途听•每日15分钟英语

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Ender`s Game

1.
Fifty years ago
五十年前
An alien force known as the Formics attacked Earth
我们称为“虫族”的外星势力袭击地球
Tens of millions died
杀死千万人类
It was only through the sacrifice of our greatest commander
要不是我们伟大的指挥官牺牲自己
that we avoided total annihilation
人类早就彻底灭绝了

We’ve been preparing for them
我们从那以后就一直在做准备
to come back ever since
以防他们再来
The International Fleet decided that the world’s smartest children
国际舰队认为全世界最聪明的孩子
are the plant’s best hope
是这个星球最大的希望
Raised on war games
他们在战争游戏中长大
their decisions are intuitive
用直觉做决定
decisive, fearless
果断 无畏
I am one of those recruits
我是他们中的一个

annihilation [ə,naɪə`leʃən] n. 灭绝；消灭
intuitive [ɪn`tuɪtɪv] adj. 直觉的；凭直觉获知的
decisive  [dɪ`saɪsɪv] adj. 决定性的；果断的，坚定的
fearless [`fɪrləs] adj. 无畏的；大胆的
recruits [rɪ`krʊt] n. 新兵；新成员

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Rose: I love you, Jack.
Jack: Don’t you do that. Don’t you say your good-byes. Not yet. Do you understand me?
Rose: I’m so cold.
Jack: Listen, Rose. You’re gonna get out of here. You’re gonna go on and you’re gonna make lots of babies. And you’re gonna watch them grow. You’re gonna die an old…an old lady, warm in her bed. Not here. Not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?

Rose: I can’t feel my body.
Jack: Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me. It brought me to you. And I’m thankful for that, Rose. I’m thankful. You must… You must, you must do me this honor. You must promise me that you’ll survive. That you won’t give up. No matter what happens. No matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose. And never let go of that promise.
Rose: I promise.
Jack: Never let go.
Rose: I will never let go, Jack. I’ll never let go.

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Cal: I know you’ve been melancholy. I don’t pretend to know why. I intend to save this until the engagement gala next week. But I thought tonight.
Rose: Good gracious.
Cal: Perhaps as a reminder of my feelings for you.
Rose: Is it a…
Cal: Diamond? Yes. Fifty-six karats to be exact. It was worn by Louis XVI. And they called it “Le Coeur de le Mer”.
Cal + Rose: The heart of the ocean.
Cal: Yes.
Rose: It’s overwhelming.
Cal: Well, it’s for royalty. We are royalty, Rose. You know there’s nothing I couldn’t give you. There is nothing I’d deny you, if you would not deny me. Open your heart to me, Rose.

gala  ['ɡelə] 庆祝，祝贺
good gracious 美俚语，天哪
karat ['kærət] 克拉

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Restrictions loom for short-term rentals such as Airbnb

By Glen Korstrom | Aug. 8, 2017, 8:08 a.m.
From BUSINESS VANCOUVER
Metro Vancouver municipal governments are grappling with ways of dealing with the rapid rise in short-term rentals being offered via companies such as Airbnb and VRBO.
The rentals provide an opportunity for homeowners or tenants to make some quick cash by renting out their homes when they are on vacation.
But they cut into the region’s stock of long-term rental housing and unfairly compete with bed and breakfast owners, who must conform to strict safety regulations, inspections and business licence fees.
“We first complained to the City [of Richmond] about Airbnb three years ago, when there were 54 of them listed,” said Brian Cooper, who co-owns the Stone Hedge Bed and Breakfast in Richmond with his wife, Linda Cooper.
“Two years ago, there were 400 Airbnb homes listed, and at the end of last year, there were 800 listed.”
The Coopers have operated their bed and breakfast part-time since 2001 and full-time since Cooper retired two years ago. Their marketing on Booking.com and Expedia was paying dividends, and the venture was a success.
Unlike many if not most Airbnb hosts, however, the Coopers took food-safety courses and paid the City of Richmond for a business licence.
They have had fire inspections and met requirements to equip each room with a fire extinguisher and post on doors fire-safety procedures and fire-escape routes. Safety requirements also prohibit them from allowing guests to use cooking facilities.
Airbnb operations often skirt those safety regulations, Cooper said.

