i have the answer to a question that we've all asked. the question is, why is it that the letter x represents the unknown? now i know we learned that in math class, but now it's everywhere in the culture -- the x prize, the x-files, project x, tedx. where'd that come from?
about six years ago i decided that i would learn arabic, which turns out to be a supremely logical language. to write a word or a phrase or a sentence in arabic is like crafting an equation, because every part is extremely precise and carries a lot of information. that's one of the reasons so much of what we've come to think of as western science and mathematics and engineering was really worked out in the first few centuries of the common era by the persians and the arabs and the turks.
this includes the little system in arabic called al-jebra. and al-jebr roughly translates to “the system for reconciling disparate parts.“ al-jebr finally came into english as algebra. one example among many.
the arabic texts containing this mathematical wisdom finally made their way to europe -- which is to say spain -- in the 11th and 12th centuries. and when they arrived there was tremendous interest in translating this wisdom into a european language.
but there were problems. one problem is there are some sounds in arabic that just don't make it through a european voice box without lots of practice. trust me on that one. also, those very sounds tend not to be represented by the characters that are available in european languages.
here's one of the culprits. this is the letter sheen, and it makes the sound we think of as sh -- “sh.“ it's also the very first letter of the word shalan, which means “something“ just like the the english word “something“ -- some undefined, unknown thing.
now in arabic, we can make this definite by adding the definite article “al.“ so this is al-shalan -- the unknown thing. and this is a word that appears throughout early mathematics, such as this 10th century derivation of proofs.
the problem for the medieval spanish scholars who were tasked with translating this material is that the letter sheen and the word shalan can't be rendered into spanish because spanish doesn't have that sh, that “sh“ sound. so by convention, they created a rule in which they borrowed the ck sound, “ck“ sound, from the classical greek in the form of the letter kai.
later when this material was translated into a common european language, which is to say latin, they simply replaced the greek kai with the latin x. and once that happened, once this material was in latin, it formed the basis for mathematics textbooks for almost 600 years.
but now we have the answer to our question. why is it that x is the unknown? x is the unknown because you can't say “sh“ in spanish. (laughter) and i thought that was worth sharing.
(applause)
good morning, ladies and gentlemen, i’m very glad to make a speech here. today my topic is “i love you, china.”
since the day i was born, i began to have a proud name—chinese. since the day i began to talk, the most beautiful sentence i’ve ever learnt has been “i love you, china!”
i love you, china, and i’m so proud of being a chinese. i’m proud that i’ve got the beautiful yellow skin, black eyes and black hair. i’m also proud that i speak the most beautiful language in the world—chinese.
i love you, china, for i can feel the deep love you give me every day, every minute. last year, i got an opportunity to visit the united states of america. during my staying there, my father’s boss once invited my family to dinner. while at table, he looked at me and asked: “little boy, how long have you been in america?” “about a month,” i answered, “how lucky you are!” he said, “if you were living in china, how could you learn such perfect english?” i smiled and told him proudly that all the students in china are able to learn english at school. i saw his surprised eyes and said to myself, “i’m proud of you, china. for you are offering us the best education.”
when i came back from the usa, my friends asked me: “how do you feel about your staying there?” “wonderful” i said. “then why do you come back?” hearing this, i told them there were lots of beautiful countries in the world, but none of them can compare with our own country—china. how true the saying is: “there’s no place like home!”
i love you, china. as a young student, all we should do is to study hard and devote ourselves whole-heartedly in the future, to the great cause of building you into an even stronger and greater country in the world. i love you, my dear motherland! i love you, china! thank you for your listening !
okay, number two: go to the wilderness. be like buddha, have your own revelations. i'm not saying that we all have to now go off and build our own cabins in the woods and never talk to each other again, but i am saying that we could all stand to unplug and get inside our own heads a little more often.
number three: take a good look at what's inside your own suitcase and why you put it there. so extroverts, maybe your suitcases are also full of books. or maybe they're full of champagne glasses or skydiving equipment. whatever it is, i hope you take these things out every chance you get and grace us with your energy and your joy. but introverts, you being you, you probably have the impulse to guard very carefully what's inside your own suitcase. and that's okay. but occasionally, just occasionally, i hope you will open up your suitcases for other people to see, because the world needs you and it needs the things you carry.
so i wish you the best of all possible journeys and the courage to speak softly.
thank you very much.
(applause)
thank you. thank you.
