High Speed One opens

A new high speed rail link between London and Paris has brought the two capitals closer together, shaving 20 minutes off the journey time. The link that starts at London's St Pancras station also cuts 25 minutes off the journey time to Brussels. This report from Rob Broomby:

The French opened their stretch of the high speed line back in 1993, a year before the tunnel under the English Channel itself opened. The high speed line to Brussels was finished in 1997; and now, ten years after that, Britain has finally caught up with its 12 billion dollar line High Speed One.

At 11:01 the First Eurostar, named "Tread Lightly" to emphasise the environmental advantage of rail travel, edged smoothly out of the station heading for Paris. Just minutes later, the first fast train arrived from Brussels and passengers spilled out onto the platform to give their first impressions of the journey:

PASSENGERS: Great, yeah, very fast and… it's fantastic. Great, you said right - it was a wonderful journey.

But much of the excitement here has focused not on the fast links to Europe but on the lovingly refurbished Victorian train-shed - a jewel from the age of steam - now sporting what claims to be the longest champagne bar in Europe, and it sits under what was when built the largest single span roof in the world.

But most of Britain's mainline trains trundle along at nothing like the 186 miles per hour of the Eurostar. Rail enthusiasts are already asking, if this is High Speed One, when will there be a High Speed Two? The answer is still, no time soon.

Rob Broomby, BBC

This is the article that I adapted from the section "Learning English - Words in the News" from the BBC website. It not only provides interesting articles but also highlights words or phrases plus the explanations for you to learn. I think the words or phrases they picked for you to learn are quite useful actually. I'm eager to put it in my article if I have the chance. Speaking of the high speed railway in Europe, I have already want to take a ride in it for a long time. Especially the route below the English Tunnel, that sounds pretty exciting to me. I really wonder how they could build a railway under the sea. Hmm...wish I could visit Europe next year during the summer vacation. Hope...

How to Charge an iPod using electrolytes and an onion

Since our class blog's homepage have something related to Apple's product, I found something interesting for those who has an iPod. (that's right, I don' t own an iPod).

The movie clip quite amazes me actually, I really wonder what "ingredients" are there in the onion and by what chemical rules it follows that makes charging the battery possible.

This procedure was provided by HouseHoldHacker, which I believed to be a website or firm that teaches people how to save money by finding "substitutes". But as far as I concerned, that maybe won't help much because vegetables are quite expensive nowadays. Ha~

Homework4

PART I. About The Bluemen Performance

A. TRANSCRIBING

Your Attention Please

Thank You For Choosing Earth As Your Planetary Vehicle

We Hope You Enjoy Many Wonderful Features Of This Planet As You Hurtle Through The Cosmos

Please Note However

That In The Event Of Continued Inaction In The Face Of Global Warming

Your Seat Cushion Can Be Used As A Flotation Device

Also

Please Take A Moment To Locate This Planet's Emergency Exits

As You Can See

There Aren't Any

Earth To America!

Can You Hear?

Sending Out The Message

Loud And Clear

Can You Hear?

B.What do you think of this performance?
Actually, I have heard of the Blueman a few years ago. From what I've known, they are a really famous music group. And it's happy to think that more and more people in the spotlight are jumping out to warn everyone about the seriousness of global warming. Former presidential candidate Al Gore received Nobel Prize for that is a great example.
Although I know what issue the movieclip is aiming at, I couldn't really understand what they were performing. To me, the movieclip is a little bit too "abstract".

Part II. About global citizenship
A. In what ways do you think you are already a global citizen?
Born on the same planet, everyone of us were "global citizens" from the very moment we first took our breath. And thanks to the fast development of technology, we can travel to every place in the world ever faster than before. Moreover, with the help of the internet, we can gain access to things that happened in the world simultaneously simply by just clicking on the mouse. I really like to read about the international news on the newspaper or online. These, as a whole, makes me feel truly engaged in the outer world around me.

B. How can you become a better global citizen?
I think there are many ways of being a global citizen, the simplist one is to take concern about what happens in the world often through news, magazines, etc. That is also the easiest thing for students like us can do. Another thing we can easily do is to protect the enviroment, such as don't litter, recycle often, etc.
How am I going to become a better citizen? Good question. I haven't really thought of that before. I think when I have the spare money , I would make donations by helping those in need to faraway countries such as Africa. That is one way I can think of. "Global Citizens" need to make their best effort to help those in need. By doing this, our planet would surely be a much better place to live in.

Comedy-Steve Jobs & Bill Gates

I really can't think of any comments on this. Just watch it and give it a hearty laugh! The part where they made up at the end was quite sweet, the "predecessor" that went to heaven must be most gratified.

English Corner 2- fun moment

Yesterday I went to the English Corner for the second time "voluntarily", because there is suppose to be no class this week due to the upcoming midterm exam. Since there isn't any topic for us to discuss about, we played little games instead.

The game is called "Aquarius", which I believed to be invented in America. Yes, its exactly the same word as the zodiac sign, or constellation, that we usually are familiar with. The rules are quite simple-the one who connects the 7 simliar pictures together first wins. Sounds too easy and boring, right?

Actually, it's not really that easy, you have to think carefully to "expand your borders" AND "break other's connection " at the same time. By the looks of it, its pretty simple, but when you're really into it, you'd definitely have a second thought about that!!

I always enjoy playing small games. For one, their rules are usually quite simple; for the other, they generate equal "fun" as big games. This makes them quite attracting and easy for players to "go on track".

At the end of the class, we discussed what we're going to do the week after the next(there is also no topic). We had plenty of ideas, from keeping on playing games to watching movies or even go rock climbing! I'm starting to anticipate what we're going to do.

Time will tell~