李老師陪你探索英文世界 Exploring English with Ms. Lee

By 李老師Education

李老師陪你探索英文世界 Exploring English with Ms. Lee episodes

March 11, 2023 日本黑道退休後竟然大家開始打起壘球下集

英文敘述

Japanese laws discouraging business with the yakuza effectively stop them from taking care of necessities like opening a bank account, getting a phone plan or renting an apartment until they can prove they’ve been out of the yakuza for five years.

The process of leaving can be difficult; traditionally, it cost a finger joint. Nowadays, members can buy their freedom or sometimes just request early retirement for something as prosaic as a bad back. The announcement is faxed to gang offices around the country. Some of the Ryuyukai’s members carry a photo of the document on their phones, as proof of their excommunication. However, it’s unrealistic to expect people to completely sever ties to their old lives. Socially, it would be difficult to turn down an invitation to a wedding or a funeral.

The ex-cons on the team clung to a flashy gangster image that belied their current living conditions. They wore sequined baseball hats. Loud colors. Tinted glasses. Everything branded (especially Louis Vuitton.) At one game, Mr. Ryuzaki handed out pink Christian Dior face masks. No one questioned their authenticity.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。那我們就下集見了。 Talk to you next time on Exploring English with Ms Lee. Goodbye

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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/world/asia/japan-yakuza.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

https://pay.soundon.fm/podcasts/bee087cb-a2a6-46f4-8a90-fe4eeb496e9a

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16 min
March 08, 2023 英聽極短篇: 土耳其大地震

A strong earthquake struck Turkey and Syria on February 6, 2023. The strength of an earthquake is measured on a scale of one to ten. This earthquake has the magnitude of 7.8. The earthquake wrecked thousands of buildings across Turkey and Syria. It killed at least 21,000 people and injured thousands. Life was already difficult in Syria before the earthquake struck. Rebels have been fighting the government for 12 years, causing many Syrians to flee to other countries and leading the life of a refugee.

重點單字

earthquake: 地震

strike-struck: 侵襲

Turkey: 土耳其

Syria: 敘利亞

measure: 測量

scale: 規模

magnitude: 強度

wreck: 毀滅

injure: 損害

rebel: 反叛份子

government: 政府

cause: 引起

flee to: 逃離

lead the life of: 過著…的生活

refugee: 難民

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。那我們就下集見了。 Talk to you next time on Exploring English with Ms Lee. Goodbye

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7 min
March 04, 2023 日本幫派退休後竟打起壘球了?!

英文敘述

On paper, the Ryuyukai were the most fearsome team in Japanese softball. A sort of mutual aid society for retired gangsters, the club had racked up nearly a century of hard time. The manager had been a top mob consigliere; the relief pitcher, who took the field in hot pink shoes, had once been sent to kill him.

But on a cloudless day last March, these hardened ex-cons met their match: the Parent-Teacher Association of Nakanodai Elementary School. The P.T.A. showed no mercy, hitting pitch after pitch out of the scruffy park in suburban Tokyo. Midway through the game, the scorekeeper stopped counting.

Losing is nothing new for Japan’s iconic gangsters, the yakuza. For over a decade, they have been suffering one defeat after another.

An aging population has made it hard to find young recruits — more Japanese gangsters are in their 70s than in their 20s — and has diminished the once-thriving demand for the yakuza’s services.

Society, too, has become less tolerant of them. The authorities have carried out a relentless legal assault on the criminal underworld. Crime is both less profitable and riskier: In 2021, a court sentenced the head of the most violent syndicate to death, a first that sent shock waves through the mob’s executive class.

Over the last decade, the yakuza’s rolls have plummeted by nearly two-thirds, to 24,000.