Today the topic of my impromtu speech is that when it is dark enough, you can see the stars. I can’t agree with this saying more. In my opinion, Darkness is about the frustrations. “enough” is about the effort and the “stars” are the hopes, dreams or success. So this saying teaches me three things: making my objective and direction clear, being prepared for wrestling with frustrations and difficulties and importantly, keeping in faith. So, I have three points to support my opinion.
First, we should make our objective and direction clear before we set out. We can’t see the stars during the day time. Is it because that there are no stars here? Of cause not. The stars are over there in the sky all the time. We can’t see them because they are hidden behind the sunlignt. So, we shouldnot waste our time. Rather, we should turn to the night to find our stars. So before we set out for our dreams. It’s very important to know what exactly we want and which direction to go to find it.
Second, we should be prepared for wresting with frustrations and difficulties. We can’t expect that the way to our objective are smooth and easy. In the darkness, we may feel cold, lonely and be afraid of some unexpected frustrations, just as on the way to our dreams and success. But, only in darkness could we see the stars. Similarly, only by experiencing harships and setbacks can we be clear about our goals and objectives. So, we should be not afraid of the difficulties we have to experience. Rather, we should hold a positive attitude to fully prepared for them.
The last but not the least point is that we should keep in faith and don’t give up. Sometime we may feel disappointed after having been working hard for such a long time but still can’t reach our dreams. But, we shouldn’t give up and instead we should just keep in faith. May be our efforts are not enough. We need to work hard and keep waiting for a little bit longer, and we will see the hope soon.
To conclude, if we choose the stars, we should be aware that we choose the darkness, too. if we want to enjoy the stars, make every efforts we can to defeat our fear to the darkness and keep in faith on ourselves. In the end, we will surly see our own stars.
My good friend
I have a good friend , his name is Li Hua. He is 12 years old. He is a student in Hui Dong Middle School. He is tall and strong. He works hard at school.
Li Hua is good at studying , so he often helps me with my studies. He loves music and reading books. We always play football after school ..
Li Hua is a good student and a kind person. We all like him. Do you like him ?
My family
There are four people in my family. They are my parents ,my sister and me . My father is a worker . He works in a factory . My mother is a teacher. She teaches English at a middle school . They like eating healthy food , such as meat and vegetables . They all like playing table tennis. My sister and I are students in the same school . I love my family very much.
honorable judges, fellow students: good afternoon!
recently, ther is a heated debate in our society. the college students are the beneficiaries of a rare privilege, who receive exceptional education at extraordinary places. but will we be able to face the challenge and support ourselves against all odds? will we be able to better the lives of others? will we be able to accept the responsibility of building the future of our country?
the cynics say the college students are the pampered lost generation, which would cringe at the slightest discomfort. but the cynics are wrong. the college students i see are eagerly learning about how to live independently. we help each other clean the dormitory, go shopping and bargain together, and take part time jobs to supplement our pocket money.
the cynics say we care for nothing other than grades; and we neglect the need for character cultivation. but again, the cynics are wrong. we care deeply for each other, we cherish freedom, we treasure justice, and we seek truth. last week, thousands of my fellow students had their blood type tested in order to make a contribution for the children who suffer from blood cancer.
as college students, we are adolescents at the critical turning point in our lives. we all face a fundamental choice: cynicism or faith, each will profoundly impact our future, or even the future of our country. i believe in all my fellow classmates. though we are still inexperienced and even a little bit childish. i believe that we have the courage and faith to meet any challenge and take on our responsibilities. we are preparing to assume new responsibilities and tasks, and to use the education we have received to make our world a better place. i believein our future.
so i just published a book about introversion, and it took me about seven years to write. and for me, that seven years was like total bliss, because i was reading, i was writing, i was thinking, i was researching. it was my version of my grandfather's hours of the day alone in his library. but now all of a sudden my job is very different, and my job is to be out here talking about it, talking about introversion. (laughter) and that's a lot harder for me, because as honored as i am to be here with all of you right now, this is not my natural milieu.
so i prepared for moments like these as best i could. i spent the last year practicing public speaking every chance i could get. and i call this my “year of speaking dangerously.“ (laughter) and that actually helped a lot. but i'll tell you, what helps even more is my sense, my belief, my hope that when it comes to our attitudes to introversion and to quiet and to solitude, we truly are poised on the brink on dramatic change. i mean, we are. and so i am going to leave you now with three calls for action for those who share this vision.
number one: stop the madness for constant group work. just stop it. (laughter) thank you. (applause) and i want to be clear about what i'm saying, because i deeply believe our offices should be encouraging casual, chatty cafe-style types of interactions -- you know, the kind where people come together and serendipitously have an exchange of ideas. that is great. it's great for introverts and it's great for extroverts. but we need much more privacy and much more freedom and much more autonomy at work. school, same thing. we need to be teaching kids to work together, for sure, but we also need to be teaching them how to work on their own. this is especially important for extroverted children too. they need to work on their own because that is where deep thought comes from in part.
