昔日文章

Synonym— let's begin with phrasal verbs 認識同義詞 —— 由英文片語談起 T：Thomas，F：Freddy   T: Hello Freddy, it’s about time to call a meeting with our colleagues next Friday. F: Oh, sorry. I’ve been busy with other things, other more pressing matters. Can we put off the meeting for another week? Or simply call it off?   T: You mean, postpone the meeting, or even cancel it? F: Yes, yes, that’s what I mean. What do you think?   T: Well, we do need to meet. I can’t go along with your suggestion to call it off, cancelling it. We need to meet. F: Well then, would you go for putting it off?   T: OK. Let’s postpone it for a week. That is, we’ll meet Friday week.   T: 哈囉Freddy，差不多時候跟我們的同事在下週五召開會議。 F: 哦，對不起。我一直忙於處理其他更緊迫的事情。我們可以將會議再推遲 （put off）一週嗎﹖或是乾脆取消（call off）？   T: 你的意思是，推遲（postpone） 會議，甚至取消（cancel）會議？ F: 是的，是的，這就是我的意思。你認為怎麼？   T: 我們確實需要開會。我不贊同你取消（call off / cancel）會議的建議。我們是需要開會的。 F: 那麼，你會推遲（put off）會議嗎？   T: 好的。讓我們推遲（postpone） 一週吧。也就是說，我們在週五見面。  

Distinguishing the use of Next Friday and Friday Week 如何區分Next Friday 和 Friday week 的用法 T : Thomas  D: David   T : Hello David! How are you? D : Good, but a bit tired; I need to turn in an assignment next Friday. T : Oh, that’s only two days to go. D : No, another week. It’s only Wednesday today. T : But you said next Friday, and that in English means coming Friday. So, you should have said “Friday week” if you referred to the Friday next week. D : Oh, I see. Friday in next week. T : Hang on. This time you went too far. You only needed to say “Friday next week” and not “Friday in next week”. I am a little short on time today, so I’ll talk with you more about how to use the preposition “in” to denote points of time and dates. D : Righto, OK, and thanks again.   T : 嗨，David！你好嗎？ D : 一切安好，只是有點累，因為我需要在next Friday完成一份功課。 T : 噢！尚餘兩天而已。 D : 不是，還有一星期。今天只是周三。 T : 但是，你剛才說是「next Friday」。在英語裡，「next Friday」是指即將到來的周五。所以，如果你所指的是下周五，你應該說「Friday week」。 D : 明白了，「Friday in next week」。 T : 等等。今次你有點畫蛇添足， 應該說「Friday next week」而不是「Friday in next week」。今天我趕時間，下次再跟你談談如何運用介詞「in」去指示時間和日期。 D : 好的，再次感謝你。

If you have a look at this year's calendar, what date is the last day of February ? It is the 29th of February. While the month of February normally has 28 days, this year's February has 29 days. This extra day is called a leap day and this year, 2020, is called a leap year.  The insertion of this extra day is known as “intercalation”. To simplify the term, scholars use “leap year” because each date on the calendar jumps ahead two days of the week instead of one. For example, Christmas 2018 fell on Tuesday, and last Christmas（2019）fell on Wednesday. This year, Christmas will “leap” over Thursday and fall on Friday.  In astronomy, it takes the earth approximately 365 days and six hours to complete a full orbit around the sun. This is a solar year. That means we need a leap year every four years to synchronise the calendar year with the solar year.  In 1582, Pope Gregory XIII（教宗額我略十三世）set a new formula where a century year is a leap year only if it is divisible by 400. Thus, in the Gregorian calendar,1900 was not a leap year, but 2000 was.  A person born on the 29th February may be called a leap-year baby. It is up to them whether they want to celebrate their birthdays on either the 28th of February or the 1st of March. In legal terms, most countries define that a leap-year baby comes of age on the 1st of March.  Glossary  Leap year  閏年 Insertion  插入 Intercalation  置閏 Astronomy  天文學 Orbit  軌道 Solar year  太陽年 Synchronise  同步 Legal  法律

Etienne is so lucky to have a grannie who loves cooking for the family. Cooking is considered her only chore（家務）and joy. She spends the whole morning roaming（漫步）around the market thinking of new dishes to please everyone. More, she particularly focuses on Eitenne’s appetite（口味）because he is her only grandson. Seeing this grandson enjoys her food, Grannie smiles from within.  Etienne has been refraining（戒除）from taking （吃）meat every Friday since Lent（四旬期）, but doing so upsets his grannie, who is also a Catholic. This is only the fourth week and there are a couple more to go before Easter. At first, Etienne did not notice Grannie’s concern（憂慮）until she verbally raised her worry. She finds it hard to believe that vegetarians（素食者）can also have a balanced diet（均衡飲食）, no matter how Etienne’s parents keep convincing（說服）her. She is most worried about her grandson because he is not yet an adult and not taking meat for a whole day will affect his health badly（嚴重地）.   What would you do if you were Etienne?    I’d try to dig out some more information to convince my grandmother my simple abstinence（齋戒）would not affect my health. I’d tell her to put more trust in God for if we sacrifice for Him, He would protect us.  If my act would make my grandmother upset and worried, I could always fast on other things to make up as a penance（自我克己）in Lent. I could fast in many things such as gossiping（閒話）, grumbling（抱怨）, gaming（打機）, eating chocolates, or even getting off one stop before my usual bus stop… I’d believe God would just be as pleased and at the same time, my grandmother would be a happier person too.