You are the reason I am. You are all my reasons.

The following is the acceptance address (致詞) from John Nash, who won the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. I find it very profound and touching. You may also link to http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechabeautifulmind.html to listen to the speech delivered by Russell Crowe(羅素克洛) in the movie "A Beautiful Mind" (美麗境界). :)

Nash: Thank you. I've always believed in numbers and the equations and logics that lead to reason.

But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask,

"What truly is logic?"

"Who decides reason?"

My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional -- and back.

And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.

I'm only here tonight because of you [his wife, Alicia].
You are the reason I am.
You are all my reasons.
Thank you.

在喫茶趣(Cha For Tea)找碴

Last night my friends and I went to "Cha For Tea"(喫茶趣), a tea house where lots of people hang out with friends or enjoy delicious meals with their family. Since my friends and I didn't make a reservation, we had to wait to get a table. We were so bored while lining up, so we decided to take a look at the menu first. To my astonishment, I saw "mango mouse" on the menu! And there are some other mistakes on it as well. I showed the typos I found to my friends, and one of them was teasing me by saying "You would never overlook such teenie tiny errors, would you?" "I can't help it. It's my job.(沒辦法,職業病嘛~)"I replied. Haha~~~

Well, here are the typos I found on the menu:
1. Green tea mango mouse
2. Please chose one of the items
3. King's tea flavored pork with noodle

Can you correct all of them? Actually, I wrote them down on the sheet of the customer's feedback. I hope next time when you/I visit the tea house, these typos will have been corrected.:)

Well, some of you might think I'm crazy. But you know what? Such a typo reflects how the tea house runs a business. I think you might have seen errors/typos like these on the menus of some restaurants, or on the notebooks you bought or some other stationery. These errors all result from irresponsibility. It might also leave a bad impression on those English speakers in Taiwan. Remember some part of a movie was made to mock at the products made in Taiwan--cheap but with bad quality?! Of course, no one is perfect, and we all know "To err is human; to forgive, divine." But if you make mistakes and don't want to make them up, it's inexcusable, right? I do hope the tea house would correct their errors after "someone" had already given them some heartfelt feedback. Maybe you can try doing the same thing as I did last night to help some restaurants or companies and further to make Taiwan better. :)

Brainstorming(5)!--看圖造句(5)

Use Subjunctive Mood (假設語氣) to make a sentence.
(If S were/Vpt., S would/should/could/might V....)
Ex. If you just had a mouse for dinner, you would smile like me.
Ex. How wonderful it would be if Ted proposed to me!

Brainstorming(4)!--看圖造句(4)

Make a sentence with "as if"(就好像).

(S V as if S Vpt./had Vpp.)
Ex. The cat looks unhappy as if the world were going to end.

Putting it togeter

Make up a story that includes at least ten of the words below. You may begin your story with "One day..." or "Once upon a time." After finishing your story, please read it carefully again and make sure your storyline is logical.

(Please click the picture to see an enlarged view of it.)













(An activity from Far East Book B2 L1)