Good morning, my name is jack, it is really a great honor to have this opportunity for a interview, i would like to answer whatever you may raise, and i hope i can make a good performance today, eventually enroll in this prestigious university in september. now i will introduce myself briefly,i am 21 years old,born in heilongjiang province ,northeast of china,and i am curruently a senior student at beijing XX major is packaging i will receive my bachelor degree after my graduation in the past 4 years,i spend most of my time on study,i have passed CET4/6 with a ease. and i have acquired basic knowledge of packaging and publishing both in theory and in practice. besides, i have attend
several packaging exhibition hold in Beijing, this is our advantage study here, i have taken a tour to some big factory and company. through these i have a deeply understanding of domestic packaging industry. compared to developed countries such as us, unfortunately, although we have made extraordinary progress since 1978,our packaging industry are still underdeveloped, mess, unstable, the situation of employees in this field are awkard. but i have full confidence in a bright future if only our economy can keep the growth pace still. i guess you maybe interested in the reason itch to law, and what is my plan during graduate study life, i would like to tell you that pursue law is one of my lifelong goal,i like my major packaging and i wont give up,if i can pursue my master degree here i will combine law with my former education. i will work hard in
thesefields ,patent ,trademark, copyright, on the base of my years study in department of p&p, my character? i cannot describe it well, but i know i am optimistic and confident. sometimes i prefer to stay alone, reading, listening to music, but i am not lonely, i like to chat with my classmates, almost talk everything ,my favorite pastime is valleyball,playing cards or surf online. through college life,i learn how to balance between study and entertainment. by the way, i was a actor of our amazing drama club. i had a few glorious memory on stage. that is my pride.
Thank you very much.
everybody attention
so now i'd like to share with you what's in my suitcase today. guess what? books. i have a suitcase full of books. here's margaret atwood, “cat's eye.“ here's a novel by milan kundera. and here's “the guide for the perplexed“ by maimonides. but these are not exactly my books. i brought these books with me because they were written by my grandfather's favorite authors.
my grandfather was a rabbi and he was a widower who lived alone in a small apartment in brooklyn that was my favorite place in the world when i was growing up, partly because it was filled with his very gentle, very courtly presence and partly because it was filled with books. i mean literally every table, every chair in this apartment had yielded its original function to now serve as a surface for swaying stacks of books. just like the rest of my family, my grandfather's favorite thing to do in the whole world was to read.
but he also loved his congregation, and you could feel this love in the sermons that he gave every week for the 62 years that he was a rabbi. he would takes the fruits of each week's reading and he would weave these intricate tapestries of ancient and humanist thought. and people would come from all over to hear him speak.
but here's the thing about my grandfather. underneath this ceremonial role, he was really modest and really introverted -- so much so that when he delivered these sermons, he had trouble making eye contact with the very same congregation that he had been speaking to for 62 years. and even away from the podium, when you called him to say hello, he would often end the conversation prematurely for fear that he was taking up too much of your time. but when he died at the age of 94, the police had to close down the streets of his neighborhood to accommodate the crowd of people who came out to mourn him. and so these days i try to learn from my grandfather's example in my own way.
good morning, everyone:
my name is , a lovely boy of thirteen. i’m very glad to stand here and share my dream with you.
different people have different dreams. some people dream of being rich or famous and others dream of staying young for long. i also have a lot of dreams. but my dream is to become a lawyer.
if i were a lawyer in the future, i would serve our country first because from tv, i learn the japanese seize our country’s islands. i can’t stand it when they even say these islands are theirs. so, i feel strongly that i must study hard and get back diaoyu islands by law when i grow up.
if i were a lawyer in the future, i would serve people heart and soul. i would offer free help for people in need.
