China's economy: Bamboo capitalism | The Economist

China's economy: Bamboo capitalism | The Economist

How to Read the Economist Magazine Effectively

1. Carefully read "The world this week" section. It spans only two pages and contains several sentence snippets of world events in politics and business for the past week. This is a great way to orient your mind to world events.
   
2. Carefully read all articles in the "Leaders" section, paying particular attention to the first leader. These opinion pieces generally provide thoughtful analysis on topics most important to the Economist that week. They generally call for action of some sort, but provide balanced information. The entire section spans several pages.
   
3. At various points, you will come across "Briefing" articles. Pay attention to these, as they are some of the best articles in any given week. Also pay attention to the special reports that come out occasionally. They will appear towards the middle of the issue and contain around fourteen pages of articles on a particular topic.
   
4. Quickly skim through the "Letters" section, noting who the author is. It is not uncommon for an influential politician or scientist to comment on a past article. Also, the last letter is usually light-hearted and fun. This section spans one to two pages.
   
5. Scan the "On Economist.com" section. It's only one page, but gives information about items of interest currently on their website.
   
6. The next group of sections contain articles on current political and social events in different regions of the world. These sections include "United States", "The Americas", "Asia", "Middle East and Africa", "Europe", "Britain", and "International". It is easy to become bogged down in these sections. Read the first article in each section carefully, then scan the rest unless a particular article interests you. Other articles in these sections that should be carefully read are "Lexington", "Banyan", "Charlemagne", and "Bagehot", which can be found in the "United States", "Asia", "Europe", and "Britain" sections, respectively.
   
7. Quickly read through the "Business" articles, paying particular attention to the first article and the last "Face value" article, which details an influential business person.
   
8. Carefully read the "Finance and economics" section. This section is the bread and butter of the Economist Magazine. You'll find careful and thoughtful analysis, and will come away having learned something new.
   
9. Quickly read through the "Science and technology" articles. The writers do a magnificent job of breaking down complex scientific findings and theories.
   
10. Scan through the "Books and arts" articles as well as the "Obituary" article. This last article details the life of a recently deceased lesser known individual who nonetheless made an impact on the world.
11. Scan through the "Economic and financial indicators", paying attention to the blue box information on the bottom of the page.
    
    Read more: How to Read the Economist Magazine Effectively | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_5159645_read-economist-magazine-effectively.html#ixzz1FtiTHuPC

Time Management Parable

One day, an expert in time management was speaking to a group of business students and, to drive home a point, used an illustration those students will never forget.

As he stood in front of the group of high-powered overachievers he said,

"Okay, time for a quiz" and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth mason jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar.

When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes."

The time management expert replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?"

By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered.

"Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted.

Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?"

One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!"

"No," the speaker replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all."

What are the 'big rocks' in your life, time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these big rocks in first or you'll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the 'big rocks' in my life? Then, put those in your jar first.

Busy (by Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People)

Once upon a time a very strong woodcutter ask for a job in a timber merchant, and he got it. The paid was really good and so were the work conditions. For that reason, the woodcutter was determined to do his best.

His boss gave him an axe and showed him the area where he was supposed to work.

The first day, the woodcutter brought 18 trees.

"Congratulations," the boss said. "Go on that way!"

Very motivated for the boss's words, the woodcutter try harder the next day, but he only could bring 15 trees. The third day he try even harder, but he only could bring 10 trees.Day after day he was bringing less and less trees.

"I must be losing my strength", the woodcutter thought. He went to the boss and apologized, saying that he could not understand what was going on.

"When was the last time you sharpened your axe?" the boss asked.

"Sharpen? I had no time to sharpen my axe. I have been very busy trying to cut trees..."

適合高中生練習聽力的網站

國高中的英文課大都只重視閱讀、文法，能練習聽力、會話、及寫作的機會實在不多，簡單區分閱讀、聽力是input，會話、寫作是output，那麼國高中訓練的僅有input裡的一小塊，實在失之偏頗，其他能力靠自己利用課外的機會或資訊培養。以下提供一些適合練習高中生練習英語聽力的好網站，希望能有所幫助。

1. English as a Second Language Podcast: 個人非常推薦這個網站，除了一些較進階的資源外，所有聽力資源都是免費的，每一段program都會先用較慢的速度念一遍，然後開始講解內容、生字，最後再用正常的速度念一遍，方常適合英語非母語的人士學習。
2. Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab: 提供相當多的生活對話，並且分成easy、medium、difficult三個等級，聽完還有練習題可以做，很適合自修或準備TOEIC。
3. elllo: 對話採interview方式，可以練習聽各種不同口音的英文，對準備TOEIC也很有幫助。

Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!

Computational Linguistics

What is computational linguistics?

