Gratitude (Word of the day, 2007/11/7)

By Henry Ke

Gratitude
—{N.}
—The feeling of being grateful.
—{Ex.}
—Tears of gratitude filled with his eyes.
How to Use
—{+to/towards}
—Children had a deep gratitude towards parents.
—{in gratitude for sth.}
—Will you let me take you out to dinner tomorrow in gratitude for what you have done.
—{with gratitude}
—Refugees accepted charity organizations help with gratitude.
Synonym
—Thanks
—Thankfulness
—Gratefulness
—Thanksgiving

Wonders (Word of the day, 2007/10/17)

By Angela Yu

Wonders

►wonder (n.)
It was a wonder that _____ managed to come at all----Unbelievable! She is so busy nowadays.
I shall never forget the look of wonder on her face the first time it snowed.
The wonders of modern technology
The Seven Wonders of the World

►wonder (v.)
I wonder what she will look like.

►wonderful (adj.)
A: “Guess what?” I have got a job at last.
B: “Wonderful!”

►wonderfully (adv.)
Dr. Landy says you are doing wonderfully well.

►wonderland (n.)
He went into the old lady’s house and found himself in wonderland.

►wonder child
►wonder drug

►wonder-stricken (and.): very surprised

►no wonder (little wonder, small wonder)
You were late this morning and no wonder, considering that you had passed such a terrible night.

►a nine days’ wonder
The singer is a nine days’ wonder. She is popular and interesting for a short time.

Communicate (Word of the day, 2007/9/19)

By James Wang

Communicate

verb: communicate, communicated, communicating

►to transfer

A stove communicated heat to a room.

►to pass through, to lead to

This door communicates with my room.

►to attract
These are old plays that have long since lost their ability to communicate with an audience.
►to give a share of information, knowledge; to convey the knowledge of
I will communicate it with the studious of physical science.
I communicated with him by gesture.
►to interchange thoughts or opinions
We communicated with each other for years.
Television communicated the news to all country.

noun: communication
►conveying or exchange of ideas, knowledge, information, thoughts.
The communication of news by e-mail is very common in this modern society.
The telephone communication was cut off during the storm.
I am in communication with him on this subject.
►to pass through, to lead to
There is no communication between the two rooms.
►communicate a disease
Spitting in the street leads to the communication of disease.
►communication engineering;
Engineering with the sending and receiving of signals by means of electrical or electro acoustic device and electro magnetic waves.
►The ministry of communications. Communications satellite.

noun: communicator
►a person who works with or on methods or devices used in communication or facilitating communication.

adjective: communicative
►able to talk easily to other people, talkative
He had headaches and isn’t feeling very communicative today.

adjective: communicable
►able to be communicated
Happiness and Knowledge could be communicable to each other.
Ideals are communicable by words or pictures.

communicable disease
►an infectious disease transmissible from person to person, animal to person by direct contact with an affected individual or his discharges
Conjunctivitis is a communicable disease, however cancer is not.

compare: contagious disease

Sincere (Word of the day, 2007/9/5)

By Alan Lin

Sincere
Adjective
1. real; not pretend; earnest; based on what is truly and deeply felt
• I wish to express sincere appreciation to the many individuals who have offered support, inspiration, and encouragement throughout this research effort.
• You have my sincere apology.
• Both President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have expressed their sincere regret over your missing pilot and aircraft.”
•I regret the loss of her sincere friendship.
2. honest and unaffected in a way that shows what is said is really meant
•He is a decent and sincere person.
3. pure; unmixed; whole; perfect; unhurt
• sincere wine
4. solemn
• He always maintains his sincere, serious demeanor.

Inflected Form(s): sincerer; sincerest

Sincerely
adverb
1. in an honest and straightforward way
• I sincerely hope you will come with us.
2. Yours sincerely used immediately before the signature to end a letter that is addressed to somebody by name
•Dear John,
Oh, how I hate to write!
I must let you know tonight that my love for you has died away, like grass upon the lawn. And tonight I wed another.
Yours sincerely,
Mary

Sincerity = Sincereness
noun
1. an earnest and sincere feeling; seriousness
• Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends.
2. the quality or state of being sincere; honesty in the expression of true or deep feelings; freedom from simulation, hypocrisy, disguise, or false pretense
• He is a man of sincerity.
3. a quality of naturalness and simplicity;
• the simple sincerity of folk songs
4: the trait of being serious;
• We do have an expectation that you are entering into this sacrament with great seriousness and sincerity.

Antonym:
• insincere, adj.
• insincerely, adv.
• Insincerity, n.

Introspect (Word of the day, 2007/8/15)

BY Rebecca Chou

Introspect
Verb
v.i. / v.t.
look into one's own thoughts and feelings to find out their real meaning, the reasons for them, etc.
ex)We are different from animals because we can introspect our own thoughts and behaviors.

introspection
Noun:
ex) Through introspection, we may find out our values of living.

introspectiv
Adjective:
ex) Don't be too introspective about yourself or you will think it's all your fault.

