2xOnline Class Notes (Mike)

If you won €1 million in the lottery, what would you do with it? Write an essay and include your ideas. Give reasons for your choices.

这篇不用翻译，读一读就行

My town is very historic and we get a lot of visitors. There are several things I would improve to attract even more tourists. Here are three of the most important.

First of all, I would improve the parking. In my opinion, this is the most important thing because the town is always full of cars. If there was a car park on the edge of town, tourists could leave their cars there and get a bus into the centre. It would be easier for them and they could enjoy less crowded streets.

Secondly, I would cut the entrance price to museums and art galleries. The tickets can be very expensive, especially for families. If prices were cheaper, more tourists would visit these attractions.

Finally, I would arrange some interesting things for children to do in the park. If there were more activities for children, more families would come to the town.

To conclude, I would improve parking, reduce prices and provide things for children to do. All these things would attract more tourists to our town.

The destructive impact of fast fashion on the environment is widely documented. So how can we, as consumers, reduce our fashion footprint? One obvious answer is to buy less. Another is to buy clothes that have been more sustainably made, using organic and recycled materials. Hiring clothes is another way to get new pieces for our wardrobe. But buying second-hand may be the simplest solution and a trend that is growing fast.

According to the Boston Consulting Group, second-hand clothes are projected to make up 27 per cent of customers’ wardrobes by 2023. By 2030, the second-hand clothing market is projected to be twice the size of fast fashion, according to a global report by Thredup and GlobalData. So, it seems, the next ten years will see the resale market grow fast, and this is in part because we now have more options than simply buying from charity shops and jumble sales. Online sites are making it easier to both buy and sell pre-loved items.

It also helps that the perception of pre-loved clothing has changed. Dr Amna Khan, senior lecturer in consumer behaviours and retail at Manchester Metropolitan University, said ‘it’s now become trendy to wear second-hand’ and it’s no longer ‘a case of only buying it if you can’t afford anything else’. The changing values of shoppers is even being seen in celebrity culture, with television personalities, such as contestants on the popular UK TV show Love Island, promoting second-hand clothing.

Not everyone is convinced that these changes in shopping habits will do enough to reduce our fashion footprint. The charity Wrap tells people to repair and revamp clothes they already have in their wardrobe before buying new ones, even if they are second-hand. But it’s clear that some consumers now want to consume less and make more environmentally friendly choices when they do buy. The fashion industry is therefore having to change, and the second-hand market is the star of the show.

Your town or a town near you is a tourist destination. What improvements would you make to attract even more tourists? Write an essay and include three ideas. Give reasons for your choices and say what effect the improvements would have on tourist numbers.

–  say what the most important improvement would be
–  choose two more improvements to make
–  explain how these things would affect tourists.

To attract more tourists to the destination, I give the following three ideas.

Advertising at common traffic.Let People know the destination.

Hole evening entertainment.Extend tourist play time.

Build characteristics snacks market. Food is everyone needs.

The most important improvement is the third.Because the characteristics make the destination stand out from the others.

There is a big temple near my hometown, but it doesn’t attract tourists from all over the country/world. So I want to give some advice for people who are managing the temple.

First, we should invest more money in advertisement, for example, put posters on buses or subways. This will gain more publicity for the temple. As a result, the temple will have more visitors and even make some money from the visits.

My second advice is to hold/have some entertainment activities at night. This will create many job opportunities for locals and therefore, solve unemployment issues. Shows will make sure that the tourists stay longer and spend more money on all kinds of events. 

Bring various snacks to the temple, because everyone loves good food/because no one can say no to good food.

The most important improvement is the third one, because local specialty makes the destination stand out from the other ones.

look like 看起来像

What is the likelihood of you having someone who looks just like you? Would it be a good thing? And if you did have one, would you want to meet them?

有一个看起来像你的人的可能性是多少？这是一件好事吗？如果确实有，你想遇见他们吗？

Consider how often your facial features are used to identify you. Your passport, ID card and driving licence all bare your face. To enter your workplace, you likely need to be recognisable. You may need your face to unlock your smartphone and possibly even need it to exclude you from being present at a crime scene.

想想你的面部特征被用来识别你的频率有多高。

觉得你的面部容貌被用来识别你。你的护照，身份证和驾照都揭开你的面容。进入你的职场，你可能需要被易于认出的。你也许需要你的脸去解锁你的手机，甚至可能需要它来证明你不在犯罪现场。

The word ‘doppelganger’ refers to a person who looks the same as you, essentially sharing your features; those that you thought were unique to you and your identity. Not an identical twin, as a doppelganger has no relation to you. The idea originated in German folklore. A doppelganger was said to be a spirit-double that replicated every human and beast on earth.

