English Recordings

INTERVIEWER

What do you think of working in Hollywood?

CHEEVER

Southern California always smells very much like a summer night . . . which to me means the end of sailing, the end of games, but it isn’t that at all. It simply doesn’t correspond to my experience. I’m very much concerned with trees . . . with the nativity of trees, and when you find yourself in a place where all the trees are transplanted and have no history, I find it disconcerting.

I went to Hollywood to make money. It’s very simple. The people are friendly and the food is good, but I’ve never been happy there, perhaps because I only went there to pick up a check. I do have the deepest respect for a dozen or so directors whose affairs are centered there and who, in spite of the overwhelming problems of financing films, continue to turn out brilliant and original films. But my principal feeling about Hollywood is suicide. If I could get out of bed and into the shower, I was all right. Since I never paid the bills, I’d reach for the phone and order the most elaborate breakfast I could think of, and then I’d try to make it to the shower before I hanged myself. This is no reflection on Hollywood, but it’s just that I seemed to have a suicide complex there. I don’t like the freeways, for one thing. Also, the pools are too hot . . . 85 degrees, and when I was last there, in late January, in the stores they were selling yarmulkes for dogs—my God! I went to a dinner and across the room a woman lost her balance and fell down. Her husband shouted over to her, “When I told you to bring your crutches, you wouldn’t listen to me.” That line couldn’t be better!

《Going Skiing Early Tomorrow Morning》

Tomorrow, early in the morning, I'm going to a ski resort with one of my good friends.
We will go skiing at (the) Yong-Pyong, so I'll have to take the Yong-Pyong shuttle bus at 5:30 am.
I haven't for a while / for a long time / for one year / since last season, (I just went to ski last winter), so I don`t know how well the conditions will be.
I haven't even started looking for my ski boots, ski wear or gloves yet.
I'm not sure where they are now,..*.*/
I just hope I can find them easily and quickly.
Ok! Goodnight! I'd better look for them right now!
If I found them, I'll take a picture and post it (here).
Bye~ Have a good / nice / pleasant dream! / Sweet dreams! / Pleasant dreams!

In the 1967 movie "You only live twice", poorly based on the Ian Fleming's homonymous novel, the special agent James Bond (played by Sean Connery) is sent to Japan in order to research the mysterious disappearance of American and Soviet manned spaceships. The Japanese secret service leader, Tanaka, provides him with a curious cigarette which, a few seconds after it is lit, shoots a tiny rocket projectile with an accurate range of 30 yards. When the super-villain and Bond's arch-nemesis, Blofeld, seizes the hero and is ready to execute him, the agent gets Blofeld to let him smoke a last cigarette. The evil man cynically agrees and Bond shoots his rocket-cigarette at a guard who is turning on a powerful missile that will blow up the whole planet, causing enough confusion to escape (and saving the world, by the way). I do not know of an analogous non-fictional device, but I am sure that several military agencies will want one as soon as it is available. Theoretically, it is not impossible to build.

(January 23,2013) Error
I haven't written an English entry/an entry in Englsih/ for one/a week.
=It's been a week since my last English entry/ entry in Englsih.

These days it seems that my lap top has a problem.=
These days, it seems that there is a problem with my laptop.

It has become very slow.
When I write an entry journal, an error appears, so it makes me a little annoyed.= When I write a journal entry, it acts up so it makes me a little annoyed.
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I haven't written an English entry in a week. Recently my computer has been messing up and working a lot slower. Whenever I would write journal entry, it would error, it's really annoying.

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(PS):
(1-'acts up' just means to misbehave and can be used for various sitations, ie 'my kids are acting up' or 'my car is acting up'. i can't think of a general term for when a computer is not working properly. other options are:
2-to freeze : when your computer screen doesn't move or change
3-to crash : when your computer shuts down or if it is somehow completely unusable
4-to overheat: when it gets to hot

mansion
intemperate scoldings
pile driver
contumelious reproaches
seed plot of sedition
rail freight
profound dissimulation
shorthand
flicker of candlelight
ramifications
libellous invectives
prominent bush of dark blond hair
conundrum
breathing space
in effect
usages of the day
immurement
malicious account
at curbside
vexatious upbraidings
innuendo
expression of compunction
to get a word in edgewise
ironmongery
embroidered hem
in the interim
vocational school
horsemanship
séance
troublesome wranglings
latchkey
at the top of one’s voice
twig
to inveigh against one’s backslidings
rectitude
combustibles
mortar
twists and turns
in hot blood