Other familiar words
aspect = appearance (n.)
inspect= examine (v.)
inspection (n.)
respect (v. / n.)
respectively= individually (adv.)

respectable income (adj.)
respecting to= regarding

Water Conflict

C7 spech by Kevin Chuu

When I say water is essential and don't take it for granted, you may think I am a Green-Peace, and is going to make a fuss over a trifle again. If I say water can cause conflicts and wars, you might believe I am a scaremonger. Someone will even react like "Come on, man! We are living on a water planet, and 70percent of earth's surface is water." That is correct. But the fact is only 3 percent of it is drinkable, while only 1 percent is easily accessible surface fresh water. So the truth is water has become a scarce and precious resource on this water planet. People are fighting for it, and even go to war. Really?

Let me pick up a horrible example. Darfur, a parched land in the central Sudan, an appalling war is going on there now. Over the past four years, 200,000 people have been killed, and more than 2.5 million people have been displaced from their home. This is the so called the first genocide in the 21st century. The real cause of the civil war in Darfur is water. According to the United Nations Environment Report, the rainfall in Darfur has decreased a third over the past 80 years because of global warming. Lots of lands have become deserts, but the population keeps growing. Different tribes fight for the water and land in order to survive.

The water conflict is a real thing proceeding in Darfur now, and it is not a local event. In the whole world, about one-sixth of the 6.1 billion people lack access to improved source of water, while 40 percent are without access to improved sanitation service. Each year, 3.4 million people, mostly children, die from water-related diseases. Do not think it will not happen in Taiwan. About the water issue in Taiwan, people got a very serious myth:

We got a lot of typhoons, so we have inexhaustible water.

The truth is thank to typhoons, the precipitation we got each year, I mean the rainfall, is 2.6 times the world average, however the fresh water each one can access is much lesser than the world average. We are a country lacking of water, and the situation is being exacerbated by the global warming. Here are the causes of our water problem:

1. Uneven rainfall
We have quite enough rainfall each year, but it does not distribute uniformly. The precipitation ratio of rainy season to dry season is 9 to 1, and most of the rain concentrates in the northern Taiwan. This situation is getting worse year by year because of global warming.

2. Too much population
23 million people crowd on this small island. Every one needs to consume water. Therefore, the fresh water each one can share is only about one-seventh the word average.

3. Too much pollution
It is not hard to understand. Too many people make too much pollution. 39% of our rivers are polluted, and the trend is not likely to slow down.

4. Too many cities, town, roads and other infrastructure
Those man-made buildings and structures, most of which are made of concrete and tar, cover large part of our ground surface. Therefore only very little rainwater can filtrate into our aquifer. Most of the rain water just cause flood, rushing into the ocean within a short time.

5. Too many high-water-consumption industries
For quite a long time, our country has developed too many high-water-consumption industries like steelmaking, papermaking, aqua-farming, petroleum-chemistry, and even high tech factories of TFT-LCD. Those industries consume too much fresh water and even underground water. In Tauyuan, the water level of aquifer has dropped to 46 meters.

Ladies and gentlemen, water resource is not a issue of tomorrow which only environment activist concern. It is a real issue now. Million of people are dying for it out there. It is not a problem we can just leave behind and let our children worry about. It is a reality we, including you and me, are going to face within a decade. We only need the determination and stop ignoring it. Otherwise, in Taiwan, a water conflict, I don't want to say another Darfur, is definitely going to happen in the recent future.

Tolerate (Word of the day, 2007/8/1)

By Ivan Chiang

Tolerate
verb

=put up with
If you tolerate a situation, you accept them although you do not particularly like them.
–She can no longer tolerate the position that she's in…
–The cousins tolerate each other, but did not really get on well together.

=bear
If you can tolerate something unpleasant or painful, you are able to bear it.
-The ability to tolerate pain varies from person to person.

Tolerance
noun

It is the quality of allowing other people to say and do as they like, even if you do not agree or approve of it.
–…his tolerance and understanding of diverse human nature.

It is the ability to bear something painful or unpleasant.
-There is lowered pain tolerance, lowered resistance to infection.

If someone or something has a tolerance to a substance, they are exposed to it so often that it does not have much effect on them.
–As with any drug taken in excess, your body can build up a tolerance to it.

Tolerant
adj.

If you describe someone as tolerant, you approve of the fact that they allow other people to say and do as they like, even if they do not agree with or like it.
–They need to be tolerant of different points of view…
–which include more tolerant attitudes to unmarried couples having children.

If a plant, animal, or machine is tolerant of particular conditions or types of treatment, it is able to endure them without being damaged or hurt.
-…plants which are more tolerant of dry conditions…
-Today's floppy disc drives are tolerant of poor quality discs.

Tolerable
adj.

=bearable
If you describe something is tolerable, you mean that it is bearable, even though it is unpleasant or painful.
–He described their living conditions as tolerable.
–The levels of tolerable pain vary greatly from individual to individual…

=reasonable
If you describe something as tolerable, you mean that it is fairly good and reasonably satisfactory, but not of the highest quality or standard; a formal use.
–Is there anywhere tolerable to eat in town?

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