I think this page will be helpful to answer this question:
Hans Uszkoreit's "What is Computational Linguistics?"

托福口說第三題

托福口說第三題要閱讀一段短文並聽一段對話，然後在60秒的時間內說出內容摘要。短文內容會針對一個主題提出兩個理由作為論點，對話則會有一位講者支持或反駁這兩個理由。

我們可以依據這個格式設計是和這題的筆記，格式約如：

1. Topic:_____________
2. 1st Reason in the Passage:_______________
3. 1st Reason in the Conversation:______________
4. 2nd Reason in the Passage:_____________
5. 2nd Reason in the Conversation:______________

利用休息十分鐘先把筆記格式準備好，並把模版填上去，接著只要簡單做一些筆記，就可以完成第三題的作答了。作答模版約略如下：

模版一

1. Topic: The speakers in the conversation are discussing _____________.
2. 1st Reason in the Passage: First, the letter/newspaper/school claims that _______.
3. 1st Reason in the Conversation: However, the man/woman (doesn't) think(s) that ________.
4. 2nd Reason in the Passage: Second, the letter/newspaper/school argues that _______.
5. 2nd Reason in the Conversation: Nevertheless, the man/woman (doesn't) think(s) that _______.

模版二

1. The speakers in the conversation are discussing about ______.
2. However, the man/woman doesn't agree with it.
3. For one thing, she thinks that even though ______, ______.
4. For another, she indicates that ______ because ______.

網路上眾多高手也提供了許多模版，不過最終的模板還是要取決於自己，畢竟每個人的思考模式不同，講話方式也就不太一樣。因此，考前設計一個適合自己的模版挺重要的。

托福口說第五題如何聽？如何說？

TOEFL的Speaking部分聽力占了很重的比例，要能講的好，一定要先聽得清楚聽得懂，但這不表是要每個字句都聽得一清二楚，最主要是要能夠抓到主旨並paraphrase，因此，聽的方式跟考聽力的部分其實很像，要能分段，也就是將聽力內容依重點分出區塊。以下是口說第五題的聽力結構：

1. 開場白(Opening)+敘述問題：一開始會舖陳一下，接著有個講者A會說What's wrong?之類的句子，然後另一個講者B會開始敘述他遇到的問題。
2. 解決方案一：A會提出解決方案，要注意仔細聽他用的句子，不一定是直接建議，例如在TPO 13，A說：What are you going to do? Can you rent a vent? 這裡的問句就是建議了。
3. 方案一缺點：B會說方案一可能可行，但會遇到一些困難，也就是方案一的缺點。
4. 解決方案二：A會提出第二個方案。
5. 方案二缺點：B一樣會說方案二的缺點。

知道聽力的架構之後，我們就有辦法針對第五題設計口說模版了，格式大約長的像這樣子：

1. 說明講者B遇到的問題：The man/woman encounters the problem that _______
2. 說明兩個方案：There are two possible solutions for him/her. First of all, he/she can ____. Second, he/she can ____.
3. 說明自己的意見：If I were the man/woman, I would choose to ________. For one thing, even though + 該方案缺點, ______________. For another, ___________.

一些練托福聽力的網站

1.  VOA Special English

2. 60 sec Science

3. MIT線上課程

4. Earth & Sky

5. 100 Greatest Discoveries : 很推薦用來加強背景知識，若針對托福的話建議先看Astronomy, biology, chemistry。這些影片也可以用youtube搜尋到，只是比較不齊全。

若找到不錯的我會再繼續新增。

GRE長篇閱讀測驗作答流程

方老師講解模考長閱常讓人以為他解很快是因為他對文章很熟，所以答案早就背好了，否則怎麼可能不用讀文章而只靠一兩個字就作答？我的心得是：真的有可能！雖然我以前也覺得很扯，但這一兩個禮拜，我用Intro文章提到的參考資料，改變閱讀方式和作答方法，真的可以讀一點點文章，然後開始找答案，只要練習新的閱測答題流程與技巧就能辦到。你可能會問說這是不是很難？其實一點都不難，只要改變作答習慣，不要將文章從頭讀到尾，也不要渴望完全讀懂，就可以辦到找關鍵字答題。為了說明作答流程，我把它拆成以下幾個步驟：

GRE閱讀測驗擾人的句型結構

在GRE紙筆測驗，長閱通常被擺到最後才寫，在緊迫的時間壓力下要閱讀一篇七、八百字的文章真的會讓人頭腦混沌喘不過氣，更可惡的是，ETS的句子故意用很多修飾語干擾作答，所以在看句子千萬要小心不能搞錯意思。以下舉幾個例子來看看ETS怎麼干擾我們。

