宜誠鼎峰社區

Don’t patronize me!（別呼攏我！）

男人的「甜言蜜語」，讓女生聽了很受用，但當男人犯錯時或心虛時，所說的甜言蜜語可要提防，不妨告訴他：Don’t think I don’t know what’s going on.（別以為我不知道你在搞什麼鬼）、或更直接一點：Don’t patronize me!（別呼攏我！別哄我！）

Hitler "Downfall" parodies removed from YouTube

希特勒的「帝國毀滅」諷刺影片被YouTube移除

Timers have been installed to prevent civil servants from spending any longer than ten minutes in the toilet. Dozens of workers have reportedly been caught out by the new efficiency drive at the Government Office for the West Midlands.

為防止公務員上廁所時間超過10分鐘，連計時器都裝上了。據報導，（英國）西密德蘭政府辦公室（GOWM）推行的這項新效率運動，已有數十名員工被抓到違規。

Some motorists are complaining that old traffic fines they already paid to one Ohio county are coming back to haunt them.

部分駕駛人抱怨，他們早就付給俄亥俄州一個郡的交通罰金，如今又回過頭來糾纏不休。

A nasal spray can make men more in tune with other people’s feelings, say a team of German and UK researchers. They found that inhaling the "cuddle hormone" oxytocin made men just as empathetic as women.

德國與英國研究團隊說，一種鼻噴劑可讓男性對他人的感覺更能感同身受，他們發現，吸入這種「擁抱荷爾蒙」催情素，能讓男性與女性一樣有同理心。

Residents of the dolphin-hunting village depicted in Oscar documentary "The Cove" have dangerously high mercury levels, likely because of their fondness for dolphin and whale meat, a government lab said.

奧斯卡獲獎紀錄片「血色海灣」刻畫的捕殺海豚村落的居民，可能因對鯨豚肉的偏愛，致使體內有危險的高含汞濃度，一個政府實驗室表示。

Three rare woolly pigs - or sheep pigs - are settling into their new home at Tropical Wings Zoo in Essex, but many visitors think they’re sheep. And who can blame them?

3頭罕見的羊毛豬－或綿羊豬－準備在艾塞克斯郡「熱帶翼動物園」的新家安頓下來，但許多遊客認為牠們是羊。誰能夠怪牠們呢？

Entrepreneurs in Iceland are cashing in on crisis by selling jars of volcanic ash for £75 on the internet.

That’s a rip-off!（搶錢啊！）

當你聽到有人花了大筆錢卻物不超所值，甚至被敲竹槓時，可以說：That’s a rip-off!（rip-off是名詞，意為「剝削；冒牌貨」）。另一個說法則是：You got ripped-off.（你被敲竹槓了）。

“Ever tasted a pea-flower or beetroot sprout?” said Didier Pil, a chubby French vegetable farmer in overalls whose annual harvest of 120 different varieties largely winds up in the kitchens of the country's top chefs. Butchers, dairy-farmers, fruit-growers and fishermen -- star chef Alain Ducasse recently gathered together the creme de la creme of the country's producers for a show held in one of Paris' most exclusive hotels, decked out for the occasion with walls of lettuce.

「嘗過豌豆花或甜菜芽嗎？」身穿連身工作服的胖乎乎法國菜農皮爾說，每年收成的120個不同品種的菜蔬，大半送到法國頂級名廚的廚房。明星廚師杜卡斯，日前聚集法國首屈一指的食材生產者，包括屠夫、酪農、果農和漁夫，在巴黎最高檔的酒店舉辦一場生鮮農特產品展示會，會場牆上掛滿萵苣。

一些微國家領袖，4 月17日在澳洲丹加島舉行首屆微國家領袖會議。所謂「微國家」（Micronations），是民眾自建的國家，有的國家領土就是自己的家，這些國家雖小，但有國民、領土、政府、外交，甚至發行護照、郵票、貨幣等。微國家的概念，大體指從其他國家獨立出來的個體，不受約束的以國家狀態存在。這些微國家有戰爭、成功、獨立和倖存等歷史。他們被宣布合法化，成為比較自由的個體王國。以下是其中3個最奇怪的例子：

1960年，一個英國人和家人在Sealand（西蘭島）建立自己的國家，當時他們占用大量財產，成為Sealand的侯國。1970年，Sealand被一個擁有外面支援力量的西蘭島公民接管，重新建立陸海空三軍部隊。至今，Sealand仍是國際新聞關注的焦點，這個國家的定位仍有爭議。