“Everything that the City of Richmond has done is excellent,” he added, referring to new regulations that the City of Richmond instituted in April that required all short-term-rental hosts to operate as if they were a bed and breakfast business.
“They’ve also put a buffer of half a kilometre between bed and breakfasts so there can’t be five on one block and ruin a residential neighbourhood.”
Richmond followed the lead of the City of Coquitlam, which also bans short-term rentals in secondary suites and investment properties and requires anyone who wants to rent out rooms in their primary residence to get a business licence and operate like a bed and breakfast business.
Richmond homeowners are not allowed to rent out their entire primary residence, even when they’re on vacation.
Other Metro Vancouver municipalities have rules on short-term rentals that range from no restrictions at all in the City of Surrey and District of West Vancouver to City of North Vancouver regulations that allow homeowners and tenants to rent out their primary residences but not secondary suites or investment properties.
The City of Vancouver is holding public hearings this fall on proposed restrictions.
With most cities only recently starting to implement restrictions, much regulation has fallen to strata corporations, many of which have placed restrictions on short-term rentals in strata bylaws.
A Supreme Court of British Columbia ruling in June gave strata corporations even more clout to restrict short-term rentals, although a lawyer who specializes in strata law told Business in Vancouver that there are still pitfalls that strata members should be aware of when drafting restrictions on allowable rentals.
For example, problems can arise when strata corporations allow owners to rent units but stipulate that rentals must be longer than 30 days, said Lesperance Mendes Lawyers partner Paul Mendes.
The June case (HighStreet Accommodations Ltd. vs. The Owners, Strata Plan BCS2478) upheld a strata’s right to pass a bylaw that banned short-term rentals in all units and rejected HighStreet’s argument that it should be grandfathered and exempt from new rental restrictions because it had been operating as a rental business before the strata passed new rental restrictions.
Mendes said that although the ruling affirmed strata corporations’ ability to restrict short-term rentals in the rental-restriction segment of its bylaws, he would still advise those corporations to put the restrictions in a different section of its bylaws.
“Put the restriction in the standard bylaw that deals with use of strata lots,” he said.
“That restricts a whole bunch of ways in which strata lots can be used. Hotel use is what people are usually concerned about so I’ve always advocated going with a use restriction as opposed to a rental restriction.”
Mendes said the nuance is key because of a B.C. government change to the province’s Strata Property Act in 2010. It allowed developers to put a notation on disclosure statements for units in new buildings preventing strata corporations from restricting rentals on any units.
A strata corporation unaware of the 2010 restrictive notation would therefore likely lose any court battle if it tried to enforce a bylaw restricting rentals.
Were the strata corporation instead to prohibit a unit from being used as a quasi-hotel room, Mendes said it would have a better chance of winning in court.
Here is how some Metro Vancouver municipalities are regulating short-term rentals:
City of Surrey:
There are no restrictions specifically aimed at short-term rentals in Surrey, according to acting general manager of planning and development, Ron Hintsche.
City of Richmond:
Home owners or renters must operate a short-term rental in a similar way to a bed and breakfast. They must pay a fee for a business licence and may not rent out their entire primary residence nor any part of a secondary suite or investment property.
Richmond Mayor Malcolm Brodie told BIV that city staff is proactive in checking listings to ensure compliance and that fines for breaking the city’s bylaw are $1,000 per day, although that fine has yet to be levied.
Corporation of Delta:
No regulations yet govern short-term rentals but Delta Mayor Lois Jackson told BIV that she plans to ask the corporation’s staff to draft a report on the issue.
City of Burnaby
No regulations yet govern short-term rentals but Burnaby Mayor Derek Corrigan told BIV that council has asked staff to investigate how other cities have approached the issue and what regulations have worked best.
“We’re hoping a report comes back soon,” he said.

