VIP Class Notes (Vicki)

Homework

Review the vocab and write one sentence for each word

Speaking exercise

Tell me about the last time you cooked. What did you make? What ingredients did you use? What are the steps?….

I think cooking is the hardest thing in my life. The last time I cooked was several years ago, I made Korean rice roll. I bought the full set of the sauce and ingredients. At first I wanted to cook make many kinds of rice rolls. So I boiled beef, tuna and vegetables. When I rolled the first beef rice roll, I realized that I couldn’t continue the next one because the roll looked so ugly, so bad. And the taste was the kind of bad that I had never tasted before. It was so salty. That was only salty. And then I made other ingredients into as a salad. At that night, my dinner was a beef rice roll and a tuna salad. That was the last meal cook I made/That was the last time I ever cooked.

Writing exercise

Your friend is stressed about the college-entry exam and you are writing to calm her down.

I don’t think the exam is the only important thing in your life, just do your best / just do the best you can as your best as you can. And apply the zhiyuan that you can pass or think about which major you want to learn study or what kind of work job you want. In fact, your scores are probably not enough to go to a famous college study is not as good as  a famous college, so we can choose other schools and choose a major that you want. Or you can try again the next year to go to the good college that you want. If you still feel stressful I will study with you and help you to review for the test book.

Vocabulary

ingredient – the things that you put in the food

utensil – the tools we use to eat

election – the voting of the President

conduct (v.) – to do
i.e. I conducted an experiment about sleeping.

poll – pai ming

tense (adj.)- nervous

furthermore – in addition

marathon – ma la song
a marathon of stress – a long period of stress

coverage – fu gai mian
news coverage – xin wen bao dao
i.e. The CNN news coverage is wider than BBC.

popular – many people like

popularity (n.) – huan yin du

run-up (n.) – the leading times before sth.
run-up to the election – the times before the election

gain – add
gain weight – increase in weight

reduce (v.) – minus, decrease

reality – real world

mock exam – mo ni kao

dissertation – lun wen

Reading

The 2020 U.S. presidential election was a stressful event for many people. A poll conducted by the marketing research company OnePoll found that the election was a main cause of stress in 49 per cent of people. Only COVID-19 caused greater stress. The poll found that 55 per cent of the 2,000 adults in the survey believed that November the 3rd, 2020 would be the tensest day yet this year. In addition, 59 per cent said they couldn’t imagine being more stressed than they already were. Furthermore, 67 per cent wanted 2020 to be over. Naomi Hirabayashi, cofounder of the self-care app Shine, said: “It’s not just the election anxiety – this year has been a marathon of stress. These are not normal times.”

The months of non-stop news coverage caused many people to get stressed out. One thing many people did to relieve stress was to bake. Stress baking rose in popularity in 2020. More cakes and bread have been going into ovens in the run-up to the election. Stress baking is now in the top five most effective self-care practices of 2020. The poll found that 27 per cent of people used baking as a stress reliever. Unfortunately, 41 per cent of people said the stress of 2020 caused them to gain weight. One American woman said stress baking reduced her election stress. She said: “I’m prepared and have a post-election plan. In reality, we probably won’t have a clear winner for weeks after election day.”