English Recordings

18.
Nothing can be checked out or renewed without it. If you reside in this area, you may get it free of charge. Kids under 18 need their parent’s signature on the registration form to receive it. The standard loan period is 21 days. Books can be renewed once for the original loan period unless they are on reserve. Videos and DVDs can be loaned for 2 days and cannot be renewed. Borrowers are responsible for returning items on time and in good condition.

19.
Not only does the ‘leaf fish’ look like a leaf, but it also imitates the movement of a drifting leaf underwater. Its hunting technique is not to swiftly pursue its victim, but to wait for it. Hanging at an angle in the water, the leaf fish is carried along by the currents until it comes near a smaller fish. Then, it seizes the unsuspecting prey with a lightning-fast snap of the jaws, and swallows the prey down head first. At close range the rapid opening of the leaf fish’s large jaws enables it to suck in the unfortunate individual very easily.

20.
When one group borrows something such as ideas, values, foods, or styles of architecture from another group, change occurs through diffusion. Diffusion is a process by which one culture or society borrows from another. The extent and rate of diffusion depend on the degree of social contact. The more contact a group has with another group, the more likely it is that objects or ideas will be exchanged. The exclusion of new technology generally leads to social change that will soon follow. Social contact, therefore, plays a crucial role in the process of diffusion.

One day I went back to the old apartment to take care of the last of my things. When I opened the door, I shuddered. It was like coming back to a stranger’s house.

Cold and dark, not a sigh to be heard. Everything there, which should have been so familiar, seemed to be turning away from me. I entered gingerly, on tiptoe, feeling as though I should ask permission.

When my grandmother died, time died, too, in this apartment. The reality of that fact was immediate. There was nothing I could do to change it. Other than turning around and leaving, there was only one thing to do – humming a tune, I began to scrub the refrigerator.

Just then the telephone rang.
I picked up the receiver, knowing who it would be. It was Sotaro. He was my old...boyfriend. We broke up about the time my grandmother’s illness got bad.

“Hello? Mikage?” The sound of his voice made me want to weep with nostalgia.
“Long time no see!” I cried out joyfully. We were beyond displays of shyness.
“Yeah, well, you haven’t been coming to classes, so I started wondering what was wrong and I asked around. They told me your grandmother had died. I was shocked. …That’s really rough.”
“Yes. So I’ve been pretty busy.”
“Can you come out now?”
“Sure.”

As we decided where to meet, I looked up at the window. The sky outside was a dull gray. Waves of clouds were being pushed around by the wind with amazing force. In this world there is no place for sadness. No place; not one.

And that’s why I rushed into living with them.

I gave myself permission to be lazy until May. I was in paradise. I still went to my part-time job, but after that I would clean house, watch TV, bake cakes: I lived like a housewife.

Little by little, light and air came into my heart. I was thrilled.

What with Yuichi’s school and job, and Eriko’s working at night, the three of us were almost never home at the same time. At first I would get tired. I wasn’t used to sleeping in the living room, and I was constantly coming and going between the Tanabes’ and the old apartment to get things in order, but I soon got used to it.

I loved the Tanabes’ sofa as much as I loved their kitchen. I came to crave sleeping on it. Listening to the quiet breathing of the plants, sensing the night view through the curtains, I slept like a baby. There wasn’t anything more I wanted. I was happy.

I’ve always been like that – if I’m not pushed to the brink I won’t move. This time it was the same. For having been granted such a warm bed after finding myself in the direst straits, I thanked the gods – whether they existed or not – with all my heart.

In my grandmother’s room, which hadn’t changed since I was little, we would tell each other silly gossip, talk about TV stars or what had happened that day; we talked about whatever. I think she even told me about Yuichi during those times.

No matter how dreamlike a love I have found myself in, no matter how delightfully drunk I have been, in my heart I was always aware that my family consisted of only one other person.

The space that cannot be filled, no matter how cheerfully a child and an old person are living together – the deathly silence that, panting in a corner of the room, pushes its way in like a shudder. I felt it very early, although no one told me about it.

I think Yuichi did, too.

When was it I realized that, on this truly dark and solitary path we all walk, the only way we can light is our own? Although I was raised with love, I was always lonely. Someday, without fail, everyone will disappear, scattered into the blackness of time. I’ve always lived with that knowledge rooted in my being: perhaps that’s why Yuichi’s way of reacting to things seemed natural to me.

Willy is a wild and crazy welcome to Vivian's villa. Every event at the villa is a window of
wonder for Willy. He wheels his wagon, his own very weird version of a BMW, west along
the winding roads of the Venezuelan seashore. While waiting for a welder to repair his car,
Wild Willy wonders if he can wed Vivian.

Living in a wonderful villa in Venezuela, Vivian loves to dive and wade in the lovely sea
every week day. In her villa in the evening, Vivian can jive for five hours on the week-end.
While she serves several clever but waist-watching drinks so her visitors can wet their whistles, Vivian awaits her favorite visitor, Wild Willy.

Do not hang the ring thing next to the wrong thong.

The ringing, swinging, singing singers sang winning songs.

Gobbling gorgoyles gobbled gobbling goblins.

