2015年12月31日 星期四

English Vocabulary and Etymology week16

Topic: Chapter 27~28




Saint Francis of Assisi born Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, informally named as Francesco (1181/1182 –1226) was an Italian Roman Catholic friar and preacher. Along with Saint Catherine of Siena, he was designated Patron saint of Italy.
He later became associated with patronage of animals and natural environment, which became customary for Catholic and Anglican churches to hold ceremonies blessing animals on his feast day of October 4.
→Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata: In 1224, he received the stigmata, during the apparition of Seraphic angels in a religious ecstasy. 


→
Stigmata: is a term used by members of the Christian faith to describe body marks, sores, or sensations of pain in locations corresponding to the crucifixion wounds of Jesus Christ, such as the hands, wrists, and feet causing extreme pain and torrid affect of humiliation.Stigmata are primarily associated with the Roman Catholic faith. 

Francis of Assisi was the first recorded stigmatic in Christian history.

●Pope
The Pope is the Bishop of Rome and the leader of the worldwide Catholic Church.
Popes, who originally had no temporal powers, in some periods of history accrued wide powers similar to those of temporal rulers.

Over the centuries, papal claims of spiritual authority have been ever more firmly expressed, culminating in 1870 with the proclamation of the dogma of papal infallibility for rare occasions when the pope speaks ex cathedra—literally "from the chair (of Saint Peter)"—to issue a formal definition of faith or morals. 
  a. Saint Peter-according to the New Testament, was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ, leaders of the early Christian Church. 




The primacy of the Roman bishop is largely derived from his role as the traditional successor to Saint Peter, to whom Jesus is supposed to have given the keys of Heaven and the powers of "binding and loosing", naming him as the "rock" upon which the church would be built.


  
   b. Pope Benedict XVI- served as Pope of the Catholic Church from 2005 until his resignation in 2013. Benedict was elected on 19 April 2005 in a papal conclave following the death of Pope John Paul II and was inaugurated on 24 April 2005.











  
    c. Pope Francis- is the 266th and current Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, a title he holds ex officio as Bishop of Rome, and Sovereign of the Vatican City. He chose Francis as his papal name in honor of Saint Francis of Assisi. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, the first from the Americas, the first from the Southern Hemisphere and the first non-European pope since the Syrian Gregory III in 741.

 




The current pope is Francis, who was elected on 13 March 2013, succeeding Benedict XVI.



●successor V.S predecessor
successor (su(b)-: “next to, after”)- someone who has an important position after someone else.
→He had been widely regarded as a possible successor to Kohl.
predecessor (pre: “before”)- Someone who has the position before someone else
→Alan seems to have learned nothing from the faults of his predecessors.


Stephen Crane (1871 – 1900) was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Prolific throughout his short life, he wrote notable works in the Realist tradition as well as early examples of American Naturalism and Impressionism. He is recognized by modern critics as one of the most innovative writers of his generation.
He won international acclaim in 1895 for his Civil War novel The Red Badge of Courage, which he wrote without having any battle experience.


→badge: a special piece of metal, cloth, or plastic, often with words or symbols on it, that you wear or carry with you to show your rank or official position

●prefix


●English Vocabulary: Roots, Prefixes and Suffixes



●hyper-: “up; over”   VS   hypo-: “under; up from under; over”
hyperactive- Someone who is hyperactive has more energy than is normal, gets excited easily and cannot stay still or think about their work
→Hyperactive children often have poor concentration and require very little sleep.
hyperbola- a curve whose ends continue to move apart from each other
hypertension- a medical condition in which your blood pressure is extremely high

hypothesis (thesis- : “statement” )- an ​idea or ​explanation for something that is ​based on ​known ​facts but has not ​yet been ​proved
→Several hypotheses for ​global ​warming have been ​suggested.
hypoxia- a ​condition in which there is not enough ​oxygen ​available to the ​blood and ​body ​tissues
→Hypoxia can ​result in an ​increase in the ​production of erythropoietin.
hypodermic (derm(a)- : “skin”)- (of medical tools) used to inject drugs under a person's skin
→He hardly felt it when the nurse stuck the hypodermic in his arm.

*dermatology- the scientific study of the skin and its diseases
*dermatologist- a doctor who studies and treats skin diseases


●-dum: “document”
referendum- a vote in which all the people in a country or an area are asked to give their opinion about or decide an important political or social question
→Is it more democratic to hold a referendum, rather than let the government alone decide?
memorandum- a short written report prepared specially for a person or group of people which contains information about a particular matter; an informal legal agreement
→Michael Davis has prepared a memorandum outlining our need for an additional warehouse.
addendum- a piece of extra information that is added to a book, document, speech etc        →There's an addendum from the author to explain certain stylistic choices that she made.

●polis-: “city, one's city; the state, citizens”
metropolitan- relating to a large city
→He was drawn to the metropolitan glamour and excitement of Paris.
cosmopolitan- containing or having experience of people and things from many different parts of the world
→New York is a highly cosmopolitan city.


●lame(adj.)  VS  cripple(n.)
Lame: [心智上殘缺](esp. of an ​excuse or ​argument) ​weak and not ​deserving to be ​believed
→Saying she’d ​lost her ​homework was a ​pretty lame ​excuse, if you ​ask me.
→She is so laming.
Cripple: [身體上殘缺] a person who cannot use their arms or legs in a normal way                   →He returned from war a cripple.

