F2F Class Notes (Raph)[S][R]

Today we focused on:

We focused on pronunciation and grammar.

Vocabulary

Buy into (v): 1- If you buy into an idea or plan, you give it your support or agree with it
E.g.: It took me some time to convince the team to buy into my idea.
E.g.: Parents are expected to buy into the school’s philosophy when they enroll their children.

Ideal (adj): 1- perfect, or as good as something can be.
E.g.: The ideal job for me would be working as a go-kart driver.
E.g.: She has the ideal skills for the job.
E.g.: He is not the ideal president, but he is the one we have now.

Idealistic (adj): 1- believing that very good things can happen.
E.g.: When I was young and idealistic I believed it was possible to change the world.

Offspring (n): 1- a person’s children.
E.g.: Tom’s sister came over on Saturday with all her offspring (=with all of her kids)

Fatigue (n): 1- extreme tiredness. 2- 疲劳.
E.g.: The doctor said he was suffering from fatigue and stress.
E.g.: She was suffering from fatigue.

Anxiety (n): 1-  an uncomfortable feeling of nervousness or worry about something that is happening or might happen in the future. 2- 焦虑
E.g.: Children normally feel a lot of anxiety about their first day at school.
E.g.: Her son brings her a lot of anxiety.

Means (n): 1- a method or way of doing something.
E.g.: They had no means of communication.
E.g.: We need to find some other means of transportation.
E.g.: We need to use every means at our disposal.

Outweigh (v): 1- to be greater or more important than something else. 2- 超过
E.g.: The benefits outweigh the risks.
E.g.: She thinks his bad personality outweighs his good looks.

Stave off (n): 1- to stop something bad from happening, or to keep an unwanted situation or person away, usually temporarily:
E.g.: We were hoping to stave off these difficult decisions until September.

Beekeeper (n): 1- 养蜂人

Speaking exercise

Original:

Nowadays we can find a lot of advertisement come to our life. Why? I think it may three main reasons. The first one is we are now in a information area. Everyday you have to receive a lot of information from different channels, so it means you have more channels of information than you did before, which makes you think the advertisement are more now than before. The second reason is the products are hard to sell than before, so the producer need to promote their products to influence more people to buy their products. The last reason is the some companies think they need to change the mind of consumer or influence their awareness, so they plant a lot of concept ideas into their advertisements to influence consumers, which can make their product successfully.

Edited:

Nowadays we can find a lot of advertisements in our lives. Why? I think it may be because / due to three main reasons. The first one is we are now in an information era. Everyday you receive a lot of information from different channels. The larger number of channels of information makes you think you are seeing more advertisement than before. The second reason is that products are harder to sell than before, so the producers need to promote more in order to influence more people to buy them. The last reason is that some companies think they need to change the consumer’s mind or influence their awareness, so they plant a lot of concepts and ideas into their advertisements to influence people and make their products more successful.

Reading

Parents Happier After Their Children Leave Home
(Source: www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1908/190823-having-children.html)

Many of us believe that having children is the key to happiness and a perfect family life. Naturally, this idealistic image is true for some, but researchers say that in reality, children make us happiest when they fly the nest – when they have grown up and left home. Researchers in Germany looked at data from a survey of 55,000 over 50-year-olds living in Europe. The survey respondents were quizzed about their emotional wellbeing. The researchers discovered that most parents were happier with life after their offspring had left home and started making their own way in life. Researchers say this could be because raising children creates financial worry, stress, fatigue and anxiety.

The research was led by Christoph Becker at Heidelberg University. He concluded that a big reason for parents being happiest when their children leave home is that the tables are turned and the children provide more support to their parents. He said parents whose children no longer live with them suffer from fewer symptoms of depression and have a more positive outlook on life. Regarding the role reversal in providing support, Mr Becker said: “Children’s roles as caregivers, providers of financial support or simply as a means of social contact might outweigh the negative aspects of parenthood.” He added that maintaining family relationships may stave off loneliness in aging parents.

Grammar

We organized a Middle Autumn Festival event. – We organized a Mid-Autumn Festival event.

If we organize a project by team. – If we organize a project as a team.

Pronunciation

Fatigue:  /fəˈtiːɡ//fa.tea.g/

Anxiety: /æŋˈzaɪ.ə.t̬i//an.zai.e.tea/