Học từ xa #31: Học phần Tiếng Anh cơ bản 3 – EG09.3.158

My uncle has a farm.

Teens who are looking for a quick afternoon do-it-yourself project would likely enjoy creating items out of duct tape.

We live in the country about four miles from school.

Color Matters for What You Wear

Clothes are like a second skin. Most likely you feel good when you wear your favorite color. What happens when someone sees you wearing any color – for example blue? Does the color send a message?

What do you think about pink and blue for children?

One of the most common examples of color symbolism in clothing is the custom of using pink for girls and blue for boys, but it wasn’t always this way. This tradition emerged at the turn of the 20th century. Since pink was thought to be a stronger color, it was best suited for boys; blue was more delicate and dainty and best for girls. In 1921, the Women’s Institute for Domestic Science in Pennsylvania endorsed pink for boys, blue for girls.

Even more interesting is the fact that pink is the color for baby boys and blue is the color for baby girls in Belgium today.

Another interesting fact about pink is that pink is a very masculine color in Bermuda. Also, British bankers and barristers have worn pink shirts for decades. Pink goes in and out of fashion in other parts of the world. White is the traditional color for a bride’s wedding gown in the U.S. and most European cultures. White symbolizes purity and innocence.

What about the color worn for weddings and funerals?

In Asia, white is the color of death. This arises from the belief that death is seen as a beginning and that white represents the purity that the deceased brings into the next life. Therefore, brides in Japan and China wear red in traditional wedding ceremonies.

White is also associated with death in India, where widows wear white. Consequently, red or pink saris are the most popular colors for brides.

What about black clothes?

Black symbolizes death and is the traditional color of mourning in Western cultures. Black clothing is associated with powerful forces in many parts of the world. Bad and good Witches, the devil, ninjas, cat burglars, Darth Vader, Cat Woman, and Batman wear black….and so do priests, nuns, judges, mimes, Mennonites, Bedouins, and monks.

Maybe the common thread is that these people are signaling their seriousness of purpose – or the need to be hard to see – or both.

Here’s something else to think about: What happens when the same people wear green? Are they as powerful? Are the priest and nun as respectable?

Do-it-yourself projects teach teens important skills, engage their minds in fruitful pursuits and give them tangible rewards for hard work

Summer is my favorite season. I enjoy summer sports like water skiing and baseball. The weather is usually sunny and hot, so I can go to the beach almost every day. Gardening is my hobby and I spend many summer days working in my garden. Unfortunately, the days pass too quickly in summer.

What mistakes has the music industry made in the past?

Which of the following should the music industry do?

The speaker thinks the music industry should

Most office workers say they are rude or bad-mannered at work. Two out of three workers regularly arrive late for meetings, most ignore emails and three out of four use bad language. In a survey of 1,000 workers, two-thirds say that pressure of work is the reason for bad manners.

Other common examples of bad office etiquette include ignoring colleagues and answering mobile phone calls during meetings. Using mobile phones in meetings is impolite and distracts others, research by the University of Surrey shows. If you respond to call when speaking to somebody, it means that the phone call is more important than the person, the survey said. If you answer a call during a meeting, it could mean that the meeting is not important.

Mr Jacobs, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm say it is easy for people to forget their manners in the working environment, which is often very informal and very busy. Workers can forget proper etiquette such as introducing people at meetings, and this is often bad for working relationships.

Psychologist Dr Colin Gill believes that people are not as polite as they were twenty years ago. He said: ‘Courtesy is no longer something that is so much respected in our society.’ People think it is ‘stuffy to be polite or formal.’

Now some organisations are actually investing money in training their junior managers to be polite. Office Angels is encouraging people to arrive on time for meetings, turn off mobile phones and avoid bad manners at work is such a simple thing to do,’ Mr Jacobs says, ‘ and it can have a dramatic impact on improving your working environment and your relationships with others.’

The author wants to ………………………….

The 1001 night

The Thousand and one nights is probably one of the most famous books in the world. It is a collection of stories first told by travelers from Persia, Arabia, India and China between the ninth and thirteenth centuries. In later years professional storytellers also told the stories in coffee houses in Turkey, Egypt and many other countries. The Thousand and one nights contains well-known stories like Aladdin and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, so people often think they are just for children – but they were originally for adults.

Shahrazad’s story

There was once an Indian King called Shahriyar. One day King Shahriyar found his wife with another man so he killed her and her lover. After that the King married a different woman everyday and killed her the next morning before she could stop loving him. This continued for three years.

Shahrazad was the clever and beautiful daughter of the King’s adviser. When her father told her what was happening, she decided to marry the King. Shahrazad’s father tried to stop her because he knew she was going to die. But Shahrazad had a plan to save herself and all the women in the kingdom. The King and Shahrazad got married a few days later.