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In conclusion, I think it is a far better idea to buy a house rather than a business. A house requires less work, it is an excellent investment, and it allows you to keep your money by spending it on your own assets, rather than someone else's. In addition to these reasons, you can also rent out your house to someone else, thus creating an extra source of income for yourself.
总之，我认为买房子比买企业要好的多。房子需要更少的工作，是一项极好的投资，而且还能保证你的钱都能花在自己而不是别人的产业上。除了这些原因，你还可以把房子出租给别人，这样你就有增加收入的来源了。

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Finally, owning a house is a good idea because it saves you from giving someone else money every month for your rent. Usually, when one buys a house, he/she has a mortgage that he/she must pay off in the coming years. In most cases, the mortgage costs approximately the same amount of money as renting an apartment. It makes much more sense to pay for your own home, rather than adding to the wealth of someone else.

最后，拥有房子是个好主意，还因为这样你就不用每月给别人支付房租，从而节约开支。通常，当一个人买了房子，他或她就要每年分期付款偿还抵押借款。在绝大多数情况下，还贷款的金额和租房子的价格差不多。而给自己的家支付金钱比增加别人的财富更加有意义。

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When one buys a business, he/she is required to spend long, hard hours to ensure that the business is a success. Starting a business is no easy task, and statistics state that half of new businesses fail within the first year. If one buys a house instead of a business, there is nothing that can fail. A house sometimes requires repairs, but usually such repairs can be done on one's own schedule.

当一个人购买了一个企业，他就得花很多时间来努力工作，以确保企业能够成功。开始经营一个企业并不容易，数据显示一半的新企业都在第一年就倒闭了。如果一个人购买了房子而不是企业，就没有什么可担心的。房子有时可能需要维修，但是这种维修可以按照你自己的时间来进行。

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185. Buy a house or a business?
Choosing whether to buy a house or a business with saved money is a huge decision to make. There are many benefits to both of choices; however, I think that if I had enough money to buy one or the other, I would choose to buy a house.

185. 买房子，还是买企业？

用积攒的钱来买房子还是买企业是一个重大的决定。做出这两种选择都有不少好处，然而，我认为如果能有足够的钱来购买其中之一，我会选择购买房子。

来自《TOEFL iBT 高分作文》
TOEFL 作文考试最全的范文库。 — 李笑来

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Rose: Jack, this is impossible. I can’t see you. Jack不可以这样，我不能再见你。
Jack: I need to talk to you. 我有话对你说
Rose: No, Jack. No. Jack, I’m engaged. I’m marrying Cal. I love Cal. 不行，Jack，我已经订婚了。我要和卡尔结婚了。我爱他。
Jack: Rose…you’re no picnic. All right? You’re a spoiled little brat even. But under that, you’re the most amazingly, astounding…wonderful girl woman, that I’ve ever known. And. Rose你不是很好相处的人。不是么？你甚至有点被宠坏了。但你是我见过的最棒的，最完美的，最令人惊艳的女孩。
Rose: Jack I…
Jack: No, let me try and get this out. You’re…ama… I’m not an idiot. I know how the world works. I’ve got ten bucks in my pocket. And I’ve nothing to offer you and I know that… I understand. But I’m too involved now. You jump, I jump. Remember? I can’t turn away without knowing you’ll be all right. That’s all that I want. 不，让我把话说完，你… 我不是傻瓜，我知道生活有多么现实。我口袋里只有十美元。我什么都不能给你。我都知道。我很清楚这些。但我已无法自拔。你跳我就跳，记得吗？除非你过得好，否则我不会放手。那就是我想要/希望的全部。

no picnic 并不轻松/容易
spoiled [spɔɪlt] 被宠坏的
brat [bræt] 顽童，乳臭未干的小孩
astounding [ə`staʊndɪŋ] 令人震惊的

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Your dream doesn`t have an expiration date. Take a deep breath and try again.
梦想永远不会过期。深呼吸，继续努力。