English Recordings

If you don't live in an English-speaking country, and you don't have friends or family to speak English with, where can you practise your English speaking skills?

It's easier to have a conversation if you have a reason to speak – something to talk about. These ideas all give you a reason to speak with another person.

Start a film or book club

Invite people to discuss a film that you all watch together, or a book that you are all reading. Prepare questions before, to help people talk about specific aspects.

Volunteer to help other people

Does your town or company often welcome foreign guests? Can you offer to translate for them? Or perhaps you can offer to help children or students with their English homework.

Take part in a film conversation

Watch a film on DVD, and decide in which part you can speak with the film character. Listen to what the character says (and the reply) then rewind, and either mute or pause the DVD after the film character speaks. Take the other character's role, and reply to the first character. You can also find film scripts on the imsdb site. Print it out, then practise taking a role in the film.

Use skype

Chat with other people in the penpal forum via skype. You can get to know them first by writing to them, then invite them for a conversation.

Take English lessons

This is the most expensive option, but paying for private or group lessons is a good way to regularly practise your English. If you have a job, maybe your company can also arrange lessons for you.

Mary: Have you had your holiday for this year, Jane?

Jane: Not yet. I’m taking it at the end of September.

Mary: Where are you going? Have you made up your mind?

Jane: Not really. I thought of going to Spain again, but I’ve already been there twice and I’d like to try somewhere new.

Mary: My brother’s just gone to Mexico for two weeks. I had a card from him yesterday and he seems to be having a good time. Why don’t you go there?

Jane: I couldn’t possibly afford it. I’ve already spent a lot of money this year so I haven’t got much to spare for expensive holidays abroad.

Mary: Oh, I see.

Jane: Perhaps I’ll just go to Scotland or Ireland in the end. I’ve heard they are both very beautiful and I’ve never been there.

Mary: We went to Ireland two years ago to visit Jill and her husband. They are in Dublin now.

Jane: Oh, yes, so they are!

Mary: If you decide on Ireland you can call in on them. Jill would surely put you up for a few days.

Jane: That’s a good idea! I haven’t seen Jill for more than three years and I’d like to know how she’s getting on.

The use of strain gauges in the prediction of sidewall cutting forces, in milling

ABSTRACT:

This study investigates the use of strain gauges in the prediction of cutting forces in slab milling of aerospace specification aluminium. Can strain gauges be used in the prediction of machining forces? An experiment is furmulated using Minitab (in order to deal with a large number of variables). Captured strains are validated using a secondary test, involving the Instron universal tensile tester. Forces are calculated from the recorded strains using bending moment equations and the process is simulated using the Instron machine to try to validate these calculated forces. Numerous techniques are used and assumptions made in order to specify the problem. This thesis analyses the problems involved, advices on their solutions and most importantly highlights through graphical representation how well strain gauges can perform in these conditions.

INTRODUCTION:

This theisis is a study of the sidewall forces in milling. The purpose of the study is to try and find a method for predicting these forces. Prediction of these forces is of major importance as it helps significantly in reducing manufacturing times and costs (rework and scrap). Engineering/Manufacturing companies often have trouble when it comes to machining thing cross-sections. Airbus and the aerospace industry as a whole are particularly interested in methods of force prediction as they regularly experience difficulties in achieveing optimum dimensions for the designs of their airplane wing ribs. Once the cross-section of the rib reaches a certain "thickness" they deform under the forces applied by the cutter. It is at this thickness that the designers must plan around. If there were some technique that would allow engineers to know what forces are applied during cutting, they could have fewer limitations imposed on their designs.

The ideal solution would be to input all the relevant variables into an equation or mathematical model, for example, dimensions of the specimen, cutter material, depth of cut, cutter speed etc, which produces a result for the output force experienced by the sidewall of the component as a result of those variables. Such an equation would allow optimum dimensions to be achieved at the design stage, reducing rework and scrap materials resulting in an overall decreased cost and a reduction in manufacturing times. The prediction of these forces cannot be estabilished from one experiment or even in the amount of time available to complete this thesis. The aim here is to test some of the variables to a suitable degree of understanding in order to evaluate the process and hopefully find a link between the variables and the forces exerted on the component. This study will take future researchers in this field a step further to understanding the connection between all the variables involved in the milling process, by attempting to establish, which of the three chosen variables (speed of cutter, aluminium cross-section and cutting distance from gauge) has the largest effect on the output forces. The thesis will also try and prove that the technique used to measure the strain is a valid one. The machining operation under review is the "milling operation". This cutting technique was chosen as it is the most widely used in industry due to its versatility and also because of its use in the production of wing ribs at Airbus. It is for the same reason that the material chosen to undergo machining is aerospace specification aluminium.