Many have struggled to reintegrate. Tattoos, missing fingers and long criminal records limit job opportunities and make it difficult to fit in.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。那我們就下集見了。 Talk to you next time on Exploring English with Ms Lee. Goodbye

Facebook: shorturl.at/gmnDM

Instagram: shorturl.at/eyAKU

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/08/world/asia/japan-yakuza.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare

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18 min
February 25, 2023 Kara Swisher: 一位讓科技大老們既喜歡也害怕的新聞工作者

英文敘述

Who is Kara Swisher? Kara Swisher has been called Silicon Valley’s most feared and well-liked journalist by New York Magazine. Over the past decades she has interviewed many leading players in the tech and media industries, like Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Elon Musk. Why is she able to secure all the coveted interviews? Here are her answers. “ I do the work. I just work harder than other people. I really do. I interview more people. I call more people. I text more people. And so, I find out, and they can not talk to me-fine. I know anyway. I’d like to talk to you, I’d like to hear your side of the story. And the most important thing is, I think smart people-and these smart people like smart questions. They don’t like the fawning questions. They don’t like being licked up and down all day. They want someone who knew them before they were billionaires. Because when you are a billionaire, every day you’re so smart. Everyone wants something from you.”

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20 min
December 20, 2022 兩位投資大師的對話摘要

英文逐字搞

David Rubenstein interviewed 22 investors for his book. And he discovered that there are some common elements between them. First, they tend to be from blue-collar working class families. Second they tend to have good education. You can’t be a good investor by being a high school dropout. Third, they tend to be good at math. You don’t have to be a math wizard, but you need to be sensitive towards numbers. Fourth, they are all intellectually curious. They are not just curious about investment. They are curious about everything. Fifth, they tend to be workaholics and positive people. Like every human being, they also make mistakes, but they get over them and quickly get back on their feet. Last but not least, they are willing to go against conventional wisdom. They can think outside the box.

GE CEO Jack Welch said he loved his children to pieces but he had made a mistake when he gave each of them a bunch of GE stocks when he became CEO. Although two of his children went to Harvard Business School and one went to Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, they all quit their jobs, disappointed their father. Welch said his children got too much money and no longer felt motives to do something with their lives, so if he could do it all over again, he wouldn’t have given it to them.

First, you have to work hard. In order to be successful in life, you need to have a vision of where you want to go. Second, you need to be prepared. Prior preparation prevents poor performance. Third, try to be respectful of others. Remember humility is a virtue. Fourth, don’t think your parents are going to give you lots of money. Try to do something useful with your life, so your children and parents will believe that you lead a meaningful life. Finally, you need to learn to fail in order to succeed in life.

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https://podcasts.apple.com/tw/podcast/92ny-talks/id905112228?i=1000586773177

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24 min
December 06, 2022 Holes 第三講: 鎮上的美女老師為什麼會成為殺人不眨眼的女搶匪

There is no lake at Camp Green Lake. There once was a very large lake here, the largest lake in Texas. That was over a hundred years ago. One hundred and ten years ago, Green Lake was the largest lake in Texas. It was full of clear cool water, and it sparkled like a giant emerald in the sun. It was especially beautiful in the spring, when the peach trees, which lined the shore, bloomed with pink and rose-colored blossoms.

Katherine Barlow was the town‘s only schoolteacher. She was a wonderful teacher, full of knowledge and full of life. The children loved her. She taught classes in the evening for adults, and many of adults loved her as well. She was very pretty. Moreover she was also famous for her fabulous spiced peaches.

Katherine Barlow had many admirers. One was Trout Walker. His real name was Charles Walker, but everyone called him Trout because his two feet smelled like a couple of dead fish. Most everyone in the town of Green Lake expected Miss Katherine to marry Trout Walker. He was the son of the richest man in the county.

Trout had always gotten everything he ever wanted. He found it hard to believe that Miss Katherine had turned him down.

Sam was not much older than twenty. He had onion field somewhere on the other side of the lake. He and his donkey, Mary Lou, would walk up and down the dirt roads of Green Lake selling onions. He told people in town that onions were good for the digestion, the liver, the stomach, the lungs, the heart, and the brain. Whenever Katherine Barlow bought onions, she always bought an extra one or two and would let Mary Lou eat them out of her hand. Because the school roof leaked, Katherine and Sam made a deal. He agreed to fix the leaky roof in exchanged for six jars of spiced peaches. Sam wasn’t allowed to attend classes because he was a Negro, but they let him fix the building.

