北投英語讀書會

Dear all,
  I will print out an abridged version of the following article for our study on 5/16, 
  but you are welcomed to comment if you read it these days. ^^
Best Regards,

Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus, an enormously popular book by author John Gray, contains many suggestions for improving relationships between men and women through understanding the communication style and emotional needs of the opposite sex. As suggested by the title, the book asserts the notion that men and women are as different as beings from other planets, and that learning the code of conduct of the opposite sex is of essential value even if individuals do not necessarily conform to the stereotypical behaviour.
 Chapter 1
It is important to remember that men and women have reciprocally different natures. Men and women need to appreciate these differences, and cease expecting each other to act and feel the way they do.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=why-do-we-dream
Why do we dream?
Ernest Hartmann, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and the director of the Sleep Disorders Center at Newton Wellesley Hospital in Boston, Mass., explains.

Words and Their Stories: Nicknames for New York City
A nickname is a shortened form of a person's name. A nickname also can be a descriptive name for a person, place or thing. Many American cities have nicknames. These can help establish an identity, spread pride among citizens and build unity.
A few years ago, some marketing and advertising experts were asked to name the best nickname for an American city. The winner was the nation’s largest city, New York. The top nickname was The Big Apple.
You might wonder how New York got this nickname. In the early nineteen seventies, the city had many problems. The number of visitors was falling. So a campaign was launched to give the city a new image. The head of the New York Conventions and Visitors Bureau decided to call the city, The Big Apple.

http://www.answers.com/topic/driving-on-the-left-or-right 
Right- and left-hand traffic
Right-hand traffic and left-hand traffic mean regulations requiring all traffic to keep either to the left or the right hand side of the road. This is so fundamental to traffic flow that it is sometimes referred to as the rule of the road. This basic rule eases traffic flow and reduces the risk of head-on collisions. Though originally most traffic drove on the left worldwide, today about 66% of the world's people live in right-hand traffic countries and 34% in left-hand traffic countries. About 72% of the world's total road distance carries traffic on the right, and 28% on the left.

http://www.friendscafe.org/scripts/s1/101.php
[Scene: Central Perk, Chandler, Joey, Phoebe, and Monica are there.]
Monica: There's nothing to tell! He's just some guy I work with!

That Old Bayou Magic: Kiss and Ribbit (and Sing)
 
It’s not easy being green, the heroine of “The Princess and the Frog” discovers. But to judge from how this polished, hand-drawn movie addresses, or rather strenuously avoids, race, it is a lot more difficult to be black, particularly in a Disney animated feature. If you haven’t heard: Disney, the company that immortalized(使永恆、不滅) pale pretties like Snow White and the zip-a-dee-doo-dah of plantation living in “Song of the South,” has made a fairy tale about a black heroine, a character whose shoulders and story prove far too slight for all the hopes already weighing her down. It’s no wonder she’s soon jumping into the bayou, green legs and all.Skip to next paragraph