The milling operation is a straightforward process but the fact that it can be used in various orientations and speeds makes it difficult to analyse (these orientations and other variables are discussed in sections 3.1 and 4.1.1 of the thesis) because any one slight change made to the process can potentially have major affects on the forces that are exerted on the specimen. It is obvious therefore, that in order to obtain a full understanding of the output forces, every parameter must be tested individually and an experiment must be conducted for every possible variable to see which of them have the most substantial effect on the resultant force. To do this would require a huge amount of time, which simply wasn’t available to me. Therefore, to get around the problem of having many variables some were to remain fixed depending on valid reasoning. These will be discussed further in section 4 of this Thesis.

Artificial life, the stuff of dreams and nightmares, has arrived

TO CREATE life is the prerogative of gods. Deep in the human psyche, whatever the rational pleadings of physics and chemistry, there exists a sense that biology is different, is more than just the sum of atoms moving about and reacting with one another, is somehow infused with a divine spark, a vital essence. It may come as a shock, then, that mere mortals have now made artificial life.

Craig Venter and Hamilton Smith, the two American biologists who unravelled the first DNA sequence of a living organism (a bacterium) in 1995, have made a bacterium that has an artificial genome—creating a living creature with no ancestor (see article). Pedants may quibble that only the DNA of the new beast was actually manufactured in a laboratory; the researchers had to use the shell of an existing bug to get that DNA to do its stuff. Nevertheless, a Rubicon has been crossed. It is now possible to conceive of a world in which new bacteria (and eventually, new animals and plants) are designed on a computer and then grown to order.

That ability would prove mankind’s mastery over nature in a way more profound than even the detonation of the first atomic bomb. The bomb, however justified in the context of the second world war, was purely destructive. Biology is about nurturing and growth. Synthetic biology, as the technology that this and myriad less eye-catching advances are ushering in has been dubbed, promises much. In the short term it promises better drugs, less thirsty crops (see article), greener fuels and even a rejuvenated chemical industry. In the longer term who knows what marvels could be designed and grown?

On the face of it, then, artificial life looks like a wonderful thing. Yet that is not how many will view the announcement. For them, a better word than “creation” is “tampering”. Have scientists got too big for their boots? Will their hubris bring Nemesis in due course? What horrors will come creeping out of the flask on the laboratory bench?

Such questions are not misplaced—and should give pause even to those, including this newspaper, who normally embrace advances in science with enthusiasm. The new biological science does have the potential to do great harm, as well as good. “Predator” and “disease” are just as much part of the biological vocabulary as “nurturing” and “growth”. But for good or ill it is here. Creating life is no longer the prerogative of gods.

-PENITENTIAL RITE-

I confess to almighty God,
@ and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I asked blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

-THE GLORIA (omit during Lent and Advent-

+ Glory to God in the highest
@ and peace to his people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks,
we praise you for your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer
For you alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ,
with the Holy Sprit,
in the glory of God, the Father. Amen.

-PROFESSION OF FAITH-

We believe in one God,
@ the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, (continued) true God from true God,
begotten, not made, one in Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
All bow at the following words up to: and became man.
by the power of the Holy Spirit
he was born of the Virgin Mary, and became man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered, died, and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in fulfillment of the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

-LORD’S PRAYER-

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
thy kingdom come; thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses
as we forgive those who trespass against us;
and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

Hey hi Satoshi-san, how are you doing so far?

i heard that you are kanazawa institute of technology now. How is it compared to kanazawa technical college?

I miss Takano family and the time i had in japan.

Stay healthy.