Miss Katherine usually stayed in the schoolhouse, grading papers and such, while Sam worked on the roof. She enjoyed what little conversation they were able to have. She was surprised by his interest in poetry. After he finished fixing the roof, he helped her mend the windows and doors. By the end of the first semester, Onion Sam had turned the old run-down schoolhouse into a well-crafted, freshly painted jewel of a building that the whole town was proud of. People passing by would stop and admire it. “That’s our schoolhouse. It shows how much we value education here in Green Lake.”

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。那我們就下集見了

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21 min
November 18, 2022 Holes導讀第二講: 受詛咒的Stanley家族

英文敘述

Stanley’s father is an inventor. To be a successful inventor you need three things: intelligence, perseverance, and just a little bit of luck. Stanley’s father is smart and has a lot of perseverance. Once he starts a project he will work on it for years, often going days without sleep. He just never has any luck.

Stanley’s great grandfather made a fortune in the stock market.

He lost his entire fortune when he was moving from New York to California. His stagecoach was robbed by the outlaw Kissin’ Kate Barlow. She didn’t actually kiss Stanley’s great-grandfather. She only kissed the men she killed. Instead, she robbed him and left him stranded in the middle of the desert.

Stanley’s great-great-grandfather was named Elya Yelnats. He was born in Latvia.

When he was fifteen years old he fell in love with Myra. Myra was fourteen, and her father would decide who she should be married to when she turned fifteen, Elya went to her father to ask for her hand, but so did Igor, the pig farmer. Igor was fifty-seven years old. Igor offered, “ I will trade you my fattest pig for your daughter.” “And what have you got?” Myra’s father asked Elya. “ A heart full of love,” said Elya. “ I’d rather have a fat pig,” said Myra’s father. Desperately, Elya went to see Madame Zeroni, an old Egyptian woman who lived on the edge of town. He had become friends with her. Elya told Madame Zeroni that he was in love with Myra, but Igor had offered to trade his fattest pig for her while Elya had nothing. Madame Zeroni thought it was a good thing because Elya was too young to get married and that Myra’s head was as empty as a flowerpot. Madame Zeroni told Elya that he should go to America like her son because that’s where his future lay. But Elya would hear none of that. He was fifteen. So against her better judgement, Madame Zeroni agreed to help him. She gave him a little runt. Then she showed him a mountain on the edge of the forest. She instructed him to take the little pig to the top of the mountain and let it drink from the stream. As the pig drank, Elya was to sing to it. She promised Elya that the pig would be fatter than any of Igor’s pigs on the day of Myra’s fifteenth birthday. If her plan succeeded, Elya would have to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain because she too wanted to drink from the stream, and Elya also needed to sing the song to her while she was drinking. Madame Zeroni warned that if Elya failed to do this, he and his descendants would be doomed for all of eternity.

On the day of Myra’s fifteenth birthday, Elya’s pig weighed over fifty stones. But Igor’s pig was equally fine. Myra’s father didn’t know how to decide. Elya suggested that Myra should be one making the decision. So Myra was summoned, and when her dad told her to make a decision about her own future, she didn’t know what to do. Then she said that she would think of a number between one to ten, and she would marry whoever guessed the closest number.

After leaving Myra’s house, Elya wandered aimlessly through the town until he found himself down by the wharf. He saw a sign that read Deck Hand Wanted. Free Passage to America. He decided to jump on the opportunity and it wasn’t until the ship had cleared the harbor and was heading out across the Atlantic that he suddenly remembered his promise to carry Madame Zeroni up the mountain.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。那我們就下集見了。

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21 min
November 09, 2022 Holes導讀第一講: 教學英文閱讀以來最受學生喜愛的小說!!!