‘分身’指看起来和你一样的人，本质上和你共享同一些特征-那些你觉得独特和唯一的特征。没有一个完全相同的两个人，作为一个就好像你的分身跟你没有关系。这种观念起源于德国民间。据说分身是地球上的每个人或兽的灵魂副本。

So, let’s get real. What are the chances of you having one in the first place? There’s said to be a one in 135 chance of an absolute dead ringer for you existing anywhere in the world, so the chances are pretty low, despite folk wisdom promising you otherwise. And the chances of meeting? The mathematical certainty of finding this particular person is supposedly less than one in a trillion!

因此，让我们面对现实。你原本就有一个跟你长得一摸一样的人的概率是多少。据说每135个中就有一个和你一模一样的人存在于世上。因此遇见的机会呢？数学上的确定性发现这个特别的人据说比万亿分之一少。

That said, these statistics may be a good thing. Historically, having a double hasn’t always been a positive. Back in 1999, an innocent American man, indistinguishable from the real criminal, was sent to prison for robbery, where he stayed for 19 years. In the end, it turned out to be a case of mistaken identity. In a different case, a woman in New York was accused of trying to poison her doppelganger with deadly cheesecake so that she could steal her identity!

那就是说，这些统计数据也许是一件好事。在历史上，有一个雷同的人并不总是一件好事。早在1999年，一个无辜的美国人，无法从真正罪犯中区分，因抢劫被送到监狱，他在那儿待了19年。最后发现是一个身份被搞错了的案件。在另一案件中，纽约的一个女人为了盗取另一个人的身份而企图在芝士蛋糕中下毒，她也因此而被告上法庭。

And, why are people interested in finding their possible doppelganger anyway? It may be helpful to look to the past when facial resemblance indicated kinship.

为什么人们有兴趣用任何方式找他们可能的分身？当面部的相似象征亲属关系对看看过去是有帮助的。

Maybe one day you’ll meet your lookalike, but we understand that, after this, you possibly don’t want to!

也许有一天你遇见和你长得极像的人，但是你不理解那些，这之后，你可能不想！

牙买加的连橇团队

一个不寻常的运动员团队达到卡尔加里，加拿大为了1988年冬季奥林匹克比赛——牙买加的连橇团队。许多人感到惊讶。牙买加加勒比海地区的岛怎么会有一个连橇团队？牙买加没有任何雪！

牙买加运动员在冬季奥林匹克之前没有比赛过。实际上，他们中的大多数在开始准备奥林匹克之前甚至没有滑连橇或者看到雪。但是直到团队成员达到卡尔加里，他们为了第一次奥林匹克比赛努力训练，他们在牙买加开始一直跑并且加重训练。然后他们去了纽约静湖中的一个培训中心。不幸的是，他们缺乏设备，在大量训练期间他们连橇被撞坏了。

在奥林匹克中他们没有做的很好。因此大部分人基本确定了，这是他们第一次也是最后一次看见牙买加的连橇团队。但是这个团队没有放弃。他们输了，但是他们参加过奥运会，他们想返回再比赛一次。

这个团队去了卡尔加里一个特色的培训中心。他们在这里一天训练4-8小时。直到这些运动员到达1994年挪威举办的奥林匹克冬季比赛。他们成为了更强壮的团队。

他们花了很多年熟练他们也非常著名 因为关于这个团队的一部电影《跑酷》这些年一直在全世界剧场。

她们也非常著名，因为有一部关于她们的电影，叫CR。这部电影在前一年的世界范围内电影院放映。

在1994年比赛中，这个团队在4人连橇比赛中进去了第十四，他们在双人比赛中进入了第十。这个团队做到了不可能的事！他们在奥林匹克中比赛表现很好，他们赢得了全世界粉丝的心。

Vocabulary

hole (n) 洞

common (adj.) 普通的，常见的，大众的 – uncommon 不常见的，非同寻常的

public (adj.) 公众的 – private 私人的

invest (v) 投资
consume (v) 消费 – consumer

various (adj.) 各种各样的

unemployment 失业
unemployment rate 失业率
The ~ is 20%. 

local specialty 特产

pick up 取，接，捡起来
I will pick you up at the airport.
I need to pick up my Japanese.
It’s been two years since I last learned Japanese, but it is easy for me to pick it up.

figure out  弄清楚，想办法搞明白
I can’t figure out how to use Meituan.
We need to figure out a plan for the trip.

decorate (v) 装修，装饰 – decoration
I need to decorate my house.
He likes to decorate his house with paintings.