A red herring is something that misleads or distracts from a relevant or important issue. It may be either a logical fallacy or a literary device that leads readers or audiences towards a false conclusion. A red herring might be intentionally used, such as in mystery fiction or as part of rhetorical strategies (e.g. in politics), or it could be inadvertently used during argumentation.

→During the election season, the political parties often use sensitive issues, such as same-sex marriage or immigration, as red herrings to divert the public’s attention.
→Agatha Christie utilizes red herrings in her murder mystery novels. As false and conspicuous clues of possible suspects distracted the readers, the hunt for the real murderers became more difficult and exciting.



The term "Whac-a-mole" (or "Whack-a-mole") is used colloquially to denote a repetitious and futile task: each time an adversary is "whacked", it only pops up again somewhere else.
In a military context, the term is used to refer to ostensibly inferior opposing troops who keep re-appearing, while in a computing and networking context, it refers to the process of fending off recurring spammers, vandals or miscreants.
→The catch of playing whack-a-mole is that the moles endlessly appear, and there is also no winning or losing in the end.
→In September 2014, President Obama has already expressed that whack-a-mole is not the strategy to fight terrorists. In August 2015, he once again referred whack-a-mole as an unsuccessful strategy.

2015年12月30日 星期三

Western literature week16

●Jonah
Jonah or Jonas is the name given in the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh/Old Testament) to a prophet of the northern kingdom of Israel in about the 8th century BC. He is the eponymous central character in the Book of Jonah, famous for being swallowed by a fish or a whale, depending on translation.

●Psalm
The Book of Psalms, Tehillim in Hebrew (meaning "Praises"), commonly referred to simply as Psalms or "the Psalms", is the first book of the Ketuvim ("Writings"), the third section of the Hebrew Bible, and a book of the Christian Old Testament.

Three is the number of divine perfection in the Bible.
For example, the trinity consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are three qualities of the universe: Time, Space, and Matter. To exist (except for God) all three are required. Each quality consists of three elements. Therefore, we live in a trinity of trinities.

The New Testament was written in Greek ; however, The Old Testament was in Hebrew. 

Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ as presented in the New Testament. Christianity is the world's largest religion, with over 2.4 billion adherents, known as Christians. Christians believe that Jesus is the Son of God and the savior of humanity whose coming as Christ or the Messiah was prophesied in the Old Testament.
>>Major denominations: The three primary divisions of Christianity are Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism.

●Bible
  a. Catholic vulgate:is a late fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible that became, during the 16th century, the Catholic Church's officially promulgated Latin version of the Bible. 



The translation was largely the work of St. Jerome, who, in 382, was commissioned by Pope Damasus I to revise the Vetus Latina("Old Latin") collection of biblical texts in Latin then in use by the Church. Once published, it was widely adopted and eventually eclipsed the Vetus Latina and, by the 13th century, was known as the "versio vulgata" (the "version commonly-used") or, more simply, in Latin as vulgata or in Greek as βουλγάτα ("Vulgate").


  b. King James Bible: is an English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England that begun in 1604 and completed in 1611.




With the development of stereotype printing at the beginning of the 19th century, this version of the Bible became the most widely printed book in history, almost all such printings presenting the standard text of 1769 extensively re-edited by Benjamin Blayney at Oxford; and nearly always omitting the books of the Apocrypha. Today the unqualified title 'King James Version' commonly identifies this Oxford standard text.



  c. Luther Bible: The Luther Bible is a German language Bible translation from Hebrew and ancient Greek by Martin Luther. The New Testament was first published in 1522 and the complete Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments and Apocrypha, in 1534.












●The Lord is my shepherd —Psalm 23: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me."



In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as his Shepherd. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, is often alluded to in popular media and has been set to music many times.











●Lot-is a person mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis chapters 11–14 and 19. 



Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram (Abraham), his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and the seduction by his daughters so that they could bear children.






>>Lot's wife: The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom.

>>Sodom and Gomorrah: were cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Divine judgment by God was then passed upon Sodom and Gomorrah and two neighboring cities, which were completely consumed by fire and brimstone. Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for vice and homosexuality viewed as a deviation. 

The ancient legend of Orpheus and Eurydice concerns the fateful love of Orpheus of Thrace, son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, for the beautiful Eurydice (from Eurudike, "she whose justice extends widely"). 
→Myth: A short time after this ominous prophecy, Eurydice was wandering in the forest with the Nymphs, when Aristaeus, a shepherd, saw her and was beguiled by her beauty. He made advances towards her and began to chase her when she attempted to flee. As Eurydice sprinted through the forest, she managed to escape him, but was tragically bitten by a snake and died instantly.

→Orpheus tried to return to the Underworld but a man cannot enter the realm of Hades twice while alive. According to various versions of the myth, Orpheus started playing a mourning song with his lyre, calling for death so that he could be united with Eurydice forever.




In any case, Orpheus died but the Muses decided to save his head and keep it among the living people to sing forever, enchanting everyone with the lovely melodies and tones.






●Free Will- is the ability to choose between different possible courses of action. It is closely linked to the concepts of responsibility, praise, guilt, sin, and other judgments which apply only to actions that are freely chosen. It is also connected with the concepts of advice, persuasion, deliberation, and prohibition.











●The Fall-In Christian theology, the fall of man, or the fall, is a term used to describe the transition of the first man and woman from a state of innocent obedience to God to a state of guilty disobedience.
→ At first, Adam and Eve lived with God in the Garden of Eden, but the serpent tempted them into eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, which God had forbidden. After doing so, they became ashamed of their nakedness and God expelled them from the Garden to prevent them from eating from the tree of life and becoming immortal.