Archive for December, 2007»
Study links smoking to female offspring
A study in Britain suggests that parents who are smokers at the time of conception are more likely to have a female child.
The Independent reported on the study, which suggests that having a male baby drops by as much as 50 percent if the parents are both smokers.
The research, done by pediatricians at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, also suggests smoking raises the chances of a miscarriage. Researchers reportedly found that substances contained in cigarettes, such as nicotine, inhibit sperm carrying male chromosomes from fertilizing eggs.
The study looked at 9,000 women who gave birth between 1998 and 2003 at the Liverpool Women’s Hospital. The Independent reported that the study also found that women who were exposed to secondhand smoke during pregnancy were also less likely to give birth to male infants.
Copyright 2007 by United Press International
英国的一项调查指出夫妻在怀孕期吸烟，那么生出来的孩子偏向于是女孩。
Self Introduction
复试时准备的一篇英文自我介绍，记下来以后也用得上。。。
Good morning, I am glad to have a chance for this interview, and I hope I can make a good performance today, eventually enroll in this prestigious university in September. Now let me introduce myself briefly.
My name is phinecos.I was born in
In the past 4 years, I spent most of my time on studying. I have passed CET4/6 with a ease. Besides, I have acquired basic knowledge of computer programming both in theory and in practice.
As for my character, I think I am optimistic and confident. My favorite pastime is playing ping-pong , reading books and listening to the music.
Thank you!!!
via: Self Introduction
The sound of one cat purring
Purrcast is a soothing little podcast that consists solely of the sound of cats purring. The website includes biographical information on each feline purr-former. Link
10 Reasons You Aren’t Rich(你不是富人的10个原因)
The reason why you aren’t a millionaire (or on your way to becoming one) is really quite simple. You probably assume it’s because you aren’t earning enough money, but the truth is that for most people, whether or not you become a millionaire has very little to do with the amount of money you make. It’s the way that you treat money in your daily life.
Here are 10 possible reasons you aren’t a millionaire:
1. You Care What Your Neighbors Think: If you’re competing against them and their material possessions, you’re wasting your hard-earned money on toys to impress them instead of building your wealth.
2. You Aren’t Patient: Until the era of credit cards, it was difficult to spend more than you had. That is not the case today. If you have credit card debt because you couldn’t wait until you had enough money to purchase something in cash, you are making others wealthy while keeping yourself in debt
3. You Have Bad Habits: Whether it’s smoking, drinking, gambling or some other bad habit, the habit is using up a lot of money that could go toward building wealth. Most people don’t realize that the cost of their bad habits extends far beyond the immediate cost. Take smoking, for example: It costs a lot more than the pack of cigarettes purchased. It also negatively affects your wealth in the form of higher insurance rates and decreased value of your home.
4. You Have No Goals: It’s difficult to build wealth if you haven’t taken the time to know what you want. If you haven’t set wealth goals, you aren’t likely to attain them. You need to do more than state, “I want to be a millionaire.” You need to take the time to set saving and investing goals on a yearly basis and come up with a plan for how to achieve those goals.
5. You Haven’t Prepared: Bad things happen to the best of people from time to time, and if you haven’t prepared for such a thing to happen to you through insurance, any wealth that you might have built can be gone in an instant.
6. You Try to Make a Quick Buck: For the vast majority of us, wealth doesn’t come instantly. You may believe that people winning the lottery are a dime a dozen, but the truth is you’re far more likely to get struck by lightning than win the lottery. This desire to get rich quickly likely extends into the way you invest, with similar results.
7. You Rely on Others to Take Care of Your Money: You believe that others have more knowledge about money matters, and you rely exclusively on their judgment when deciding where you should invest your money. Unfortunately, most people want to make money themselves, and this is their primary objective when they tell you how to invest your money. Listen to other people’s advice to get new ideas, but in the end you should know enough to make your own investing decisions.
8. You Invest in Things You Don’t Understand: Your hear that Bob has made a lot of money doing it, and you want to get in on the gravy train. If Bob really did make money, he did so because he understood how the investment worked. Throwing in your money because someone else has made money without fully understanding how the investment works will keep you from being wealthy.
