Blog and Review around the World
Crazy English
How to Reduce Your Stress
Sep 3rd
Follow the following tips to reduce your stress to manageable levels!
Avoid “Must” Thinking. Let go of the notion that you must do something in a certain way—for example, “I must get a great score on a test, or else.” This thought pattern only adds to the stress you’ll feel.
Evaluate your situation coolly and analytically, and not as a “life-or-death” situation.
Watch the Mess. Do not study in a messy or cramped area. Clear yourself a nice, open space that is free of distractions.
Set Manageable Goals. Break large projects into smaller and doable parts. You will feel a positive sense of accomplishment as you finish each part.
Ocean Dumping. Visualize yourself walking on a beautiful beach, carrying a sand pail. Stop at a good spot and put your worries into the pail. Drop the pail and watch it as it drifts away into the ocean.
Think Good Thoughts. Create a set of positive but brief affirmations and mentally repeat them to yourself just before you fall asleep at night. You will feel a lot more positive in the morning.
Imagine Yourself Succeeding. Close your eyes and remember a real-life situation in which you did well. Imagine facing your stressful situation with the same feelings of confidence.
Use your bed for sleeping, Not Studying. Your mind may start o associate your bed with work, which will make it harder for you to fall asleep.
Soothing Sounds. If you want to play music, keep it low in the background. Classical music especially, can aid the learning process.
Telegraph Cable
Aug 27th
The first telegraph cable was laid under the sea between England and France in 1850. Cables are very much thicker and heavier than telegraph wires. There are a number of reasons for this: one reason is that the salt water of the sea harms ordinary telegraph wires, and so they have to be protected; another is that , because electricity passes easily through water, wires have to be covered to prevent electric signals which are passing through them from escaping and getting lost in the sea; a third reason is that cables have to be very strong or they will break while they are being laid along the bottom of the sea from a ship sailing on the surface.
The first cables that men tried to lay between England and America broke and were lost during storms. At last, after nine years of hard work, the two English speaking nations of Britain and America were joined in 1866 by the electric telegraph under the sea.
Later, all the different parts of the world were joined up by a network of cables. It is as easy to send a message by cable as it is to send an ordinary telegram, and it takes no longer for a message to travel half way round the world than from one town to the next. Every hour of the day and night messages are being flashed underneath the ocean to and from every country in the world.
The voice of America
Aug 19th
The voice of America began during World War II, when Germany was broadcasting a radio program to get international support. American believed they should answer the German broadcast with words that they thought were the facts of world events. The first VOA news report began with these words in German:”The news may be good or bad, but we shall tell you the truth.” Within a week, other VOA announcers were broadcasting in Italian, French and English.
After World War II ended in 1945, some Americans felt VOA’s purpose had to be changed, considering that the Soviet Union had become the new enemy. They wanted to reach Soviet listeners. Then VOA began broadcasting in Russian.
In the early years VOA began adding something new to its broadcast that was called “Music USA”. Another new idea came along in 1959. VOA knew that many listeners did not know enough English to completely understand its normal English broadcast. So VOA invented a simpler kind of English, which uses about 1,500 words and is spoken slowly. Of course, it is Special English.
In the opinion of most VOA listeners, the most important program is the news report. News from around the world flies into the VOA newsroom in Washington 24 hours a day. It comes from VOA reporters in major cities and also from other broadcasts like the BBC.
Shrinking Your Fear
Aug 8th
Create a mental picture of the thing you fear. Now change its dimensions. If you are scared of social situations, imagine that the people you are going to meet are the size of peanuts. If you are scared of flying, imagine looking down on a tiny plane. If you are scared of small spaces, imagine yourself as a teeny, tiny person surrounded by acres of space.
Encourage the image to become as ludicrous as possible, and fill it with movement and color and sound. If you are scared of flying, imagine yourself wearing two plane-shaped roller skates. If you are scared of your boss, imagine him or her as a tiny dot of a person who is shouting to be heard but all you can hear is a distant squeaking. If you are afraid of being in a tall building, imagine yourself playing with cardboard boxes which look like buildings and which you can stack and rearrange at your whim.
Whatever your fear, diminish it to a point where it is unable to affect you and where you are controlling it. Enjoy feeling strong, confident and having fun.
Limitlessness
Aug 6th
The final lesson you must learn is limitlessness. It is the sense that there are no boundaries to what you can become or do. You learn it when you know that your evolution is never-ending and your potential for growth reaches to infinity.
You were born knowing your limitlessness. As you grew and became socialized in this world, however, you might have come to believe that there are boundaries that prevent you from reaching the highest levels of spiritual, emotional, or mental evolution. However, boundaries exist only in your mind. When you are able to transcend them, you learn the lesson of limitlessness.
In this world, we have countless people who have proven that a person can do whatever he or she strives to do.