if i were a lawyer in the future, i would let people live a happier life. of course, i know it’s difficult for me to achieve my dream now, but i’ll make it by my hard working. come on. just do it!
that’s all. thanks for all your listening!
love is shapeless and priceless. we can blame nobody when captured by it. love can not be forced, nor can it be pretended. sympathy is not love, neither is gratitude. love must be generated from the heart, and expressed in actions. it can not be called love without passions and a deep longing from the bottom of the heart. there's no impassable gulf between family love and fraternal love. some family love may turn into friendship. at the same time, natural barriers doesn't exist either between fraternal love and amatory love. some friendship may develop into amatory love. the same is true with amatory love which may change into family love after a long time of mutual grinding and closer the relationship, and the higher the expectations are, the more difficult it is to get along with each other. family love, fraternal love and amatory love are three main human feelings. if handled well, they can bring us extreme happiness, while handled improperly, will bring us great sufferings.
the present society is a world of dazzling money and dwindling human feeling contacts. most people hold a snobbish attitude. they only make friends with people of wealth and of high social status. just as zhen shiyen said in his expounding of the song “all good things must end” in a dream of the red mansions “while men with gold and silver by the chest, turn beggars scorned by all and dispossessed”kly speaking, however, if we regard money the first thing in whichever one of the three kinds of loves, it will depreciate and even become worthless.
love has magical power that can exploit people's potential abilities, bring people's positive factors into full play, and provide people with the courage to face trials and hardships, to go through life and death, and even to risk universal condemnation. even in the ancient feudal society, some people were courageous enough to carry on clandestine love affairs. the examples in point were the courageous ones who dared to love the concubines of the emperors or the children of their foes. love also has miraculous power which can startle the universe and move the gods by attracting the heavenly celestials coming down to earth ( the love story of the cowboy and the weaving girl ),and by turning ghosts into human ( strange tales of liao-zhai ),love can transcend age and generation (dr. sun yat-sen and madam song qingling; luxun and xu guangping) can show contempt for all conventions and prejudices; love can heal wounds and cure diseases, and love can readjust people's state of mind. of course, the result would be the opposite once it hurts.
great men yearn for true love even more than ordinary people. since the ancient times, so many heroes couldn't help falling into the trap of love that the sex-trap has been regarded as one of the 36 stratagems in military tactics. fuchai, the king of the wu state, couldn't be spared of this trap, and generals dongzhuo and lubu fell deeply into it while xiangyu, the king of the western chu state , bid farewell to his beloved concubine in tears. people may have to pay very high price, even their illustrious name for the love they long for even though it may last for only a very short time. nonetheless no one can tear himself away from love. people often say that their earthly affinity is not yet finished, but in fact it is the love affinity that is the most difficult to finish.
when i was nine years old i went off to summer camp for the first time. and my mother packed me a suitcase full of books, which to me seemed like a perfectly natural thing to do. because in my family, reading was the primary group activity. and this might sound antisocial to you, but for us it was really just a different way of being social. you have the animal warmth of your family sitting right next to you, but you are also free to go roaming around the adventureland inside your own mind. and i had this idea that camp was going to be just like this, but better. (laughter) i had a vision of 10 girls sitting in a cabin cozily reading books in their matching nightgowns.
(laughter)
camp was more like a keg party without any alcohol. and on the very first day our counselor gathered us all together and she taught us a cheer that she said we would be doing every day for the rest of the summer to instill camp spirit. and it went like this: “r-o-w-d-i-e, that's the way we spell rowdie. rowdie, rowdie, let's get rowdie.“ yeah. so i couldn't figure out for the life of me why we were supposed to be so rowdy, or why we had to spell this word incorrectly. (laughter) but i recited a cheer. i recited a cheer along with everybody else. i did my best. and i just waited for the time that i could go off and read my books.
but the first time that i took my book out of my suitcase, the coolest girl in the bunk came up to me and she asked me, “why are you being so mellow?“ -- mellow, of course, being the exact opposite of r-o-w-d-i-e. and then the second time i tried it, the counselor came up to me with a concerned expression on her face and she repeated the point about camp spirit and said we should all work very hard to be outgoing.
and so i put my books away, back in their suitcase, and i put them under my bed, and there they stayed for the rest of the summer. and i felt kind of guilty about this. i felt as if the books needed me somehow, and they were calling out to me and i was forsaking them. but i did forsake them and i didn't open that suitcase again until i was back home with my family at the end of the summer.