Yes, of course it is possible. How do you think people learned English before SuperMemo existed? :)

I think I understand what you mean by "too busy to spend time in front of a computer". When you are reading an interesting article or listening to an interesting podcast, you are not only learning English -- you are doing something fun at the same time. So, in a way, you are not really "spending time on English".

With SuperMemo, you are just learning English; there are no other benefits -- unless you are one of those who simply like making and reviewing items in SuperMemo. I am one of those people. Expanding a SuperMemo collection gives me the feeling of "growing something" (my collection and my own "language power"). When I review items, I feel less good, but I also enjoy it to some degree -- partially because it is challenging.

I am in fact thinking about a new article about how to use SuperMemo and what it is good for. I'll share just a few thoughts right now:

1.You can learn through input alone.
2.SM lets you make steady progress without massive input. For example, if you are a beginner and cannot get massive input because you suck at comprehension. Or, you don't have time for lots of input, but want to make some progress anyway.
3.For someone who has enough comprehension and enough interests to get a lot of fun input in English, the usefulness of SM is limited. Here are the main uses:

•eliminating your mistakes by adding corrected sentences to SM (which ensures their repetition)
•adding useful things that you just keep forgetting (e.g. words that just don't stick in your memory)
•adding useful phrases that don't occur in your input, or occur rarely (e.g. handy spoken expressions that you won't find in podcasts, books, websites, or whatever input you get)
•adding pronunciations for words that don't occur in your spoken input frequently enough

4.Adding words/phrases/structures that occur in your input frequently (say, more than once in 1-2 months) is a waste of time because you are reviewing them anyway as you get input. You don't need artificial reviews for these.

In short, I believe SuperMemo is always useful, but it is less useful for people who can get massive input. However, if you use SM according to the four bullet points above, it shouldn't take too much of your time because you will only be adding selected information instead of adding every sentence from every text you read.

1) Spend the time!

By far the most important factor is how much time you are immersed in the language. The more time you spend with the language, the faster you will learn. This means listening, reading, writing, speaking, and studying words and phrases. This does not mean sitting in class looking out the window, nor listening to other students who do not speak well, nor getting explanations in your own language about how the language works. This means spending time enjoyably connected to the language you are learning.

2) Listen and read every day!

Listen wherever you are on your MP3 player. Read what you are listening to. Listen to and read things that you like, things that you can mostly understand, or even partly understand. If you keep listening and reading you will get used to the language. One hour of listening or reading is more effective than many hours of class time.

3) Focus on words and phrases!

Build up your vocabulary, you’ll need lots. Start to notice words and how they come together as phrases. Learn these words and phrases through your listening and reading. Read online, using online dictionaries, and make your own vocabulary lists for review. Soon you will run into your new words and phrases elsewhere. Gradually you will be able to use them. Do not worry about how accurately you speak until you have accumulated a plenty of words through listening and reading.

4) Take responsibility for your own learning!

If you do not want to learn the language, you won’t. If you do want to learn the language, take control. Choose content of interest, that you want to listen to and read. Seek out the words and phrases that you need to understand your listening and reading. Do not wait for someone else to show you the language, nor to tell you what to do. Discover the language by yourself, like a child growing up. Talk when you feel like it. Write when you feel like it. A teacher cannot teach you to become fluent, but you can learn to become fluent if you want to.

5) Relax and enjoy yourself!

Do not worry about what you cannot remember, or cannot yet understand, or cannot yet say. It does not matter. You are learning and improving. The language will gradually become clearer in your brain, but this will happen on a schedule that you cannot control. So sit back and enjoy. Just make sure you spend enough time with the language. That is the greatest guarantee of success.