GRE閱讀測驗的答題順序

相信許多上過老方GRE模考的同學都會懷疑他怎麼知道哪一題要先答？有人覺得他對文章都很熟了，答案也都背好了，所以才能答得這麼快。However, 答題順序的確可以自己判斷，但首先必須掌握題目的類型。

Topic, Topic Sentence, Main Idea

要快速理解文章的重點，首先要分辨topic, topic sentence, 以及main idea三者的不同。

GRE閱讀測驗對策--Intro

自從第一次參加GRE模考，要在30分鐘內答完填充、類比、反義、閱讀測驗著實是件難事，如果單字不熟，類比、反義、填充題做完時間就結束了，根本沒有時間做閱讀，而且閱讀測驗又包含一篇短閱和一篇長閱，最少要留15分鐘才有可能做完短閱並作答長閱的簡單題。我在9月2日考完AWA，接下來將全心全意準備10月23日的紙筆測驗，這段時間我想把準備閱讀測驗的心得寫在這裡，一來是幫助自己，透過整理筆記來梳理思緒，二來可以幫助一樣在為GRE奮鬥的考生，希望大家都能獲得好成績順利出國。

近期跟GRE閱讀相關的文章，我的主要參考資料如下：
1. How to Read a Book, by Mortimer J. Adler & Charles Van Doren
2. The Reading Edge (閱讀的技巧), by Ben F. Johnson
3. http://www.800score.com/gre-guidec2view3.html


"如何閱讀一本書"是博客來近期主打的書，博客來還推出獨家封面。這本書自1940年問世以來，被許多人奉作討論閱讀相當重要的書籍，甚至是經典，1972年大幅改版後新增若單篇幅探討閱讀不同書籍的方法，我覺得這本書對經常閱讀不同領域的讀者而言，確實是一本必讀之作，另外書中有一小段篇幅討論速讀，解答了我心中對速讀的一些疑問，有興趣的讀者不妨讀讀這本書。

"閱讀的技巧"在書林出版社應該可以買的到，書中提供大量閱讀的技巧和練習題，包括如何找出作者寫作的目的、主旨、主題，分辨主要論點與支持論點的部分，辨別作者的語氣(tone)、讀出作者的態度(attitude)，若做完這本書的所有練習題，相信所有的閱讀測驗都不是難題了。

最後一個參考資料來源是一個國外GRE教學網站，我認為它提供的閱讀測驗答題策略相當不錯，可以涵蓋大部份的題型，就GRE考試而言，這個網站和"閱讀的技巧"提供我實際解題的方式，而"如何閱讀一本書"則提供原則、概念，這些原則與概念會改變我們原本閱讀的方式，不改變這些概念，閱讀測驗很難在有限時間內答題。

AWA考試心得

總算考完AWA，負擔減輕一半，為了準備AWA，我又把Writing的書重翻了幾遍，挑些好文章來讀，確實幫助不少。

我抽到的Issue題目是：

(1) The study of history has value only to the extent that it is relevant to our daily lives.

(2) It is the artist, not the critic, who gives society something of lasting value."

Argument:

The following appeared in a local newspaper. "People should not be misled by the advertising competition between Coldex and Cold-Away, both popular over-the-counter cold medications that anyone can purchase without a doctor's prescription. Each brand is accusing the other of causing some well-known, unwanted side effect: Coldex is known to contribute to existing high blood pressure and Cold-Away is known to cause drowsiness. But the choice should be clear for most health-conscious people: Cold-Away has been on the market for much longer and is used by more hospitals than is Coldex. Clearly, Cold-Away is more effective."

History from below

在GRE的issue考題裡有個題目要考生論述：

"The study of history places too much emphasis on individuals. The most significant events and trends in history were made possible not by the famous few, but groups of people whose identities have long been forgotten."

歷史研究，究竟要側重在那些功勛彪炳的人物如漢武帝、拿破崙、成吉思汗、邱吉爾，還是應該研究那些推進歷史卻沒沒無聞的社會大眾？

GRE Argument -- Survey的問題

在GRE AWA argument裡有一種題型是要找出survey的問題，例如有一篇題目提到：

有一群人自願參與測試新的Luxess品牌洗面乳，在一個月的測試中，受測者每天早上使用肥皂與該品牌洗面乳。一個月後，大部分受測者都說使用產品之後皮膚改善許多，因此可以證明Luxess洗面乳是可以有效改善皮膚的產品。

提升英文閱讀速度(二)

前一篇寫了用速讀的一些原則提升英文閱讀速度，然而並不是每篇文章、每本書都要用快速讀法，培根Of Study那篇文章的一句話"Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention."是最好的註解。

Of Study (by Francis Bacon)

STUDIES serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability.