a damaging side effect of battlefield action. And wile traumatic disorders may be more difficult to diagnose than a broken limb, the injury they inflict can be more severe and long-lasting.

As the wider debate about the Purple Hear revealed, the real issue is about the meaning of the medal and the virtues it honors. What, then, are the relevant virtues? Unlike other military medals, the Purple Heart honor sacrifice, not bravery. It requires no heroic act, only an injury inflicted by the enemy. The questions is what kind of injury should count.

A veteran's group called the Military Order of the Purple Heart opposed awarding the medal for psychological injuries, claiming that doing so would "debase" the honor. A spokesman for the group stated that "shedding blood" should be an essential qualification. He didn't explain why bloodless injuries shouldn't count. But Tyler E. Boudreau, a forme Marine captain who favors including psychological injuries, offers a compelling analysis of the dispute. He attributes the oppositions to a deep-seated attitude in the military that views post-traumatic stress as a kind of weakness. "the same culture that demands tough-mindedness also encourages skepticism toward the suggestion that the violence of war can hurt the healthiest of minds...Sadly, as long as our military culture bears at least a quiet contempt for the psychological wounds of war, it is unlikely those veterans will ever see a Purple Heart"

In l858, a French engineer, Aime Thome de Gamond, arrived in England with a plan for a twenty-one mile tunnel across the English Channel. He said that it would be possible to build a platform in the centre of the Channel. This platform would serve as a port and a railway station. The tunnel would be well-ventilated if tall chimneys were built above sea-level. In 1860, a better plan was put forward by an Englishman, William Low. He suggested that a double railway tunnel should be built. This would solve the problem of ventilation, for if a train entered this tunnel, it would draw in fresh air behind it. Forty-two years later a tunnel was actually begun. If, at the time, the British had not feared invasion, it would have been completed. Recently, there has again been great interest in the idea of a Channel Tunnel. If it is built, it will connect Britain to Europe for the first time in history.

Geoffrey Hampden has a large circle of friends and is very popular at parties. Everybody admires him for his fine sense of humor--everybody, that is, except his six-year-old daughter, Jenny. Recently, one of Geoffrey's closest friends asked him to make a speech at a wedding reception. This is the sort of thing that Geoffrey loves. He prepared the speech carefully and went to the wedding with Jenny. He had included a large number of funny stories in the speech and, of course, it was a great success. As soon as he had finished, Jenny told him she wanted to go home. Geoffrey was a little disappointed by this but he did as his daughter asked. On the way home, he asked Jenny if she had enjoyed the speech. To his surprise, she said she hadn't. Geoffrey asked her why this was so and she told him that she did not like to see so many people laughing at him!

For years， villagers believed that Endley Farm was hunted. The farm was owned by two brothers， Joe and Bob Cox. They employed a few farmhands， but no one was willing to work there long. Every time a worker gave up his job， he told the same story. Farm labourers said that they always woke up to find that work had been done overnight. Hay had been cut and cowsheds had been cleaned. A farm worker， who stayed up all night claimed to have seen a figure cutting corn in the moonlight. In time， it became an accepted fact the Cox brothers employed a conscientious ghost that did most of their work for them.
No one suspected that there might be someone else on the farm who had never been seen. This was indeed the case. A short time ago， villagers were astonished to learn that the ghost of Endley had died. Everyone went to the funeral， for the 'ghost' was none other than Eric Cox， a third brother who was supposed to have died as a young man. After the funeral， Joe and Bob revealed a secret which they had kept for over fifty years.
Eric had been the eldest son of the family， very much older than his two brothers. He had been obliged to join the army during the Second World War. As he hated army life， he decided to desert his regiment. When he learnt that he would be sent abroad， he returned to the farm and his father hid him until the end of the war. Fearing the authorities， Eric remained in hiding after the war as well. His father told everybody that Eric had been killed in action. The only other people who knew the secret were Joe and Bob. They did not even tell their wives. When their father died， they thought it their duty to keep Eric in hiding. All these years， Eric had lived as a recluse. He used to sleep during the day and work at night， quite unaware of the fact that he had become the ghost of Endley. When he died， however， his brothers found it impossible to keep the secret any longer.

Whether we find a joke funny or not largely depends on were we have been brought up. The sense of humour is mysteriously bound up with national characteristics. A Frenchman， for instance， might find it hard to laugh at a Russian joke. In the same way， a Russian might fail to see anything amusing in a joke witch would make an Englishman laugh to tears.
Most funny stories are based on comic situations. In spite of national differences， certain funny situations have a universal appeal. No matter where you live， you would find it difficult not to laugh at， say， Charlie Chaplin's early films. However， a new type of humour， which stems largely from the U.S.， has recently come into fashion. It is called 'sick humour'. Comedians base their jokes on tragic situation like violent death or serious accidents. Many people find this sort of joke distasteful The following example of 'sick humour' will enable you to judge for yourself.
A man who had broken his right leg was taken to hospital a few weeks before Christmas. From the moment he arrived there， he kept on pestering his doctor to tell him when he would be able to go home. He dreaded having to spend Christmas in hospital. Though the doctors did his best， the patient's recovery was slow. On Christmas Day， the man still had his right leg in plaster. He spent a miserable day in bed thinking of all the fun he was missing. The following day， however， the doctor consoled him by telling him that his chances of being able to leave hospital in time for New Year celebrations were good. The good. The man took heart and， sure enough， on New Years' Eve he was able to hobble along to a party. To compensate for his unpleasant experiences in hospital， the man drank a little more than was good for him. In the process， he enjoyed himself thoroughly and kept telling everybody how much he hated hospitals. He was still mumbling something about hospitals at the end of the party when he slipped on a piece of ice and broke his left leg.

Firemen had been fighting the forest fire for nearly three weeks before they could get it under control. A short time before, great trees had covered the countryside for miles around. Now, smoke still rose up from the warm ground over the desolate hills. Winter was coming on and the hills threatened the surrounding villages with destruction, for heavy rain would not only wash away the soil but would cause serious floods as well. When the fire had at last been put out, the forest authorities ordered several tons of a special type of grass-seed which would grow quickly. The seed was sprayed over the ground in huge quantities by aeroplanes. The planes had been planting seed for nearly a month when it began to rain. By then, however, in many places the grass had already taken root. In place of the great trees which had been growing there for centuries, patches of green had begun to appear in the blackened soil.

In future, astronauts will be required to descend from a spaceship while it is still in space and to return to it. The ability to do this will be necessary in future flights to distant planets. Scientists are now trying to discover if this is possible. The spaceship Astra which left the earth a short time ago, will be travelling three hundred miles into space. At a certain point, the Astra will stop for a short time and an astronaut will attempt to leave the stationary spaceship and then return to it. We shall not know whether the experiment has been successful until we have received a radio message. The first message is expected to arrive at 7 o'clock this evening. By that time, the Astra will have been flying through space for seventeen hours and will have circled the earth a great many times. When the first radio messages have been received, the results of the trip will be announced immediately.