Obamamania

It's been described by its publishers as a huge hit in Japan - a compilation of the speeches of Barak Obama has sold well over 400.000 copies, and students at an English class in Tokyo are even memorising the new President's words to improve their own pronunciation and understanding.

Barak Obama's message of change has been well received in Japan where politics is often characterised by grey figrres and backroom deals. The clear language of the speeches makes them an obvious choice for teaching material. But the new President's words are said to hold particular appeal.

And so, in shops across Japan the face of the new American President is a fixture on the bookshelves, as well as on the nesstands. And for students, the question of whether they'll succeed in improving their English can be answered - 'Yes we can'.



1. a huge hit → it means sth. popular, sth. happended successfully
e.g: IPod has been a huge hit in recent years.

2. a compilation → it means sth. was compiled, gathered together
e.g: This book is a compilation of poetry.

3. addressing → it means to announce a speech to the public
e.g: Sarah is going to address the meeting in this afternoon.

4. convention → it means a meeting or convocation, an event that lots of people attend
e.g: I need to attend the convention at 3 p.m.

5. grey figures → it means the money that no one knows where it is
e.g: Does he really know where the grey figures is?

6. backroom deals → it means that do sth. secretly
e.g: He won the game by the backroom deals.

7. to hold particular appeal → to support a special event
e.g: The councilor did a lot of thing to hold particular appeal.

8. perseverance → keep working hard, never give up
e.g: Laura won the dancing championship because of her perseverance.

Group 5 Self-evaluation

The topic of our group is talking about 'does being slender stand for beauty'? Well, I think our topic issue is good, and it is really happened around us. Nowadays, people, especially young girls, all want to be as thin as models. However, being to slender will hurt your health, and it does not mean beauty, just like what we mentioned in the video.

We decided our topic at the second meeting, and we also distributed everyone's job. We tried to let everyone can finish the job singly because it was difficult to match up with semester sister's time. We searched a lot of information that can support to our topic. We had thought that there must be lots of videos about our topic on the Internet, however, we wrong. Tara (was in charge of finding video) got in trouble finding the videos. She only could find a relative news on the youtube. Fortunately, it was pretty fit to our issue.

In order to show our idea, we shot a video. We bought lots of food and we were very full up on that day (XD). We needed to notice our gestures, tones and memorize the scripts. Semester sister worked hard on this because her scripts were a lot! Sometimes she laughed during the shoot, it was very funny! By the way, it was a pity that we could not share the NG parts to the classmates.

After we all got the information, one of us need to gather these information together. The finished video was not pretty good. Therefore, there were some problems we have to improve. First, the volume of the video was not loud equally. Some parts were not loud enough, other parts were too aloud. Plus, when it went to the part we explain how slender does not mean beauty and it showed some very slim models' pictures, it was too monotonic. We should use more relative photos and add some background music to make the video more vivid.

Though our video has some defects, we have tried our best to do it. I really learned some experience from this project.

A Picture's Worth

This photo was taken by one of my junior high school teacher's daughter. We had a class reunion on Feb. 1, 2008. We had not met one another for almost one year. Last class reunion, we were still senior high school students, but now we are college students. Most of us were changed, the shape, the dressing style..., and so on, but there was one thing that would never change: our good friendships!

When we were junior high school classmates, we studied, played, joined the competitions and races, did a lot of things together. We were all happy at that time, though we shared the tears sometimes. We were good friends. We all had a nickname to one another, and so did our teachers. We also had good relationships with all of our teachers, we can even played a trick on one another! It was really a joyful time.

On Feb. 1, 2008, we got together. However, some of my classmates could not join this reunion, it was a pity! We went to a hot pot restaurant to have lunch. We ate and chat a lot, we also played a "traditional game." We played a game like "paper, scissors, rock," the person who lost the game supposed to be punished. The punishment was very ... disgusting! The loser should drink the hot soup which was composed by many people's different food and drinks! Oh! It was really yuck, but it was our "tradition." God bless the person!

After the impress lunch, some of us went to my classmate, Da Shiue's home. We made some cookies by ourselves and bake them. The cookies were delicious, and it was a special experience to bake cookies. We also drank the milk tea that made by Da Shiue. He was good at cooking, and his dream was to be a cook! In the end of the reunion, we took this picture at Da Shiue's home. I would miss those guys after this reunion again. I did expect for the next reunion.

