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Hey, guys. Here comes today's assignment, also the last post of 23th series~~~
Well, at first, I will routinely, succinctly introduce the structure or maybe some gists of this post.
The Speaker part, as my "first blood", is just from the BBC 6 minute English; there are two speakers talking and the speed is not that fast, maybe like that of the VOA special English.
Next, the Speed, consisting of three passages and six time spans, is not very hard, because I feel guilty about confusing lots of teammates for the last time's philosophy of Hegel in the Speed part. The second one in the Speed is a letter from a writer to his pregnant wife, and what makes me rub my eyes is that the famous writer is barely able to speak his love out and directly to his wife but instead, writes letters in the role of his dog. (Although my girlfriend told me the move is cute and romantic, it appears somewhat absurd and even creepy to me.) The third passage is about the marriage topic in India.
Finally, the Obstacle is about a touching love story.
OK, let's roll~
Part 1 Speaker
[Rrephrase1]
The secret of happiness
[dialog, 6:12]
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/6min
Transcript:
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/081222_download.shtml
Part 2 Speed
Article 2(Check the title later)
A Theme Park Gone Dark: Connecticut's Abandoned Holy Land
By Atlas Obscura | Posted Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, at 9:36 AM
[TIME2]
In the early 1950s, John Baptist Greco, a staunch Roman Catholic, had a vision of a roadside theme park devoted to God. By the end of the decade, he had created exactly that and named it Holy Land U.S.A.
The theme park included a miniature Bethlehem, a recreation of the Garden of Eden, biblical-themed dioramas and various tributes to the life and work of Jesus Christ. The park was perhaps best known for its Hollywood-style sign reading "Holy Land U.S.A." and its 56-foot steel cross that could be seen for miles, especially when lit up at night. It is a town joke that citizens grow up thinking Jesus was electrocuted on the cross.
By the 1960s, the park was visited by some 50,000 people a year. In 1984, the park—run-down, dated, and in need of a spruce up—was closed for renovation. Greco had hopes of expanding the site to attract more visitors, but this was never achieved—he died in 1986.
Responsibility for the park passed to a group of nuns. For a while, they tried to keep the park clean and neat, but it never re-opened to the public. Regardless of their efforts, Holy Land attracted vandals and acquired a seedy atmosphere.
To this day, the nuns still own the property—however, it is the local teenagers and foragers who have made their mark. Statues have been beheaded, dioramas destroyed, and tunnels blocked. Occasionally tourists still stop to look, and even explore, but they make sure they are gone before dark.
While much of the park remains, in recent years it has become dangerous and was the site of a murder of a young woman in 2010. Overgrown, dilapidated, and strewn with garbage and graffiti, Holy Land is far from being the safe haven of spirituality it once was.
[words: 302]
Source: Slate
http://www.slate.com/blogs/atlas_obscura/2013/08/22/once_popular_with_pilgrims_the_holy_land_usa_religious_theme_park_is_now.html
Article 3
E. B. White's Love Letter to His Wife on the Occasion of Her Pregnancy, "Written" by Their Dog
[TIME3]
Dear Mrs. White:
I like having Josephine here in the morning, although I suppose I will get less actual thinking done — as I used to do my thinking mornings in the bathroom. White has been stewing around for two days now, a little bit worried because he is not sure that he has made you realize how glad he is that there is to be what the column writer in the Mirror calls a blessed event. So I am taking this opportunity, Mrs. White, to help him out to the extent of writing you a brief note which I haven’t done in quite a long time but have been a little sick myself as you know. Well, the truth is White is beside himself and would have said more about it but is holding himself back, not wanting to appear ludicrous to a veteran mother. What he feels, he told me, is a strange queer tight little twitchy feeling around the inside of his throat whenever he thinks that something is happening which will require so much love and all on account of you being so wonderful. (I am not making myself clear I am afraid, but on the occasions when White has spoken privately with me about this he was in no condition to make himself clear either and I am just doing the best I can in my own way.)