英文敘述

Sachar enjoyed school and was a good student, but it wasn't until high school that he really became an avid reader. After high school, he attended Antioch College in Ohio. His father died during my first semester, and he returned to California to be near his mother. During that time, he had a short but surprisingly successful career as a door-to-door selling cleaning products. He then returned to college, this time to the University of California at Berkeley where he majored in Economics. After graduating from college, he wanted to write for a living, but he needed a day job to support his living expenses, so he got a job at a sweater factory. Unfortunately a year later he was fired because he showed no enthusiasm for sweaters. His next step was to go to law school, passed the bar exam (which was required to practice law) and then did part-time legal work as he continued to write children's books. It wasn't until 1989 that his books began selling well enough that he was finally able to stop practicing law and devote himself fully to writing.

Stanley isn't a hero-type. He's a kind of pathetic kid who feels like he has no friends, feels like his life is cursed. And I think everyone can identify with that in one way or another. Stanley Yelnats is from a poor family. He’s overweight and the kids at his middle school often tease him about his size. Even his teachers sometimes make cruel comments without realizing. Stanley is not a bad kid. In fact, he has a kind and gentle heart, but one day he is arrested for a crime that he didn’t commit. Because of this, he is forced to go to Camp Green Lake. Camp Green Lake is a camp for bad boys. The philosophy of the camp is that if you take a bad boy and make him dig a hole every day in the hot sun, it will turn him into a good boy.

Stanley is not a bad kid. He is innocent of the crime for which he was convicted. He has just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. On the day he was arrested, a bully named Derrick has taken Stanley’s notebook and, dropped it in the toilet in the boys’ restroom. By the time Stanley retrieved it, he had missed his bus and had to walk home. It was while he was walking home, carrying his notebook, that the sneakers fell from the sky. He took it as some kind of sign. 他把這突然飛來的鞋子看成是神要給他的訊息。 His father has been trying to figure out a way to recycle old sneakers, and suddenly a pair of sneakers fell on top of him, seemingly out of nowhere, like a gift from God. Naturally, he has no way of knowing that the sneakers belonged to Clyde Livingston, a very famous baseball player who had donated his old shoes for auction to raise money for the homeless shelter.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。

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32 min
October 24, 2022 Starry River of the Sky最後一講: 如果你碰到Rendi遇到的家庭挫傷, 你會選擇逃離嗎?

英文敘述Duke Zhe did as he promised. He spoke of Magistrate Tiger to the imperial family. As the summer was ending, Magistrate Tiger received an invitation from the Imperial Palace and he was invited to go to the emperor’s Mid-Autumn Moon Festivities. One of the activities in the festivities was riddle guessing, and Magistrate Tiger managed to secure the riddles before the festival. So one day he came home and called his children to him. He said, “Children are supposed to be good at riddles. If you have any intelligence at all, you will know the answers to these.” His children were able to answer the first two. But when Magistrate Tiger presented them with the third riddle, both children looked helplessly at each other. Magistrate Tiger looked at them with disgust. He said, “I see you are as feeble minded as I feared.” His voice began to rise as his customary roar emerged. Still Magistrate Tiger was able to answer the emperor’s first two riddles correctly by stealing his children’s answers. He was rewarded with a blue, white, and gold rice bowl on a gold stand 黃金架子, and an enormous gang that was made to be an indoor fishpond. When Rendi discovered his dad had stolen his answer, he was outraged, but his mom and sister comforted him by telling him that his dad did all this for him. Upon hearing this, he felt a mixture of confusion and resentment. He couldn’t understand why his dad roared and tricked and lied for him. But his mom and sister just kept telling him that his dad did this for him.

