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

Vocabulary

Campaign (v): 1- to organize a series of activities to try to achieve something:
E.g.: They’ve been campaigning for years to get him out of prison.
E.g.: He’s spending a lot of his time at the moment campaigning for/on behalf of the Conservative Party.
E.g.: They’re busy campaigning against the building of a new motorway near here.

Garner (v): 1- to collect something, usually after much work or with difficulty:
E.g.: Coppola garnered several Oscars for “The Godfather”.
E.g.: The singer garnered a lot of attention after the release of her latest album

Feature (n): 1- a typical quality or an important part of something. 2- a part of a building or of an area of land. 3- one of the parts of someone’s face that you notice when you look at them.
TE.g.: he town’s main features are its beautiful mosque and ancient marketplace.
E.g.: Our latest model of phone has several new features.
E.g.: This tour includes the area’s best-known natural features, including the Gullfoss waterfall.
E.g.: The most striking feature of the house was its huge living room, which had a beautiful view of the city.
E.g.: He has wonderful strong features.
E.g.: Her eyes are her best feature.

Feature (v): 1- to include someone or something as an important part.
E.g.: The movie features James Dean as a handsome teenager.
E.g.: It’s an Australian company whose logo features a red kangaroo.
E.g.: His latest movie featured an all-star cast.
E.g.: The show features dancers, singers and musicians of all nationalities.

Blockbuster (n): 1- a book or film that is very successful.
E.g.: He starred in several blockbuster movies.

Bucket list (n): 1- a list of the things that a person would like to do or achieve before they die.
E.g.: I have so many things on my bucket list yet to do.

Irreversible (adj): 1- not possible to change; impossible to return to a previous condition.
E.g.: Smoking has caused irreversible damage to his lungs.

Detract (v): 1- to make something seem less valuable or less deserving of admiration.
E.g.: These small faults, however, do not detract from the overall quality of the book.

Flotilla (n): 1- a large group of boats or small ships.
E.g.: A flotilla was anchored at the beach.

Horde (n): 1- a large group of people.
E.g.: Hordes of students on bikes made crossing the road difficult.

Permanently (adv): always and for ever.
E.g.: Smoking is likely to damage your health permanently.
E.g.: Michael and his family have settled permanently in the States.
E.g.: I seem to be permanently broke.

Emerald (n): 1- 翠

Anchor (n): 1- 锚

Thailand to close famous beach to protect coral
(Source: www.breakingnewsenglish.com/1803/180307-beach-5.html)

Thailand will close one of its famous beaches to try and reverse the damage done to its coral by tourism. The beach is on the island of Koh Phi Phi Leh. It got worldwide attention after it featured in the blockbuster movie The Beach. The film put the beach on the bucket lists of millions of travellers. The result has been up to 5,000 sun worshippers a day to its shores. They arrive on hundreds of boats, which have caused irreversible damage to the bay’s coral. Officials say that most of the coral has died. The beach will close between June and September to let the coral recover.

Experts predict that 80 per cent of Thailand’s coral reefs have been destroyed. Once untouched beaches have been damaged by tourism. A professor at Bangkok’s Kasetsart University has criticized the tourism that is damaging Thailand’s coastline. He said the biggest problems were beachfront hotels, boat anchors breaking the coral, and plastic waste dumped in the sea. He believes the “ideal solution” is to close Maya Bay permanently. He said: “While it’s a very pretty bay, visiting it with a flotilla of boats and hordes of other tourists rather detract from the magic.”

Original:

As you know I work for a bike tour company and my boss runs two companies in Shanghai. Most of time, he’s in charge of the shirt company, and we have another manager who is charge of the bike tour company. In that shirt company, we have a shifu and he doesn’t want to pay his rent anymore, so he asked my boss if he can live in our factory without any charge, and my boss said yes, then shifu told him it is really far from factory apartment to the metro station, he wants a bicycle to use, and my boss said yes, we have a red bicycle downstairs we never use it. And then my boss ask me if that bike is broken or not. I said “yes, that bike doesn’t have a seat” and then my manager asked me “do we have some repair stuffs can repair bicycles?” I said yes. And then my boss said “you can use those things to get off a seat for shifu from any other bicycles. I was so surprised and I said “no, we can’t do that, because we will have many big groups in the future days, and we even don’t have enough bikes to use, and I don’t know how to do that.” He asked me again will I go to Andaz this afternoon, because we pack our bicycles in front of that hotel. I said “no, I won’t go there this afternoon”, then he said “Cool, can you just go there for a while? Then you can give shifu this bike and the repair things to let shifu get the seat off by himself.” I said okay.

Edited:

As you know, I work for a bike tour company and my boss runs two companies in Shanghai. Most of the time, he works from the clothing company, and we have another manager who is charge of the bike tour company. In that clothing company, we have a shifu / an employee who doesn’t want to pay his rent anymore, so he asked my boss if he can live in our factory free of charge, and he said yes. Then shifu told him that the factory apartment is really far from the metro station, and that he wanted a bicycle to use. My boss said  that we had a red bicycle downstairs that is never used, and asked me if that bike was broken. I said “yes, that bike doesn’t have a seat” and then he asked me if we had some tools for repairing bicycles. When I said yes, my boss told me that I could use those tools to remove a seat from any other bicycle for shifu. I was very surprised and I said  that we couldn’t do that, because we will have many big groups in the future, and we don’t even have enough bikes to use. I also told him I didn’t know how to do that. He then asked me if I would I go to Andaz in the afternoon, because we park our bicycles in front of that hotel. I said I was not planning to do that, and then he asked me to go anyway, so I could give shifu the bike and tools so he could remove the seat by himself. I said okay.

Pronunciation

Volatile: /ˈvɑː.lə.t̬əl/ /ˈvɒl.ə.taɪl/

Deodorant: /diˈoʊ.dɚ.ənt/

Politician: /ˌpɑː.ləˈtɪʃ.ən/

Politics: /ˈpɑː.lə.tɪks/

Political: /pəˈlɪt̬.ə.kəl/

Policy: /ˈpɑː.lə.si/

Recipe: /ˈres.ə.pi/

Receipt: /ˈres.ə.pi/

Coral:  /ˈkɔːr.əl/

Garner: /ˈɡɑːr.nɚ/

Feature: /ˈfiː.tʃɚ/

Criticize: /ˈkrɪt̬.ɪ.saɪz/

Permanently: /ˈpɝː.mə.nənt.li/

Flotilla: /fləˈtɪl.ə/

Irreversible: /ˌɪr.əˈvɝː.sə.bəl/

Detract: /dɪˈtrækt