昔日文章

  Meaning: to relax; to feel comfortable and unrestricted. Source: 從前婦女多留長髮，在公眾場合得把長髮編成辮子或髻子，盤繞在頭上，因而古代女性在人前披頭散髮，被視為有失禮節。女士只有在回到自己房間裡，才能「把頭髮放下來」，放鬆放鬆。這句成語普遍用來形容一個人無拘無束、舒適、放鬆的狀態。    

  一九九二年，英國圖書信託基金會（Book Trust）、伯明罕大學教育學院及伯明罕的衛生機構和圖書館，協同推出了「圖書起跑線」（Bookstart）運動，旨在鼓勵新一代英國父母能在嬰兒出生後不久，就能與孩子共享閱讀之樂；長大後和父母關係親密，心理較健康，語言能力較強。 保健人員在為七到九個月的嬰兒做健康檢查時，均送父母親一包禮物，袋內有兩本免費童書、閱讀指南，以及圖書館的邀請函。 首批三百個家庭，由伯明罕大學跟進研究，結果發現：幾年後，獲贈童書的家庭，其全家對閱讀的興趣、親子共讀的頻率、父母買書給小孩當禮物或全家一起上圖書館的次數，都有所增加。 這批從小接觸圖書的幼兒上小學後，他們在基本學力測驗的成績也優於其他小孩，不但語文程度好，連算術能力也較佳。 一九九八年大學公布了研究結果，加入「圖書起跑線」的地方政府激增到七十五個。到了二○○○年夏天，全英已有92%的地方政府加入，每年有過十萬個兒童獲贈童書。 這個親子共讀的風氣，也吹至日本、韓國、澳洲、歐洲各國。 「人生從母懷開始」，人所共知。「人生從父母懷中聽故事開始」，有英國前例可援，理應引發有識父母仿效，以造福兒童。以書為禮，若趕不及在幼兒開始，也可以在今年聖誕節開始。 Novelty Books，新穎童書 西方出版社專為幼兒出版的新穎童書（Novelty Book），可算琳琅滿目，美不勝收。其優秀者多成為長壽圖書，趁聖誕節重刊者亦多，其中更有立體設計，新穎「得意」，茲列舉五書，以供參考： Head and Tails系列(by Steve Cox) Haunted House (by Jan Pienkowski) Dear Zoo (by Rod Campbell) Where's Spot? 系列 (by Eric Hill) The Very Hungry Caterpillar (by Eric Carle)   Snowflake Bentley (Houghton Mifflin, 1998) 這是一個不可多得的少年科學家的精彩故事，他自幼專注研究雪花。本繪本曾獲凱廸克童書金獎。 李心兒同學有散文詩般的翻譯推介，值得一讀。  

Last week, we took our little boy to watch the Christmas lights in the city centre.  He was very excited when we took him to a park which had been transformed into an illuminated winter wonderland and a magical fairy tale village. It was the first time he had sat on an illuminated sleigh with Rudolph and under a story-telling magic tree. 
To celebrate Jesus’ birthday on Christmas Day, lights are generally switched on to illuminate high streets in late November or early December in many parts of the world. So far where have you seen the most beautiful Christmas light display? While Christmas decorations are seen in most of the shopping malls in Hong Kong, it is traditional to decorate houses as well in the West. In Britain, we think that the most attractive Christmas decorations are those outside the residential houses. The decorations include illuminated snowmen, angels, wreaths, and bells. 
Most houses in Britain will also have a Christmas tree that is decorated with lights and ornaments such as glass baubles, tinsel and multi-coloured crackers. Our little boy brought home some paper ornaments from the nursery to put on the Christmas tree. Did you ever help to decorate a Christmas tree? What did you decorate it with?
When we left the park, we bought our little boy an Advent calendar, which is used to count down to Christmas Day. The calendar is a large rectangular card with twenty-four “windows”. He can open one every day during Advent to show him a picture of the story of the Nativity of Jesus. Some Advent calendars contain milk chocolate seasonal shapes. Isn’t it fun?

  Meaning: to fail; to flop; to give a bad performance Source: 這個成語英文原句to lay a duck's egg與中文的口頭語「考零雞蛋」，意思上同出一轍，兩者都是因阿拉伯數字的「0」與蛋形狀相似而得來。 早於一八六三年，英國小說家理德（Charles Reade）在他的作品《現錢》（Hard Cash）中，把板球手沒有得分稱作「得了鴨蛋」。這句話後來流傳至美國，《紐約時報》於一八八六年應用這句話來形容棒球手失準，當時的說法是to lay a goose egg（鵝蛋）。