昔日文章

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.   

Happy New Year 2019, everyone! A new beginning is the best time to make good wishes for ourselves and send warm greetings to each other. A lot of us hope to realise our aspirations in a new year. Even companies and organisations set fresh targets for the year to come. For example, a multinational information technology company wishes to blaze a trail in the development of a 5G mobile network. If a company blazes a trail（開闢道路；開拓創新）, it is the first one to discover or achieve something.  The word “blaze” has several meanings. Since the most common one is “burn brightly and strongly”, some people misunderstand that the origin of “blaze a trail” is about soldiers clearing a path by burning the trees down.  In fact, to blaze a trail literally meant to mark the barks of trees in a forest with notches or chips so that people could follow the path.  This meaning first appeared in Thomas Walker’s “Journal of First Exploration of Kentucky” in the USA in 1750.  “I blaz’d a way from our house to the river.”  The exact wording of the saying might have first appeared in 1883 in an American newspaper:  “The merchants … offered the stranger $100 if he would blaze a trail through, … for pack animals to pass along.”  It is unclear when the expression started to be used figuratively. However, the term “trailblazer”, which means a pioneer, appeared in the early 20th century.   Glossary  Aspirations  抱負 Multinational  跨國的 Mobile network  流動網絡 Barks  樹皮 Notches  刻痕 Chips  缺口 Figuratively  比喻意義 Pioneer  先驅

Very often when you dine out or go shopping with your family, you will see the following slogan on some promotional leaflets: Become a VIP and enjoy all of these exclusive privileges. A VIP is someone who is given special treatment because they are famous or influential. What do these three letters stand for in the English language? The acronym “VIP” is formed from the initial letters of the phrase “very important person”. It was said that this saying was created during the Second World War (1939 – 1945) by British military officers. Since it was sensitive to disclose the names of high-ranking personnel in wartime, they used “VIP” (大人物;要人;貴賓) in communications of high confidentiality. However, some scholars found that “VIP” was used by Scottish writer Compton Mackenzie in his book “Water on the Brain” in 1933, before World War II. “..., and her voice sank to a tense whisper, ‘at the moment he has a V.I.P. with him.’ ... she turned round and whispered through a pursed up mouth, ‘Very Important Personage,’ ...” You may notice that “P” stands for “personage” in the book. It is uncertain when “person” started to represent “P” in the history of this word formation. When an acronym becomes more accepted by people, it tends to drop the full stops between the letters (i.e. from “V.I.P.” to “VIP”). In terms of usage, the term “VIP” can be used in the plural or as an adjective: All the VIPs have arrived at the meeting on time. This airport has a VIP lounge.  GLOSSARY Slogan  口號 Promotional leaflets  宣傳單張 Exclusive privileges  專享優惠 Influential  有影響力的 Acronym  首字母縮略詞 Sensitive  敏感的 Confidentiality  機密 Personage  人物  

 If you were in this difficult situation, you would probably... Eugenia is a very devoted(虔誠) Catholic all along... her parents are Catholics, she goes to a Catholic school, and more, she serves at her parish since young. She hopes to share her religion more and lately(最近)she initiated(發起)the topic of faith among her best friends at school. Lately Eugenia has been questioned (質問)with a lot of things that she cannot handle herself. For example, if God is so powerful, why can’t He defeat(打敗)Satan? Why are there so many injustices(不公義)in the world? Why are prayers unheard and things turn out against people’s good intentions(意向)? The question list is endless. The more Eugenia tries to defend(辯解), the more she is lost (迷失).  What would you do if you were Eugenia? Maybe I have been trusting in God without understanding enough, I’d stop going to church for a while so people would not comment(批評)about my faith being a blind one. In doing so, I’d have more time with friends to look at the world differently. I’d wait for God to open doors for me. Though I might not have the best answers for the questions asked, I’d not give up on God. I’d pray for wisdom to understand Him deeper and would also proactively(主動) talk to the parish priest to see if there’d be any books or on-line information for me. I’d have to strengthen(增強)my religious knowledge.