-<The Little Prince>-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
--{{[{{Inspiration}}}--암시, 시사, 영감 고취, 고무, 격려, 감화
In The Little Prince, Saint-Exupéry talks about being marooned in the desert in a damaged aircraft. Without doubt, this account was drawn from his own experience in the Sahara. He also writes about this ordeal, in detail, in his book Wind, Sand and Stars.
On December 30, 1935 at 14:45, after an 18 hour and 36 minute flight, Saint-Exupéry, along with his navigator André Prévot, crashed in the Libyan Sahara desert en route to Saigon.
They were attempting to fly from Paris to Saigon faster than anyone before them had for a prize of 150,000 francs.
Their plane was a Caudron C-600 Simoun n° 7042 (serial F-ANRY). Supposedly, the crash site is located in the Wadi Natrum.
Both of them had survived the crash, but they were then faced with rapid dehydration in the Sahara.
Their maps were primitive and ambiguous. Lost in the desert with a few grapes, a single orange, and some wine, the duo had only one day's worth of liquids.
After that day, they had nothing. Both men began to see mirages, which were quickly followed by more vivid hallucinations.
Sometime between the second and the third day, the two were so dehydrated that they stopped sweating altogether.
Finally, on the fourth day, a Bedouin on a camel discovered them and administered native dehydration treatment that saved Saint-Exupéry and Prévot's lives.

In the desert, Saint-Exupéry had met a fennec (desert sand fox), which had most likely inspired him to create the fox character in the book.
In a 1918 letter that he had written to his sister Didi from Cape Juby, he tells her about raising a fennec that he adored.

Patachou, Petit Garçon, by Tristan Derème, is another probable influence for The Little Prince.

Antoine may have drawn inspiration for the Little Prince's appearance from himself as a youth. Friends and family would call him "le Roi-Soleil" ("Sun King"), due to his golden curly hair.

The Little Prince's reassurance to the Pilot that his dying body is only an empty shell resembles the words of Antoine's younger brother François's last words: "Don't worry. I'm all right. I can't help it. It's my body" (Airman's Odyssey).

~★~Thank you very very much! ~★~

-----[inspiration ]-- 영감; 격려.------
1. a great inspiration 큰 영감.
2. give[offer, provide] inspiration 영감을 주다.
3. derive[draw] inspiration from …에서 영감을 끌어내다.
4. find inspiration in …에서 영감을 얻다.
5. divine inspiration 종교적 영감.
6. inspiration comes (from many sources) (여러 곳에서) 영감이 떠오르다.
7. a flash[spark] of inspiration 번득이는 영감.
8. an inspiration for …에 대한 영감.
What provided the inspiration for the statue? 무엇에서 영감을 얻어 그 조각을 만들었습니까?
9. an inspiration to …에의 자극제.
Her example was an inspiration to young people. 그녀의 본보기가 젊은이들에게 자극이 되었다.
10. to 부정사를 동반하여
What gave him the inspiration to do it? 그에게 그것을 하도록 영감을 준 것이 무엇이었을까?

--<The Little Prince>--From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
-{{The visit to Earth}}}-지구를 방문하다---

Chapter 16 begins: "So then the seventh planet was the Earth".
On the Earth, he starts out in the desert and meets a snake that claims to have the power to return him to his home planet (A clever way to say that he can kill people,thus "Sending anyone he wishes back to the land from whence he came.")

The Prince meets a desert-flower and climbs a mountain.
The Prince sees a whole row of rosebushes, and is downcast because he thought that his was the only one in the whole universe.

Chapter 21 is the author's statement about human love in that the Prince then meets and tames a fox, who explains to the Prince that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one that he loves.
The Prince then meets a railway switchman and a merchant who are as non-self-aware and non-philosophical as the other adults encountered earlier.

In Chapter 24, the narrator's point of view changes again from third person to first person, as the narrator is dying of thirst, but then they find a well.
After some thought, the Prince bids an emotional farewell to the narrator, explaining to him that while it will look as though he has died, he has not, but rather that his body is too heavy to take with him to his planet.
He tells the narrator that it was wrong of the narrator to come and watch, as it will make him sad. The Prince then allows the snake to bite him.
The next morning when the narrator looks for the Prince, he finds his body has disappeared.

The story ends with a portrait of the landscape where the meeting of the Prince and the narrator took place and where the snake took the Prince's life.

The narrator also makes a plea that anyone encountering a strange child in that area who refuses to answer questions to contact the narrator immediately.

The Little Prince is represented as having been on Earth for one year, and the narrator ends the story seven years after he is rescued from the desert.

~♥~녹음해 주셔서 진심으로 감사드립니다. ~♥