9. You’re Financially Afraid: You are so scared of risk that you keep all your money in a savings account that is actually losing money when inflation is put into the equation, yet you refuse to move it to a place where higher rates of return are possible because you’re afraid that you will lose money.
10. You Ignore Your Finances: You take the attitude that if you make enough, the finances will take care of themselves. If you currently have debt, it will somehow resolve itself in the future. Unfortunately, it takes planning to become wealthy. It doesn’t magically happen to the vast majority of people.
In reality, it is probably not just one of the above bad habits that has kept you from becoming a millionaire, but a combination of a few of them. Take a hard look at the list, and do some reflecting. If you want to be a millionaire, it’s well within your power, but you’ll have to face the issues that are currently keeping you from creating that wealth before you will have a chance to call yourself one.
原文链接
像没有耐心，坏习惯，害怕失败，恐怕每个人都有吧，每个人都在努力，只是有没有成效而已。
beggers in China and people’s attitude
Hi Jian Shuo,
I have been reading your blog for a few years now, I found your blog while planning a trip to China in 2004, and your post on the Shanghai Beijing train time table really helped me. Keep up the good work.
I have always wanted to seek your opinion on an issue that troubles me - about the attitude people have, towards beggars and the homeless in big cities like Shanghai.
If I can’t finish the food in a restaurant, I tend to pack them up and give them to homeless people I met. On rare occasions, if the person is particularly venerable, such as an elderly woman, I will also give out some money. I have done this while I traveled in China, but I have been told by Chinese friends to not do this as ‘all those beggars are faking it’.
One particularly memorable example was when I traveled in the An’Hui province. I saw this elderly lady collecting plastic drink bottles, to exchange for a little cash at a recycle point I guess, was teased upon by some youth. She was literally begging the kids (in their teens) to give her the empty bottle they have just finished, but instead of doing the decent thing, they kicked the empty bottle into a lake so she can’t reach it. I had to pull her away from the side of the lake when she tried to get to that bottle to prevent her from falling in. I was furious about this incident for a long time.
In my view she is doing everyone a favor by collecting these bottles and takes them to recycle. It helps keep the environment clean and free from plastic that’ll never be bio-degraded. I have respect for people like these - who are down in their life but still struggles on, doing what little they can (and must) do to survive. Which is the total opposite of a bunch of rich and spoilt kids who probably haven’t worked a single day and only knows how to spend mom and dad’s money. The attitude of people who tease those who are less fortunate than themselves are sickening.
I wonder if you can tell me if this is a common problem / view (that the homeless deserves it) in China. Do you, or have you done anything personally to give them a little help?
All these thoughts came up when I read your comments in today’s post about how Starbucks is the ‘cheapest’ place to enjoy the view of the Bund, and that a cup of coffee cost merely 25RMB (which I’m sure can buy a homeless person a few meals). This reminded me the gap between the well off and the poor are getting increasingly wider in China. I wonder if it will one day become an incurable problem?
Anyway, it’s a long rant, I hope you can give me your thoughts on these issues. Cheers.
Posted by: Ying Zhang on October 16, 2006 8:30 PM
在王建硕的blog里看到这样一个留言，你是怎么想的？怎么做的？
副词是一类用以修饰名词以外词语和整个句子的词,修饰名词的词一般为形容词,又称限制词.
副词是一种用来修饰动词,形容词,副词或全句的词,说明时间,地点,程度,方式等概念。
1) 时间和频度副词:
now,then,often,always,usually,early,today, lately, next,last,already,generally,frequently, seldom,ever,never,yet,soon,too, immediately, hardly,finally,shortly, before, ago,sometimes, yesterday.
2) 地点副词:
here, there, everywhere, anywhere, in, out, inside, outside, above, below, down, back, forward, home, upstairs, downstairs, across, along, round , around, near, off, past, up, away, on.
3) 方式副词:
carefully, properly, anxiously, suddenly, normally, fast, well, calmly, politely, proudly, softly, warmly
4) 程度副词:
much,little, very,rather,so,too,still, quite, perfectly, enough, extremely, entirely,almost, slightly.
5) 疑问副词:
how, when, where, why.
6) 关系副词:
when, where, why.
7) 连接副词:
how, when, where, why, whether.
