English Recordings

Some time ago， and interesting discovery was made by archaeologists on the Aegean island of Kea. An American team explored a temple which stands in an ancient city on the promontory of Ayia Irini. The city at one time must have been prosperous， for it enjoyed a high level of civilization. Houses —— often three storeys high —— were built of stone. They had large rooms with beautifully decorated walls. The city was equipped with a drainage system， for a great many clay pipes were found beneath the narrow streets.
The temple which the archaeologists explored was used as a place of worship from the fifteenth century B.C. until Roman times. In the most sacred room of temple， clay fragments of fifteen statues were found. Each of these represented a goddess and had， at one time， been painted. The body of one statue was found among remains dating from the fifteenth century B.C. It's missing head happened to be among remains of the fifth century B.C. This head must have been found in Classical times and carefully preserved. It was very old and precious even then. When the archaeologists reconstructed the fragments， they were amazed to find that the goddess turned out to be a very modern-looking woman. She stood three feet high and her hands rested on her hips. She was wearing a full-length skirt which swept the ground. Despite her great age， she was very graceful indeed， but， so far， the archaeologists have been unable to discover her identity.

~~☆★`~~ (Jan 19th 2012)~~☆★`~~
Hello,everyone, how are you? Today I have a lot of things that I`d like to talk about. However, I`m very sleepy and tired and don`t have time to write everything. It's already 1:00 A.M. /= It's already past midnight. /= It's already 1:00 in the morning.
And also, over the last week, I haven't reviewed my past year`s entries. So, I`ll review my entries from a year ago, from January 11th 2011, and then I`ll write about what happened today, tomorrow. Please read it and let me know if you can find any other more natural expressions. Thank you! Today`s video is my sister and her dog. I took it when I stopped by her house this evening on my way home. Her dog is so cute ^^/I like her dog is named "Konan". If I have time, I can talk about him(My sister`s dog.) Good night!
~~☆★`~~(Jan 11th 2011) 《A date on a snowy night/ A date on a snowing night >~~~☆★`
Hello, everyone, how are you?
ooOoooo ~~It`s too late to write an entry now, but I will write very briefly.
• Yeah~~~~ I had a date with my son tonight. (=This evening, I had a date with my son.) Oh, my husband went on a business trip this morning.
• Today late in the afternoon when I was teaching a class, my son texted me, and said "Shall we eat out this evening?"(/="How about eating out this evening for a change?". )
• Wow...After I finished my classes we met near HongIk University when it began to snow out of nowhere.
• It wasn't just snowing a little bit, there were big and large snowflakes.
• Yes, big and white snowflakes were falling down from the dark night sky as if beautiful white flowers were dancing.
• We stood in a long line under the white snow because my son wanted to eat in a small restaurant.
• Sooo~~? we ate a bowl of rice capped[topped] with pork.
• Then after that we went to a cafe and had coffee while we talked about random things.
• After that we came back home and took Betty and Zzang-a (our 2 dogs) out for a walk.
• To tell you the truth we weren't really walking.. We ran under the snow late at night. My son ran after me.
• It must be have been a strange scene for other people. (/=It must have looked like a strange scene to the other people.)
• Hahaha.... running with dogs under this snowing dark night? Freaking out a little?
• Maybe someone thought, 'they must be off their heads to go running and jumping with dogs in this dark snowy night!'
• Anyways, after, my son gave Betty and Zzang-A warm bath.
• I thought Wow~~~it`s really late, tomorrow I have to leave early in the morning.@.@/ Bye~~ Sweet dreams!
I will come back tomorrow evening/night and will write a Korean entry with Korean audio too . See you tomorrow~ bye^.*/

Our vicar is always raising money for one cause or another， but he has never managed to get enough money to have the church clock repaired. The big clock which used to strike the hours day and night was damaged many years ago and has been silent ever since.
One night， however， our vicar work up with a start： the clock was striking the hours！ Looking at his watch， he saw that it was one o'clock， but the bell struck thirteen times before it stopped. Armed with a torch， the vicar went up into the clock tower to see what was going on. In the torchlight， he caught sight of a figure whom he immediately recognized as Bill Wilkins， our local grocer.
'Whatever are you doing up here Bill？' asked the vicar in surprise.
'I'm trying to repair the bell，' answered Bill. 'I've been coming up here night after night for weeks now. You see， I was hoping to give you a surprise.'
'You certainly did give me a surprise！' said the vicar. 'You've probably woken up everyone in the village as well. Still， I'm glad the bell is working again.'
That's the trouble， vicar，' answered Bill. 'It's working all right， but I'm afraid that at one o'clock it will strike thirteen times and there's nothing I can do about it."
We'll get used to that， Bill，' said the vicar. "Thirteen is not as good as one， but it's better than nothing. Now let's go downstairs and have a cup of tea.'

Yesterday afternoon Frank Hawkins was telling me about his experiences as a young man. Before he retired, Frank was the head of a very large business company, but as a boy he used to work in a small shop. It was his job to repair bicycles and at that time he used to work fourteen hours a day. He saved money for years and in 1958 he bought a small workshop of his own. In his twenties Frank used to make spare parts for aeroplanes. At that time he had two helpers. In a few years the small workshop had become a large factory which employed seven hundred and twenty-eight people. Frank smiled when he remembered his hard early years and the long road to success. He was still smiling when the door opened and his wife came in. She wanted him to repair their grandson's bicycle!

To expel
The Argentine forces were expelled from the Falklands.

indictment
The book ‘’Nineteen Eighty-Four’’ is an indictment of dictatorial regimes.

unilateral
Is unilateral disarmament wise?

To pursue
The terrorists felt they were pursuing a just cause.

proliferation
Some countries have not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

treachery
Mata Hari was charged with treachery.

To enforce
The miners enforced their claims by means of go-slow.

retaliation
This crime calls for immediate retaliation.

To revenge
He revenged the murder of his brother.

To inflict
Heavy losses were inflicted on the enemy.

negotiations
Negotiations commenced immediately after the cease-fire.

abolition
When was the official abolition of slavery?

combat
All civilians must leave the combat zone at once.

seasoned
They were seasoned veterans.

endeavour
All my endeavours were fruitless.

imminent
Total social collapse was imminent.

urban
There was a lot of urban unrest.

precaution
You must take precautions against infectious diseases.

devastating
The bomb had a devastating effect.

gear
His survival gear was impressive.

necessity
Necessity knows no law.

victim
She was the victim of a pickpocket.

reprisal
She refused to testify for fear of reprisals.

To take out on
Don't take your frustrations out on me!

refuge
The house in the mountains was an ideal refuge.

To testify
He testified in favour of the accused.

To assault
She was assaulted by a vicious dog.

hostile
He was surrounded by a hostile crowd.

deterrence
There was a policy of mutual deterrence.

commitment
We have a commitment to our former colonies.

reinforcements
Repeatedly the general asked for reinforcements.

deplorable
It was a deplorable mistake.

missile
How many Scud missiles were intercepted?

issue
Lower taxes were the main issue in the election campaign.

resentful
He was resentful of those who used to admire him.

To acquiesce
You'd better acquiesce in the present situation.

Non-combatant
Even non-combatant civilians were attacked.

To assassinate
President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas.

To discount
Why do we discount the dangers that threaten us?

Withdrawal
They demanded immediate withdrawal of all troops.

Draft
He emigrated to Canada to evade military draft.

Civil disobedience
It was an act of civil disobedience.

To prosecute
Shoplifters will be prosecuted.

Vehement
She had a vehement argument with her employer.

casualties
There are heavy casualties on both sides.

shell
Our platoon sergeant lost his arm, when he was hit by a shell.

hideous
The dead bodies of the soldiers had been hideously mutilated

slander
All I have said about you is true, you cannot accuse me of slander.

trench
Many soldiers got killed in the trenches in Flanders and Northern France in the Great War.

To cease
Hostilities must cease at once.

To interrogate
They interrogated the POWs before they were sent to a prisoners of war camp.

To renounce
We must renounce the use of force to settle our disputes.

To contest
Are you really going to contest your father's last will?

disgrace
I am afraid I have brought disgrace on my family.

deployment
They demonstrated against the deployment of cruise missiles.

the first tabacco came to europe with christopher columbos from America.
people believed that it helps with asthma and cancer.
it was very popular and valuable. it was even used as money.
At one moment everyone wanted to grow tabacco and people almost stopped growing food in america.
the drug in cigarettes is called nicotine. people who are addicted to nicotine can feel irritated, worried, and they can have headaches.
the word nicotine comes from the name of a french ambassador jean nicot. jean nicot brought tabacco to portugal.
until the 18th century, people smoked only pipe. later, cigarettes became trendy. they were made by hand so they were very expensive.

in 17th century in turkey people who smoked could be tortured or killed.
in china, if someone saw you with tobacco, they could cut your head off.
also in russia if they saw you with tabbaco twice, you were executed.

eccentric kings

king henry the 8th was a father of elizabeth the 1st. he wanted to divorce his first wife so much
that he started a new religion. he had 6 wives. by his decision, two of his wives had
a head cut off. and during the execution of his wife- anne boleyn, he went to play tennis.

ivan the terrible was a king of russia in the 16th century. he hired architects to build a church
in moscow. he thought that the church was amazing. he loved the church very much. he was also afraid that these architects could build another amazing building in a different city.
so he ordered to make the architects blind. it is a terrible example of a 'thank you' gesture.

a king of england who can't speak english? yes, there was one in the past. it was king george the first. he was born in Germany and spoke German, French, Italian, Dutch and Latin.
but he couldn't speak english. so all the important decisions were made by hisministers.

Murad 4 ghazi was king of turkey from 17 century. he really didn't like cigarettes.
he ordered to execute everyone who was reported smoking cigarettes.

guerrilla marketing

what's the best way to promote a product? you can advertise, you can sell
in person, you can show demos and free samples. but there is a new way - guerrilla marketing

the target of guerilla marketing is to create an interest around the product.
it makes people talk about the product. it's all about organising cheap small events which
attact attention of people and newspapers. here are some examples:

in 2007 furniture company IKEA changed bus stops in Manhattan into rooms. it created
comfortable space for people who waited for the bus. As a result, all big newspapers wrote
about this action.

Libresse - a company producing hygiene products had an interesting idea.
in 2009 they threw more than 3 000 gift packs of tampons on beaches in Holland.
The packs came down on pink parachutes.

Loctite, a company which produces glue, used money to attract people. they used its product - Super Glue to glue coins to the ground.

unicef set up water vending machines. the machines had only bottles of 'contaminated water' they wanted to show the problem with clean water in many countries.
you could choose from water with malaria, cholera or typhoid.

Carlsberg left 10 and 20 pounds notes on the streets of London. the notes had
a sticker. the sticker said" Carlsberg don't do litter. but if they did litter. it would probably be the best litter in the world." many londoners walked around the city to look for these 10 and 20 pound litter.

the website half.com had an interesting campaign.
a city Halfway got 100 000 $ to transform its name into half.com for a year.
it created a massive media interest. 3 weeks later ebay bought the website half.com for 313 million
$.