No matter what we be in the future, we will keep in touch with one another and have reunions. Maybe the reunions would be decreased, but we still can communicate by convenient tools. I hope those people who haven't kept in touch with the past good classmates could try to get into contact with the classmates. The memories in school were unforgettable, we should remember the wonderful times and cherish the friendships with our friends.

A Picture's Worth - Childhood Past

http://1000words.net/99-childhood-past

1.When was this photo taken?
May 22, 1978.

2.Who took the photo?
It was not mentioned. It may be a photographer or a passerby.

3.Where was this photo taken?
Phillipines.

4.Why was this photo taken?
It was the Henry's mother's birthday, they might celebrate.

5.Why is this photo meaningful for the writer?
This was the only one picture he had after their house in Phillipines burned down.

6.What is the story behind this photo?
Though he and his other two siblings (not including Mercy) were a family, he was not familiar to them. This was the only one photo of his childhood that he had. He cannot refresh his childhood memories by the photographs he lost. He was sad about that.

7.Who are the character in the story?
The writer, Henry, and his father, mother, and his elder sister, Mercy, and the other two siblings.

8.Where is the setting?
It was in Phillipines.

9.What are the series of Events?
Why they took this picture → relations with his family → the fire accident and the only one survived photo → the importances of keeping photographs

10.What is the 'tension' generated in the story?
The fire accident of their house in Phillipines.

11.What is the climax in the story?
Most of the things they had were gone, and the photo was the only one they had after the house burned down.

12.What is the resolution?
He treasured the only one photo very much.

13.What is the message behind the story?
We should keep our photographs carefully. It is important for us because it can refresh the memories that happened in the past and why we take the pictures.

Poetry - "M-O-T-H-E-R"

Hello everyone. I am Angela, today, I'm going to share a poetry with you. It's written by Howard Johnson.


M-O-T-H-E-R by Howard Johnson

"M" is for the million things she gave me,
"O" means only that she's growing old,
"T" is for the tears she shed to save me,
"H" is for her heart of purest gold,
"E" is for her eyes, with love-light shining,
"R" means right, and right she'll always be,
Put them all together, they spell "MOTHER,"
A word that means the world to me.

Why I choose this poetry is because I think "mother" is important to me, and I'm wanna thank her by this poetry. When mothers gave birth to us, they felt painful. Mothers raise us up, mothers take care of us. They teach us, protect us, and love us. When we are sick, sad, and happy, mothers always accompany us. I hope the children who take mothers' love for granted could understand mothers' toils. I love my mom very much, and how about you? Have you said "I love you" to your mom today yet? Just go and say it, and hug her tightly.

My Fake Biography

Hi~everybody! My appearance looks like a normal people. But...I have a big secret... I am a WITCH! Frankly, I have lived in this world for a long long time.... I experienced a lot of things....you may know these things, but you do NOT know that I was in those events!

You know, the great wizard Merlin, who helped the King Arthur, is my best friend. Look at this photo, in order to help him, the people at that time wanted to catch me! Hahaha, I am a WITCH, how could they catch me? Using fire to kill me? Ha! By the way, I am not a wizard, foolish people!

I adventured with Peter Pan, at that time, my name was Tinker Bell. We fought against the Captain Hook and other bad guys. I also made friends with Wendy and lost children. Many people knew this story, and Disney even shot it to be a film.

Sometime, I go to the Minimoys' world to have a tea with the princess, Selenia, she is my friend, too. I also met a cute guy, Arthur, he likes Selenia very much. Hahaha!

Yaya~I voyaged with the captain, Jack Sparrow!! That was a funny, exciting and dangerous voyage! Nice!!

Oh~see!! These two kitties are so cute! I'm wanna hug them tightly!!! Cats are witches' good companions. When they saw me on TV, they knew that I was a witch, so they kept staring at me and sitting there. However, their master just thought that her kitties knew how to watch TV. Ha!

About a few years ago, I acted in an American cable television series, Sex in the City. This was an famous series in America. Therefore, I became a celebrity.

Because of the series, the famous designer, Giorgio Armani, he invited me to be the spokesman of their company! I was happy to do this!

The fashion magazine, Glamour, also invited me to be shot for the cover of the magazine.

Now, I live with my best partner, Garfield. She is my favorite kitty. She is famous, too. she acted some movies and many children loved her. I am so lucky to meet her, and we are happy everyday!

Tell your story

Interviewer : Angela
Interviewee : Tara

"The fair-weather friend is different from the real friend....."