[words: 232]
[TIME4]
I know White so well that I always know what is the matter with him, and it always comes to the same thing — he gets thinking that nothing that he writes or says ever quite expresses his feeling, and he worries about his inarticulateness just the same as he does about his bowels, except it is worse, and it makes him either mad, or sick, or with a prickly sensation in the head. But my, my, my, last Sunday he was so full of this matter which he couldn’t talk about, and he was what Josephine in her simple way would call hoppy, and particularly so because it seemed so good that everything was starting at once — I mean those things, whatever they are, that are making such a noise over in the pond by Palmer Lewis’s house, and the song sparrow that even I could hear from my confinement in the house, and those little seeds that you were sprinkling up where the cut glass and bones used to be — all starting at the same time as the baby, which he seems to think exists already by the way he stands around staring at you and muttering little prayers. Of course he is also very worried for fear you will get the idea that he is regarding you merely as a future mother and not as a present person, or that he wants a child merely as a vindication of his vanity. I doubt if those things are true; White enjoys animal husbandry of all kinds including his own; and as for his regard for you, he has told me that, quite apart from this fertility, he admires you in all kinds of situations or dilemmas, some of which he says have been quite dirty.
Well, Mrs. White, I expect I am tiring you with this long letter, but as you often say yourself, a husband and wife should tell each other about the things that are on their mind, otherwise you get nowhere, and White didn’t seem to be able to tell you about his happiness, so thought I would attempt to put in a word.
White is getting me a new blanket, as the cushion in the bathroom is soiled.
Lovingly, Daisy
[words: 375]
Source: Brain pickings
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2013/08/20/e-b-white-love-letter-to-katharine-daisy/
Article 4(Check the title later)
How to Cope With Arranged Marriage
By Joanna Sugden / August 23, 2013, 10:00 AM
[TIME5]
When Nandini Krishnan started researching for her book about urban educated women who enter arranged marriages in India, she was surprised by two things: First, how many of these women there were, and second, how well their marriages seemed to be working out.
“Cosmopolitan Indians live under the delusion that arranged marriages are obsolete, but they are not,” Ms. Krishnan told India Real Time ahead of the publication of her book, “Hitched: The Modern Woman and Arranged Marriage.”
The women Ms. Krishnan interviewed for the book describe how arranged marriages have changed dramatically in recent generations. “It’s more like a blind date now, you are set up by your parents and meet before for a coffee and decide whether you like each other,” said Ms. Krishnan, who isn’t married.
However, there is more pressure to make a quick decision about a person than in a dating relationship, Ms. Krishnan says. Questions about whether the other person wants to have children and even where they want to send them to school come up way earlier before an arranged marriage than in a love match, she says.
“I think arranged marriage is here to stay but it will keep evolving, families will withdraw a little bit and it will become more like online dating in the U.S. or U.K.,” the 29-year-old author said.
There are no official statistics on arranged marriages in India, although some estimates suggest up to 90% of matches are made in this way.
Ms. Krishnan says she is troubled by some arranged marriage traditions.
“One thing I really don’t like is horoscope matching because that gets in the way of good matches,” she said. In India, a couple’s star signs are crosschecked to see if they align. “Now that we are more evolved, I think that horoscopes should be ditched. It’s also too rigidly caste-based and religion-based,” she said.
In the book, in which some names have been changed, women discuss the inner workings of arranged marriage and how to make it a success.
In this extract from her book, women discuss the problem of sleeping with someone they hardly know.
[words: 356]
[TIME6]
How Do I Jump into Bed With Someone I Don’t Know?
So, we don’t do the chai-tray, bride-examination-ceremony any more. So, we meet grooms, and get to know them, and establish that they’re not serial killers. But, we can’t escape the fact that in a relationship it is often physical attraction that brings a couple together, whereas this is not so in an arranged marriage. While most couples brought together by horoscopes and family sneak a kiss or two, maybe even a cuddle, premarital sex is out of the question. Sometimes, the question of having to share a bed with a man who has been gauged by all other practical concerns is neatly brushed under the carpet. But one fine day, you’re married, and you know you’re supposed to be having sex. Everyone wants you to make babies, but no one has spoken about chemistry. How does one undress in front of a man one barely knows?
Swatilekha Mukherjee found herself dealing with this problem. More than two weeks into her marriage, she wasn’t able to bring herself to sleep with her husband. He was uncomfortable too, and they would give up at some point within the first few days. After that, they simply went to bed without broaching the subject, or making any moves towards each other. Neither was comfortable discussing it with friends or family, and Swatilekha began to look up internet forums, to see whether anyone had spoken about this.