A: I'm going to be home late.
B: No problem. I'll start dinner when you get home.
A: This is delicious. You're going to be a great chef by the time you graduate.
B: Thanks, but I still have a lot to learn.
A: What time is your interview at Valentino's tomorrow?
B: One o'clock. I'm going to leave school as soon as my class ends.
A: Will they hire you before you finish school?
B: I hope so.
A: You don't really need the job. I'm going to work until you graduate.
B: I know, but I want some experience.
A: Let's invite Paula and Lee to dinner next week.
B: OK. I'll call them after we wash the dishes.
A: By the time we finish the dishes, they'll be asleep.
B: You're right. I forgot we were eating so late.
A: I'll clean up while you call.
B: OK. Thanks.
...
Before we hire a dessert chef, we will interview more people.
Customers will want to try the new desserts as soon as they see them.
DiCaprio is going to be in this neighborhood while he shoots his next movie.
When people find out, the restaurant will get a lot of business.
By the time the waiter brings the milk, the coffee will be cold.
After the waiter brings us more coffee, I'll ask for the check.

The Great Plague of 1665.

In 1665 the Great Plague hit the country. This terrible disease was also called Black Death.

In the Spring of 1665, the epidemic started in London. It was brought by rats. The rats had fleas and the fleas carried the germs. In those days, London was dirty and crowded. People got rid of their rubbish in the streets, so the number of rats was very high . The first victims of the plague were found in the poorest districts of London. People had no idea of how the desease spead, they thought it was a punishment sent by God.

In July 1655, King Charles II of England , his family and his court left London.

The popular nursery rhyme of the time tells about the plague:

"Ring-a-ring of roses,
A pocketful of posies,
Attischo, Attischo,
We all fall down."

First the skin gets red, next, big sore spots appear, then the person sneezes because of lungs infection and finally dies.

Several public health efforts were made but with little success.
The theatres and the pubs were closed down.
The dead were quickly buried but the pits were too full.
The epidemic spread and panic was all over the city.
A rumour accused cats and dogs to carry the disease, 200 000 cats and 40000 cats were killed. The number of rats increased and it didn't help at all.
Authorities ordered fires to burn night and day to clean the air but it didn't change anything.

There were "plague doctors" who went from one house to the next. They were usually unqualified. They wore strange clothes, they had a hat to protect their head, a mask that covered their face, a sort of beak that was full of spices and herbs to clean the air. They carried a wodden stick to drive people away if they came too near. They wore gloves to avoid touching anything contaminated. They also had a long black coat and boots. They recommanded to drink hot drinks, smoke a pipe and have a lucky charm, of course nothing worked...

The Great Plague killed about 100,000 people, about 20% of London's population.

By late autumn, the number of death began to slow down.
In February 1666, it was considered safe enough for the King to return to london.

The plague was only finally completely under control in Sept 1666 when the Great Fire of London burned down the areas affected by the disease.

Hello, Susan. Glenda wants you to bring your karaoke machine to the party. She wants to know how much the karaoke machine cost. She also wants to know if you will sing for as at the party.
Hello, Thalia. Erin wants to know if you are going to the party. She also wants to know what time the party starts? She wants you to call her.

If there is a celebrity in science, it would be Albert Einstein, the German-born American physicist who founded the basics of the modern theoretical physics at the beginning of the past century. Everybody in the western world has heard his name, which is often regarded as a synonymous with genius. His passion for knowledge began when he discovered the amazing world of electricity and geometry, thanks to a family friend. However, before he achieved his fame as a reputed scientist, he had difficult moments trying to fight against the prejudices of his time that condemned him to unemployment because of his repulsion for the orthodox education system. After the publication of his four fabulous seminal papers that sowed the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics, he grew apart from his wife and children and got involved in a romantic affair with his cousin, which caused a bitter divorce. With Nazis in power harassing the Jewish people, he saw his work threatened and traveled to America where he settled until his death.

to rub off on the organization as a whole
to fasten to the floor
to indulge in a loud whoop of exultation
to perform feats
to come in where talent and industry do not reach
to leap to one’s feet
to be niggardly in one’s praise
to coalesce
to be well and truly in the bag
to be at large
to work one’s fingers to the bone
to pluck up the courage
to buoy someone up with unfounded hopes
to set out for Jerusalem
to put up a stout resistance
to eye one’s visitor keenly
to exalt an abstract political principle
to atone for one’s sins
to walk a little way out of the town
to soothe the populace
to countenance
to acquit oneself with one’s wonted grace
to bring to bear
to devour the latest issues of comic books
to keep one’s seat
to saturate the cotton with a chemical solution
to meddle
to smear the hair with grease
to rinse one’s mouth out
to wield considerable influence
to rein in