now, i tell you this story about summer camp. i could have told you 50 others just like it -- all the times that i got the message that somehow my quiet and introverted style of being was not necessarily the right way to go, that i should be trying to pass as more of an extrovert. and i always sensed deep down that this was wrong and that introverts were pretty excellent just as they were. but for years i denied this intuition, and so i became a wall street lawyer, of all things, instead of the writer that i had always longed to be -- partly because i needed to prove to myself that i could be bold and assertive too. and i was always going off to crowded bars when i really would have preferred to just have a nice dinner with friends. and i made these self-negating choices so reflexively, that i wasn't even aware that i was making them.
now this is what many introverts do, and it's our loss for sure, but it is also our colleagues' loss and our communities' loss. and at the risk of sounding grandiose, it is the world's loss. because when it comes to creativity and to leadership, we need introverts doing what they do best. a third to a half of the population are introverts -- a third to a half. so that's one out of every two or three people you know. so even if you're an extrovert yourself, i'm talking about your coworkers and your spouses and your children and the person sitting next to you right now -- all of them subject to this bias that is pretty deep and real in our society. we all internalize it from a very early age without even having a language for what we're doing.
ladies and gentlemen,
my name is zhang xinyu. today, im going to talk about growing pains. different people have different pains from different places. we are now students,so i think we have pains mainly from studies. time files.
two months ago, i came to a middle school i have a work is my growing pain. in the secondary school, we have more subjects to homework is more than primary i could’t adapt to the secondary school’s homework. i don’t have other time to do any sports or read any books. however, i think all pains will fade away in the end. i believe that i can adapt the school life step by step. try my best. that’s all. thank you for your attention.
Impromptu Questions 即興問題
1. Some people prefer to spend most of their time alone. Others like to be with friends most of the time. Do you prefer to spend your time alone or with friends
2. Some people say, “Only people who earn a lot of money are successful. ” What’s your opinion about it
3. Some high schools require all students to wear school uniforms. Other high schools allow students to decide what to wear to school. Which of these two school policies do you think is betterTell us your reason, please.
4. High schools should allow students to study the courses that students want to study. Do you agree with itWhy
5. Some people say that advertising encourages us to buy things we really do not need. Others say that advertisements tell us about new products that may improve our lives. Which opinion do you agree withWhy6. Some people prefer to spend their free time outdoors. Other people prefer to spend their spare time indoors. Would you prefer to be outside or would you prefer to be inside for your spare activitiesWhy7. Some people say that watching television is bad for children. Do you agree with itWhy
8. Many parts of the world are losing important natural resources, such as forests, animals, or clean water. Choose one resource that is disappearing and explain why it needs to be saved.
9. In some countries, people are no longer allowed to smoke in many public places and office buildings. Do you think this is a good rule or a bad ruleWhy
10. Some famous athletes and sports stars earn millions of dollars every year. Do you think these people deserve such high salariesWhy11. People do many different things to stay healthy. What do you do for good healthGive us an example, please.
12. People listen to music for different reasons and at different times. Why is music important to many people
13. When students move to a new school, they sometimes face problems. How can they deal with their problems
14. Some students like classes where teachers lecture (do all of the talking) in class. Other students prefer classes where the students do some of the talking. Which type of class do you preferGive us your reasons, please.
15. Movies are popular all over the world. Explain why movies are so popular.
16. Who is your best friendWhich kind of quality can you learn from him or her
17. What kind of animals do you like bestWhy
18. Do you like the singer Xu Song/ Jay ChouWhy do you like himIf not, why
19. Some people say that grades (marks) encourage students to learn. What’s your opinion about it
20. Face-to-face communication is better than other types of communication, such as letters, email, or telephone calls. Do you think soWhy or why not
21. Some people like to do only what they already do well. Other people prefer to try new things and take risks. Which do you preferWhy
22. Do you like readingWhich is your favorite bookWhy do you like it
23. Tell us an unforgettable experience you had. 24. Introduce one of your families, please.
25. Tell us the advantages of doing sports, please. 26. What kind of attitude do you have towards the disabled27. What kind of subjects do you like bestWhy
28. The spring festival is our traditional festival. How do you celebrate it with your family
29. Many students in our school throw waste paper away. What is your opinion about itTell me your reason, please.
30. A young man offered his seats to an old lady, while someone laughed at this. What’s your opinion
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