‘It’s amazing how many people have this problem. They’re all worried about whether they will ever find chemistry, or ever be comfortable enough to have sex. Isn’t it supposed to happen naturally? Clearly, it’s something the previous generation hasn’t thought much about. Most of us assume our parents had a celibate relationship—I mean, most of them don’t even hold hands in public— but we’re all here, so clearly they didn’t. But many women in this generation, even women who have slept with boyfriends earlier, find it difficult to get this aspect of their lives going.’
She found the advice from users on the forum ranged from discussing the subject and taking it slow, to watching porn, heading to a cold vacation spot, trying hypnosis, giving role play a shot, and getting drunk.
Someone suggested reading Ghalib’s shayaris out to each other. There was even a mini-Kamasutra in there, with advice on how best to titillate your partner and yourself, when you’re not very comfortable. Down to using soft voices.’ Eventually, someone said ‘Blue film is against Indian culture’, and of course, the rest of the thread was an argument.
[words: 435]
[The rest]
However, Swatilekha did find some handy advice—physical comfort evolves from emotional comfort. ‘If you aren’t able to sleep together, don’t worry. First, get to know each other properly. In the first few days of marriage, you aren’t even able to confide in each other about things like problems with the family, or trouble at the workplace. How are you going to sleep together at that stage? Of course, if you’ve had a long courtship and have spent time getting to know each other, it may be different. But if you haven’t, you should relax and take it slow.’
She discussed it with her husband, and they decided there was no hurry. They finally did sleep together, but it happened nearly five months into their marriage.
Brinda Sundar feels part of the problem is that our idea of sex is different from the actual act, which makes everyone’s first experience something of a shock. ‘The problem is that women, especially if they’re virgins—like I was—have big expectations from sex. We grow up thinking it’s going to be like something, and then you feel all embarrassed and dirty when it actually begins to happen. I turned to an older friend for advice, and she told me not to overthink it. First, we need to understand that marriage is not Mills and Boon. It’s not even Sex and the City.’
And then, there are those couples for whom sex will always be perfunctory. They may have had relationships with others in which the chemistry was great. They themselves may be attractive people. But sometimes, it simply doesn’t click. However, this isn’t a good enough reason to call off a marriage.
‘I think it’s important for there to be some amount of intimacy,’ Brinda says. ‘You don’t know how the sex is going to be, of course, in an arranged marriage, but you can gauge whether you’re comfortable with someone. That is the foundation of a marriage, not the act itself. You’re not a teenager, your libido isn’t the most important thing in the world.’
[words: 356]
Source: Wall Street Journal
http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2013/08/23/the-modern-woman-and-arranged-marriage/
Part 3 Obstacle
Article 5(Check the title later)
On Love: ‘We just couldn’t say goodbye’
Published: August 24
[Paraphase7]
For many, the word “camp” brings back childhood memories of swimming, outdoor adventures and late-night fireside chats. For Jodi Tully and Jeff Sheedy, it was where a two-week summer romance turned into a life’s love.
It was the summer of 2006, and both were counselors at Camp Chingachgook, a 100-year-old YMCA summer camp in upstate New York.
From the moment Jeff saw Jodi sitting in her lifeguard chair, wearing a bright red one-piece swimsuit, he was smitten. The first time he had the nerve to approach Jodi was at a night cabin challenge — one in which campers were told to dress their cabin leaders as creatively as possible. Jodi was covered in newspaper and her front teeth were masked with tinfoil. Jeff teased that she looked like a rapper.
She liked his charm and immediately felt at ease with him. “He has this way of making everyone feel comfortable around him,” Jodi says now. She tried to flirt back, but the tinfoil made her mumble.
After tucking in their campers at 10 p.m., the two retreated to the counselor lounge, chatting until lights out at midnight. This became their routine: Between 10 p.m. and midnight, they relaxed and visited.
Because counselor romances were discouraged, they met surreptitiously.
“We pretended we didn’t exist. Nobody else knew,” Jodi says. It was on a moonlit walk that Jeff stole a goodnight kiss on the back steps of Jodi’s cabin.
A week before he left the camp, he took her sailing. Usually surrounded by a large cabin full of tween girls, Jodi appreciated the rare alone time. Jeff knew she loved the water. “He seemed in his element,” she remembers thinking. “I was surprised how easy it was to talk with him.” The small Sunfish sailboat didn’t leave much room between the two of them.
“We definitely knew we connected, but it was the summer so we thought we can’t take this too seriously — I mean, we really only hung out for two weeks,” Jodi remembers.