After the wedding, while the King was drinking with his friends, Shahrazad went to find her sister. ‘I need your help,’ said Shahrazad. ‘Come to the palace this evening and ask me to tell you a story’.

So that night, Shahrazad was getting ready for bed when her sister came to visit her. She began telling her sister a story called The Fisherman and the Genie. While she was telling the story, the King came into the room. He started listening to her story too, and became more and more interested.

Shahrazad continued telling the story all night, but she stopped just before the end and said, ‘The morning’s here, husband. Am I going to die now?’. ‘No, no’, said the King. ‘Tell me the end of the story’. ‘I’ll tell you this evening, but not before’, said Shahrazad with a smile.

That night Shahrazad finished the story – and then immediately began another. This continued night after night. The King never heard the end of a story until the next evening. He couldn’t kill his wife because he always wanted to know how each story ended.

As time passed, the King fell in love with Shahrazad. He knew he could never kill her because he couldn’t live without her and her stories. To show Shahrazad he really loved her, the King married her again. The stories Shahrazad told the King became the stories of The Thousand and one nights.

Choose the best answer

Who listened to Shahrazad’s story?

Etiquette is the name we give to the rules for being polite in a social group. Business etiquette is important for people who often have to make new contacts and build relationships in their work. Politeness can also help to improve the working environment for people in the same office. Some cultures and situations are formal, which means that we have to follow rules; other cultures and situations are more informal.

Text 2 Office workers “admit being rude”

Most office workers say they are rude or bad-mannered at work. Two out of three workers regularly arrive late for meetings, most ignore emails and three out of four use bad language. In a survey of 1,000 workers, two-thirds say that pressure of work is the reason for bad manners.

Other common examples of bad office etiquette include ignoring colleagues and answering mobile phone calls during meetings. Using mobile phones in meetings is impolite and distracts others, research by the University of Surrey shows. If you respond to call when speaking to somebody, it means that the phone call is more important than the person, the survey said. If you answer a call during a meeting, it could mean that the meeting is not important.

Mr Jacobs, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm say it is easy for people to forget their manners in the working environment, which is often very informal and very busy. Workers can forget proper etiquette such as introducing people at meetings, and this is often bad for working relationships.

Psychologist Dr Colin Gill believes that people are not as polite as they were twenty years ago. He said: ‘Courtesy is no longer something that is so much respected in our society.’ People think it is ‘stuffy to be polite or formal.’

Now some organisations are actually investing money in training their junior managers to be polite. Office Angels is encouraging people to arrive on time for meetings, turn off mobile phones and avoid bad manners at work is such a simple thing to do,’ Mr Jacobs says, ‘ and it can have a dramatic impact on improving your working environment and your relationships with others.’

The aim of the texts is to …………………………………….

Etiquette is the name we give to the rules for being polite in a social group. Business etiquette is important for people who often have to make new contacts and build relationships in their work. Politeness can also help to improve the working environment for people in the same office. Some cultures and situations are formal, which means that we have to follow rules; other cultures and situations are more informal.

Text 2 Office workers “admit being rude”

Most office workers say they are rude or bad-mannered at work. Two out of three workers regularly arrive late for meetings, most ignore emails and three out of four use bad language. In a survey of 1,000 workers, two-thirds say that pressure of work is the reason for bad manners.

Other common examples of bad office etiquette include ignoring colleagues and answering mobile phone calls during meetings. Using mobile phones in meetings is impolite and distracts others, research by the University of Surrey shows. If you respond to call when speaking to somebody, it means that the phone call is more important than the person, the survey said. If you answer a call during a meeting, it could mean that the meeting is not important.

Mr Jacobs, managing director of Office Angels, a recruitment firm say it is easy for people to forget their manners in the working environment, which is often very informal and very busy. Workers can forget proper etiquette such as introducing people at meetings, and this is often bad for working relationships.

Psychologist Dr Colin Gill believes that people are not as polite as they were twenty years ago. He said: ‘Courtesy is no longer something that is so much respected in our society.’ People think it is ‘stuffy to be polite or formal.’

Now some organisations are actually investing money in training their junior managers to be polite. Office Angels is encouraging people to arrive on time for meetings, turn off mobile phones and avoid bad manners at work is such a simple thing to do,’ Mr Jacobs says, ‘ and it can have a dramatic impact on improving your working environment and your relationships with others.’

The purpose of some organisations who invest money in training their junior managers to be polite is to ……………………………

Strawberries are in short supply at the moment.

John Bains is interested in ______.