2010台北國際花博流行館將出現以150萬支回收寶特瓶築成的「環生方舟」（EcoARK）。這座耗資3億元的綠建築，是全世界第一座由回收寶特瓶搭的房子。Ecoark = ecology + Noah's ark，是生態加諾亞方舟的合體字，在《聖經》中，上帝看不慣人類的仇恨、嫉妒及貪念等種種罪行，決心毀滅世界，但由於諾亞是個虔誠且有愛心的好人，上帝不忍心連諾亞都消滅，於是教他建造方舟，將各種家禽及家畜一公一母搬上方舟而不致被大洪水淹沒。因此，所謂環生方舟，取在生態浩劫下仍能劫後餘生的意思。

一手打造方舟的黃謙智指出，這棟建築是全世界最輕的房子，也是最堅固的建築物，可以抵抗比納莉颱風還要強1.5倍的強風，比921、四川強震更大的震度，且造價只要一般玻璃帷幕建築的1/4。贊助這項計畫的遠東集團董事長徐旭東則表示，「ARK」（方舟）這個概念，既然源自聖經的諾亞方舟，有再生的意思，因此採用「方舟」的外型，雖然以回收寶特瓶為建材，卻能呈現水晶牆的生活美學設計。方舟內部，完全符合減量、回收、再利用的三R環保精神：Reduce、Reuse、Recycle，裡面有不斷迴圈的水幕，加上自然對流的通風設計，既節省水資源，又兼具環保降溫作用，即使大量人潮湧入，也不必裝冷氣，就可常保涼爽。

Condemnation from gay groups and the French government forced the Vatican into damage control over remarks by the pope’s right-hand man linking paedophilia to homosexuality.

來自同志團體與法國政府的譴責，迫使教廷對教宗得力助手日前把戀童癖與同性戀連在一起的說法進行損害控制。

   1. 蹩腳口語：The waitress judged us from heads to feet in two seconds.

    　道地口語：That waitress sized us up in two seconds.

找出錯誤、想辦法不再犯錯，是英文進步的捷徑！

    　1. The North Pole is 360 degrees away from the South Pole.

Having battled Islamic extremists, Irish Republican terrorists and Russian spies, some of the veteran intelligence officers of MI5 are encountering a foe they cannot master： information technology.

曾與伊斯蘭極端份子、愛爾蘭共和軍恐怖份子及俄羅斯特務交手的「軍情五處」（MI5）一些資深情報官員，現正遭遇到一個他們無法掌握的敵手：資訊科技。

Important events in history don't have to be that far in the past. Just a few years ago, a great archaeological mystery was solved. On this date in 2007, the tomb of Herod the Great was discovered. Herod was a king of Israel with a reputation for good and evil. He was known for his grand building projects and murdering many people. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer spent 35 years searching for Herod's tomb. He followed the information from Josephus, a 1st-century historian. The tomb was discovered in Herodium, the fortress palace Herod built on a hill near Jerusalem. Although Netzer successfully found the tomb, Herod's body was no longer inside.

Cheesecake in hand, the police commissioner personally apologized Friday for the 50 or so mistaken, door-pounding visits that police have made to the home of a bewildered elderly Brooklyn couple in the past eight years.

手裡拿著乳酪蛋糕，警察局長週五為了警方過去8年來大約50度誤捶布魯克林的一對老夫婦的家門進行訪視的舉動，親自登門向這對為此困惑不已的夫婦道歉。

Happy Birthday today to Sigmund Freud. He was born on this date in 1856 in an area that was once part of the Austrian Empire. Freud studied minds and became known for his interesting and sometimes strange ideas. He started a new kind of psychiatry called psychoanalysis. His method was to have his patients work out their problems by talking about them. Freud believed that holding emotions back would cause physical and mental problems for the patient. Freud's most famous theories, however, are about the unconscious mind.

Napping after learning something new could help you commit it to memory - as long as you dream, scientists say. They found people who dream about a new task perform it better on waking than those who do not sleep or do not dream.

科學家說，學習新東西之後小睡片刻，可能幫你記住新事物，只要你有作夢的話。他們發現，夢到新任務的人，醒來之後，這項新任務可以做的比沒有睡覺或沒有作夢的人好。