笃学奖-Topic16-A16083Starry-Uband精读
Day1-2 Words & Phrases
Who you gonna call?
(Source: Economist July 22nd-28th)
1.For a man poised for a combat with evil spirits, Philip Moscato looks remarkably at ease.
poise for: to put into readiness
poise for a combat: get positioned and ready for a combat
2....before blessing salty water that he splashes/sprinkles in every room.
splash: to move in water so that drops of it go in all directions:
e.g. The kids were splashing (about/around) in the shallow end of the swimming pool.
sprinkle: to scatter in drops or particles
e.g. “Is it raining?” “It's just sprinkling a little.” (这边是指下了毛毛雨)
3.For an hours work, he pockets $178.
pocket: to earn or win an amount of money, often without too much effort
e.g. Last year, she pocketed over $1 million in advertising contracts.
4.In a good month, his business is generating $12,000 before tax.
generate: to bring into existence, produce
e.g. We hope to generate some new ideas at the meeting.
generate business/idea/electricity
5.Word-of-mouth recommendations from satisfied customers matter, too.
word-of-mouth: generated from or reliant on oral publicity
e.g.word–of–mouth customers /a word–of–mouth business
Writing:
Recently I have been reading a novel called Moment in Peking, which was set during the early 20th Century. In the book, Mrs. Yao - the mistress of the Yao family - lost her voice after her son's death. Her families thought she was haunted by the bad spirits and asked monks to exorcise and purify the house. From the passage, we get to know that western people also resort to exorcist's help when confronting the similar situation. Given the lack of scientific explanations, I regard these operations merely as an approach to receive psychological comfort. Exorcism may be beneficial or useless, but as long as it can offer comforts, it will always exist in our lives.
Day 3-4 Background & Frame
Play Time
（Source: The Economist Aug 19th-25th）
Background
1.The Super Bowl is the annual championship game of the National Football League (NFL). The game is the culmination to a regular season that begins in the late summer of the previous calendar year.
2. Dota 2 is a free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed and published by Valve Corporation.
3. Valve Corporation is an American video game developer and digital distribution company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington. The company is known for the Half-Life, Counter-Strike, Portal, Day of Defeat, Team Fortress, Left 4 Dead, and Dota 2 games, and its software distribution platform Steam.
4. Earvin "Magic" Johnson Jr. (born August 14, 1959) is an American retired professional basketball player and current president of basketball operations of the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Frame
P1: A computer-game tournament just ended in Seattle.
(Jason's interpretation: Seems like a delightful scene. Maybe someone or some team just claimed championship? The title of the passage and the picture presented imply that may be a team of e-sport just won a competition.)
P2: But the players in this tournament had no need to catch, throw and run.
(Jason's interpretation: Indeed, as a game player, you don’t have to have extensive physical confrontation. This paragraph may disclose the nature and feature of e-sports.)
P3: E-sports is gradually assembling all the trappings of mainstream sports.
P4: Investors come into e-sports and help them compete with conventional ones for viewers and and bigger sponsorship.
(Jason's interpretation: As the e-sports industry is developing faster and faster, many companies, organizations and governments start to pay heed to it. These 2 paragraphs introduce the status quo of e-sports industry.)
P5: E-sports still have a long way to go.
P6: The status quo of e-sports will change as they have an increasing number of young and passionate viewers.
(My interpretation: Apparently the author will talk about the obstacles facing by e-sports industry and possibility of settle them.)
P7: E-games face several obstacles before they can compete with eatablished sports.
(Jason's interpretation: The author shifts his viewing angle to game players. He may mention the difficulty for e-sports to be equivalent to traditionally established sports such as football, swimming and track and field.)
Mindmap
e-sports
Day5-6 Words & Phrases
1.FIREWORKS detonated, smoke wafted over the stage and confetti began to fall.
detonate: to (cause something to) explode
e.g. The device detonated unexpectedly.
waft: to (cause to) move gently through the air:
e.g. A gentle breeze wafted the scent of roses in through the open window.
confetti/kənˈfet.i/: small pieces of coloured paper that you throw at a celebration, especially over two people who have just been married
2. Seventeen thousand fans cheered the European players of Team Liquid, with monikers like “MinD_ContRoL” and “MATUMBAMAN”...
moniker: a name or nickname
3. In the stands Max Martinez, a 25-year-old bartender from Phoenix, was in a state of nirvana.
nirvana/nɪəˈvɑː.nə/: People sometimes refer to a state of complete happiness and peace as nirvana.
4. MinD_ContRoL, a bespectacled Bulgarian named Ivan Ivanov, excels at a computer game called “Dota 2”.
bespectacleed: wearing glasses
e.g. a small, bespectacled man in a drab suit
excel at: being an expert at sth.
5. E-sports is gradually assembling all the trappings of mainstream sports: corporate sponsorships, professional managers, salaried players and even announcers who wear suits and make bad jokes.
trapping: all the things that are part of or typical of a particular job, situation, or event
e.g. He enjoyed the trappings of power, such as a chauffeur-driven car and bodyguards.
announcer: someone who introduces programmes or reads the news on the television or radio
e.g. a radio/TV announcer
6. Last year Peter Guber, a co-owner of the Golden State Warriors basketball team, led a group of investors to buy a majority stake in Team Liquid for an undisclosed sum.
undisclosed:If official information is undisclosed, it is secret
e.g. The meeting is taking place at an undisclosed location.
7. Last year esports earned $900m, mainly from advertising, ticket sales and merchandise, according to SuperData, compared with $83bn from sales for mobile, computer and console games.
console: to make someone who is sad or disappointed feel better by giving them comfort or sympathy
e.g. He tried to console her, but she kept saying it was all her own fault.
A console is a panel with a number of switches or knobs that is used to operate a machine. (文中释义)
8. Amazon, an e-commerce juggernaut, boughtTwitch in 2014 fornearly$1bn.
juggernaut: a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path
9. Although big brands are beginningto sponsor events and teams, Mr van Dreunen says, they are still tentative and invest only small amounts. Most viewers play the games themselves, some of which, like “Dota 2”, can boggle the mind. Devotees prefer complex games...
tentative: hesitant, uncertain
e.g. a tentative smile
boggle /ˈbɑː.ɡəl/: to (cause something or someone to) have difficulty imagining or understanding something
e.g. My mind boggles at the amount of money they spend on food.
devotee: a person who strongly admires a particular person or is extremely interested in a subject
e.g. He is a great devotee of the prime minister.