At the end of Jeff’s stay, Jodi drove him to the Albany airport to catch his flight home. Both hesitated to attribute too much importance to their time together but were overcome with emotion and shared a final, tearful goodbye at the airport.
“I think we were both caught off guard by how sad we were,” Jodi says. “There was a lot of denial.”
Jeff felt similarly: “It was, like, this is a great slice of what could be something nice. . . . We tried not to get too emotional, but we did.”
Jodi returned to the University of Delaware in Newark, and Jeff went back to Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa. Both fell back into their school routines and stayed in touch only sporadically by texting.
When Jeff discussed an upcoming holiday break, Jodi realized that her school’s homecoming fell on the same week and mentioned it would be fun if he could come up for a reunion — not really thinking he’d say yes. She didn’t want to get her hopes up. But Jeff said he would come.
“I was really nervous,” Jodi remembers. “I didn’t know what I was going to say to him.”
“I even brought a sleeping bag just in case things went bad,” Jeff recalls.
Whether it was walking hand-in-hand to the football game or a romantic trip to an apple orchard, everything seemed to fall into place. It was clearly not just a summer romance. “We were walking around like we had been together for a while,” Jeff notes.
That weekend visit was the start of a long-distance romance that would last more than two years. Every two weeks they would travel back and forth, planning jam-packed weekends in both cities. For Jeff, who was without a car, the journey could take nine hours. “He never once complained,” Jodi says.
“For a long time, we tried not to take things seriously. We’d try to downplay it. Then every time we’d see each other, we’d realize how strongly we felt for each other,” Jodi says. By the end of December, they were an official couple; Jeff introduced Jodi to his parents after his Christmas break.
Summer soon came, and Jeff returned to his home town, Los Angeles. The three-hour time difference proved an obstacle to their relationship, and the strain of the distance became too much. Just before Jeff left to study abroad for a semester in Granada, Spain, he broke things off.
“I wasn’t ready enough, in the beginning,” Jeff says. “I was the fool who wanted to be single . . . and that was stupid.” If only I had met her five years from now, he thought.
But their communication never stopped. They maintained weekly Skype sessions and traded e-mails. He couldn’t stop thinking about her and became jealous when he heard she was seeing other people.
He recognized their connection “wasn’t comparable to anything else.” “I realized the best probability for me to be happy was for me to be around her,” he says.
Jodi came to the same conclusion: “Regardless of the trials or distance, we just couldn’t say goodbye.”
After a month and a half, they were back together. Days later, Jodi booked a trip to Rome during her Thanksgiving break and planned to meet Jeff there.
“We spent so much time talking to each other and never got to see each other, so all we wanted to do was look out over the city and hold each other and look at the sunset,” Jeff recalls. “That was all we needed.”
After Jeff graduated from Bucknell in 2009, he moved to Washington to be with Jodi. She works as a senior communications associate for the American Red Cross. In December, Jeff accepted a managerial position with United Way Worldwide. The couple now live in Woodley Park with two cats, Penny Lane and King Louie.
“He’s just my rock,” says Jodi, 28, describing what she loves most about Jeff. “He understands and calms me down. . . . He has this way of soothing me that no one else ever has.”
“She is one of the most selfless people I’ve ever met in my life. I have learned to be a better person, a better son to my mother and a better partner,” says Jeff, 27.
In the summer of 2012, they began discussing the possibility of marriage. Jodi hinted that she wanted her proposal to be special. Jeff took note and decided there would be a story associated with his proposal.
And a story it was. He re-
created their intimate moment sailing on Lake George by renting a boat in Annapolis on the Chesapeake Bay. But the sailboat was much larger than he was used to, and the bay much shallower than Lake George. While turning into a romantic, secluded cove to pop the question, Jeff got the boat stuck on a sandbar.
There, while awaiting rescue, he got down on one knee and asked Jodi to marry him.
On Aug. 16, in front of family and friends at the Sagamore Resort on Lake George, overlooking the camp where they met, the pair promised to spend their lives together.
Both acknowledged in their wedding vows how they had come full circle.
“It is rare to have a dream realized,” Jeff says. “Because of one lucky moment in time . . . I got to fall madly in love with the most beautiful girl I ever saw.”
[words: 1241]
Source: Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/on-love-we-just-couldnt-say-goodbye/2013/08/21/f66238f0-0a75-11e3-9941-6711ed662e71_story.html
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发表于 2013-8-25 23:10:29
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