Magistrate Tiger was very proud of the prizes he received from the emperor. He filled the gang with water and goldfish, displaying it prominently in his formal chamber. Naturally Magistrate Tiger’s son was forbidden to go into his father’s room. One day Rendi walked softly to the huge gang, and to get a better view of the fish inside, he climbed onto the shelf, and by accident, he fell into the gang. Cold, shocking water slapped him and filled his mouth and eyes. His elbows and hands banged against the slippery walls of the gang, but he couldn’t find the edge. He was drowning, drowning… Crack! Suddenly, water rushed away from his face, and he was on the floor, coughing and choking. His sister had grabbed an ink stone墨石 from the table and had smashed it into the gang and saved Rendi. When Rendi looked at his sister with gratitude, he heard his father’s roar. When Rendi tried to explain to his dad that his sister had broken the gang to save his life, Magistrate Tiger just shouted, “I don’t care! These pieces are with more than you!” Black bitterness, 悲憤, gripped Rendi. His mother had lied! Everyone had lied! His father did not roar and lie and cheat for him. His father did not care about him! In fact, he cared more about the shattered gang.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言

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25 min
October 16, 2022 溫莎公爵第二講: 當你擁有一生需要的財富和所愛的人, 你就會快樂了嗎?

英文敘述

The marriage was opposed by the governments of the United Kingdom . Religious , legal, political, and moral objections were raised. As the British monarch, Edward was the nominal head of the Church of England, which at this time did not allow divorced people to remarry in church if their ex-spouses were still alive.For this reason, it was widely believed that Edward could not marry Simpson and remain on the throne. As a twice-divorced woman, Simpson was perceived to be politically, morally not suitable to be a queen consort.

Everyone perceived this event as the greatest love story, but in truth it wasn’t. Simpson actually just wanted to be his mistress and she was still in love with her second husband. However Edward the eighth was so obsessed with her and threatened to kill himself if she refused to marry him. So she was emotionally blackmailed into marrying this very spoiled man who was very entitled and very boring. In fact, the first day after they got married, she was said to have come to his bed and said, “What are we going to do with the rest of our lives?”

There was really no job for a former king, but for the rest of his life, Duke of Windsor kept asking for a job. He didn’t want to do charitable work. He just wanted status, but didn’t want to work for it. Moreover, from captured German documents, the Duke continued to fraternize with the Germans. He even encouraged them to bomb London, so the British would be likely to come to the negotiating table. Not only was he disloyal, he was also actively working against his brother. During war time, the Duke and his wife continued to live like royal family. They had a huge mansion in the south of France and a large townhouse in Paris. Wallace Simpson had nothing to do but ran the household and planned parties. They entertained twice a week, often with 24 guests. Wallace would document every detail of the party. However, according to the accounts of some guests, the Duke and his wife were rather boring people.

Edward the eighth abdicated in 1936, and passed away in 1972. So what did they do for the three decades?

They lived extravagantly, went on cruises, traveled around the world. When they traveled to the US, they took 85 pieces of luggage and stayed at the most expensive hotels. This was during Second World War. They were completely oblivious to the deprivation and hardship that people were going through. They treated their staff terribly.

They spent a fortune on jewels, furniture. Even though the Duke was a very wealthy man, he always felt poor because he lived among the wealthiest people, and he would sponge off them. He never paid for meals, hotels. He borrowed expensive jewels and clothes and never returned them. He knew how to use his celebrity status to pay for everything.

Wallace was bored by him, so she began to resent him more and more. The Duke, however, liked the fact that she dominated and bullied him. People were shocked by how she treated him. One time, she even said, “ Buzz off, mosquito!” She had affairs with younger men with his consent. It was a sad relationship. He became even more devoted and relied on her for everything. Even though his bedroom was only two doors away, she didn’t come to see him in the last two weeks of his life. He would call out for her, but she simply ignored him. Here’s a man who gave up everything for her, and she just treated him like dirt.

如果你覺得我的podcast對你的英文學習有幫助就請到Apple podcast 幫我按五顆星訂閱和分享。也可到李老師陪你探索英文世界的臉書和IG粉絲專頁按贊追縱或留言。

Facebook: shorturl.at/gmnDM

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30 min