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LANGUAGE
 To what extent can a sign represent meaning? It’s not unusual that the meaning of a word remains elusive because of the changing of society and culture.
The article is very stimulating; it makes us think of meanings of words: should the meaning of a word be based on the definition in a dictionary, or how it is used? No one can say; it is an on-going struggle for any second-language learners.

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MARKETING / ENTERTAINMENT / LANGUAGE LEARNING
For education, we have school. But one would be narrow-minded if he thinks school is the major source for knowledge. Actually, it might be the worst because it is rarely interesting to learn in school.
For learning English, years of experiences tells me that school, textbooks, or even Studio Classroom are not necessarily the major sources to improve English proficiency. Many a time, I found that people in the real world don’t talk like the way those texts presented in our education system, simply because those sources are a distance from reality. To learn English, or any second language, we need to enter the real world. For this, I suggest that you use DVDs.

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BOOK REVIEW / LANGUAGE
The article is a book review of “A Man without Words.” It is about a man who never learned language until in his late 20s.
Humans are the only animal that knows how to use signs. Life must be boring if one does not, considering the case of Ildefonso, an illegal immigrant to the US. Ildefonso was born deaf and never learned how to use sign language. Somehow he got by without using words. He started to learn sign language when he met Susan Schaller. From then on his life has been very different.

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Film Reviews
Reading a film review is an emotional experience. The writer watches a film, feels something, and expresses his (her) response to the film in words. The reader then picks up the feel reading it. A communication is thus accomplished. Language has to be the greatest privilege humans enjoy; animals do not have such tool to exact an abstract concept.
Here are two film reviews (from New York Times and Time Magazine) of Blue Gate Grossing, a Taiwanese teen movie. It is always interesting to see how foreigners see us because we are often too involved with ourselves, forgetting to see things from a different perspective. The writings are also beautiful and perceptive. They show once again that words can get deep into a text, digging out hidden treasures for us to enjoy.

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WRITING

China is rising, but its internal unrest often remains invisible to the world outside. However, we can understand this through the article because the author was trying to make sense of the truth.
The author Hannah Beech started writing for Time magazine when she was still in her 20s. Her multicultural background contributes to her depth in writing: her father is American and mother Japanese. She speaks many languages and travels intensively. Her reports are mainly on underprivileged groups and she delivered their predicaments effectively through her writing. The article contains only 847 words, among which we see picture after picture playing out for us. We hear the sounds, we feel the situations.

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PSYCHOLOGY / NEUROLOGY

Scholars like Steven Pinker are rare. The Harvard professor looks like a rock star that makes him so noticeable among people. He possesses formidable knowledge and he also knows how to make it accessible to the general public. He often asks interesting questions and it is stimulating reading his books. The following article is his view about the mind.
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ART / BUSINESS / TREND / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

Art is language, through which we feel certain truth. An artifact also has value, measured by the dollar. Here we use art to understand one thing – the formidable rise of China. No doubt that China is systematically working toward replacing America as the new Superpower.
From this article, we also learn how these businessmen and artists channel the market, manipulate values, and fool people.

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BIOGRAPHY / CULTURAL PHENOMENA

Anna Nicole Smith (1967 – 2007) was an American model, actress and blonde celebrity.
Smith began her show business career as a dancer/stripper in Houston, Texas. She first gained nationwide attention when she appeared on the cover of the March 1992 issue of Playboy magazine. She then gained immense popularity as Playboy's 1993 Playmate of the Year. She also became a model for clothing companies, including Guess jeans.

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RELATIONSHIP / EDUCATION / HUMAN BEHAVIOR

RELATIONSHIP / EDUCATION / HUMAN BEHAVIOR
Here is a New York Times article about relationship, about how a wife (the author) learns to make her husband behave her way, and she learns so from animal trainers! It is full of funny and useful information and the tactics mentioned are too good to be missed. I think they are very useful not just in relationship. In schools or companies, teachers and managers can apply the same techniques

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ASTRONOMY / BIOGRAPHY / VOCATION / PASSION / WORLDVIEW
 
Dr. Carolyn Porco first peered through a telescope when she was 13, and her life-long passion has since been at the other side of the telescope.Science is a very male thing, but Dr. Porco’s passion for the planets is way beyond that stereotype. Because of her dogged pursuit, she extends our scope of the solar system, reminding us how narrow-minded we sometimes are.
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