English @ the Movies: 'Clean Slate'(ZT)
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1. 地道美語:Clean Slate(影視片段)
Weclome to English @ the movies where we teach you American English heard at the movies. Today's phrase is "clean slate" from "The Peanuts Movie. "Let's take a look.
Hey, gang. Look, there is a new kid moving in.
I just hope this new kid has never heard of me. It's not often you get the opportunity to start over with a clean slate. This time, things will be different.
He did it.
So what does that mean? What is a "clean slate"?
A) a new beginning
B) a new floor
Let's listen again and see if you are correct.
......
A clean slate is a new beginning. It means you are starting over, starting fresh. In the movie, Charlie Brown hopes the new student in his school will not have heard of him or all the things that go wrong around him. A clean clate is a good thing. And that is English @ the Movies.
2. How to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions?
The following 10 pieces of advice are from British psychologist Richard Wiseman.
1) If possible, make only one resolution - changing a lot of things at once is more difficult.
2) Think about your resolutions in advance, and spend some time to reflect on them.
3) Don't re-visit past failures, but focus on new resolutions instead.
4) Focus on what you really want - don't just go with what's trendy.
5) Break your goal into manageable, concrete steps with specific deadlines.
6) Go public - tell your friends, family, social networks about your goals, which will increase your fear of failure and also garner support.
7) Create a checklist focusing on how much better your life will be once you've achieved your goals.
8) Whenever you make progress on the steps towards your goal, give yourself a small reward.
9) Document your journey - charts, spreadsheets, journals and other means of tracking your progress will keep it concrete.
10) Don't beat yourself up and quit if you sometimes revert to old habits - treat it as a temporary setback.
3. A Few Quotes about New Year
"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow."
---Albert Einstein (1879-1955), the German-born physicist who developed the general theory of relativity, asked for his New Year resolution
"Ring out the old, ring in the new, Ring, happy bells, across the snow: The year is going, let him go; Ring out the false, ring in the true."
---In Memoriam, by Alfred , Lord Tennyson (1809-1892)
"Cheers to a New Year and another chance for us to get it right."
---TV host Oprah Winfrey