Did Dick Pickens prick his pinkie pickling cheap cling peaches in an inch of Pinch or framing his famed French finch photos?

If you're keen on stunning kites and cunning stunts, buy a cunning stunning stunt kite.

Can you imagine an imaginary menagerie manager
imagining managing an imaginary menagerie?

Braveheart is a 1995 American epic/drama film directed by and starring Mel Gibson. The film was written for the screen and then novelized by Randall Wallace. Gibson portrays William Wallace, a Scottish warrior who gained recognition when he came to the forefront of the First War of Scottish Independence by opposing King Edward I of England and subsequently abetted by Edward's daughter-in-law, Princess Isabelle of France and a claimant to the Scottish throne, Robert the Bruce.

King Edward I of England, known as "Longshanks", has occupied much of southern Scotland, and his oppressive rule there leads to the deaths of William Wallace's father and brother. Years later, after Wallace has been raised abroad by his uncle, the Scots continue to live under the iron fist of Longshanks' cruel laws. Wallace returns, intent on living as a farmer and avoiding involvement in the ongoing "troubles". Wallace seeks out and courts Murron, and the two marry in secret to avoid the decree of primae noctis the King has set forth. When an English soldier tries to rape Murron, Wallace fights off several soldiers and the two attempt to flee, but the village sheriff captures Murron and publicly executes her, proclaiming "an assault on the King's soldiers is the same as an assault on the King himself." In retribution, Wallace and several villagers slaughter the English garrison, including the sheriff.
Wallace, the men from his village, and a neighbouring clan enter the fortress of the local English lord, killing him and burning it down. In response to Wallace's exploits, the commoners of Scotland rise in revolt against England. As his legend spreads, hundreds of Scots from the surrounding clans volunteer to join Wallace's militia. Wallace leads his army through a series of successful battles against the English, including the Battle of Stirling Bridge and the sacking of the city of York. All the while, Wallace seeks the assistance of young Robert the Bruce, son of the leper noble Robert the Bruce and the chief contender for the Scottish crown. However, Robert is dominated by his scheming father, who wishes to secure the throne of Scotland to his son by bowing down to the English, despite his son's growing admiration for Wallace and his cause.
Two Scottish nobles, Lochlan and Mornay, planning to submit to Longshanks, betray Wallace, who is defeated at the Battle of Falkirk but saved at the last instant by Robert, who was fighting on the English side. Wallace goes into hiding, fighting a guerrilla war against English forces, and personally murders Mornay and Lochlan for their betrayal. Meanwhile, Princess Isabelle of France (whose incompetent husband Prince Edward ignores her) meets with Wallace as the English king's emissary. Having heard of him beforehand and after meeting him in person, she becomes enamored with him and secretly assists him in his fight. Eventually, she and Wallace share a tryst, in which she becomes pregnant.
Still believing there is some good in the nobility of his country, Wallace eventually agrees to meet with Robert the Bruce in Edinburgh. Wallace is caught in a trap set by the elder Bruce and the other nobles, beaten unconscious, and handed over to the English. Learning of his father's treachery, the younger Bruce disowns his father.
In London, Wallace is brought before the English magistrates and tried for high treason. He denies the charges, declaring that he had never accepted Edward as his King. The court responds by sentencing him to be "purified by pain." After the sentencing, a shaken Wallace prays for strength during the upcoming torture and rejects a painkiller brought to him by Isabelle. Afterwards, she goes to her husband and father-in-law, begging them to show mercy, but they refuse; she retaliates by tormenting the terminally ill and mute King with the knowledge she is pregnant with Wallace's child. The torture takes place in a London square, where he is to be disemboweled. Awed by Wallace's courage, the Londoners watching the execution begin to yell for mercy, and the magistrate offers him a quick death in exchange for a plea for mercy. Using the last strength in his body, William instead cries, "Freedom!", and the judge, deciding that nothing more can be done, orders the end of the execution anyway. Just as he is about to be beheaded, Wallace sees an image of Murron in the crowd smiling at him, before the blow is struck.
Some time later, Robert the Bruce (now King Robert I), leads a strong Scottish army and faces a ceremonial line of English troops at the fields of Bannockburn in 1314. Invoking Wallace and his desire for freedom among his troops, he leads them into battle. A voiceover, by Gibson, states that the Scots won their freedom in that battle.

Part of society
and drug free
Part of society
and drug free
What's fun in that
Not that much
What's fun in that
Gotta be fucked up
What's fun in that?
What's fun in that?
What's fun in that?
Not much...

To live alone with an old person is terribly nerve-racking, and the healthier he or she is, the more one worries. Actually, when I lived with my grandmother this didn’t occur to me; I enjoyed it. But looking back, I can’t help thinking that deep down I was always, at all times, afraid: Grandma’s going to die.”

When I came home, my grandmother would come out of the Japanese-style room where the TV was and say, “Welcome home.” If I came in late I always bought her sweets. She was a pretty relaxed grandmother and never gave me hard time if I told her I was going to sleep over somewhere or whatever. We would spend a little time together before bed, sometimes drinking coffee, sometimes green tea, eating cake and watching TV.