http://udn.com/news/story/7339/685876-%E5%BB%A3%E6%B3%9B%E9%96%B1%E8%AE%80-%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E4%BD%9C%E6%96%87%E9%9B%A3%E4%B8%8D%E5%80%92
廣泛閱讀 英文作文難不倒
2015-02-04 01:52:47 聯合報 李振清／大學退休教授（台北市）
報載大學學測英語考科，學生普遍認為作文太難。主要的原因是此次學測的英文作文要考生根據兩本書的書名，選一本並依書名寫出該書可能的內容，以及選擇該書的理由。就評量理論來看，這是歷年來最具創意、最客觀、鑑別度最高的英文作文測驗。
My comments: I love the writing task!
考生被考倒，係因平時的英文學習方式偏重補習式的死板記憶，缺乏養成廣泛英文閱讀，藉由各種閱讀素材吸取新知，兼而培養閱讀樂趣與思考判斷的能力。殊不知從各種閱讀素材中，學生可以在老師的輔導下，直接增進字彙量、理解英文文法結構與語用特質，以及基本的用字遣詞之修辭。
My comments: As a Studio Classroom teacher once said, "Reading is the only way to expand vocabulary."
以此次學測的英文作文考題為例，兩本書的書名不但簡潔易懂，而且也極為生活化。平時有閱讀習慣的考生，大可以書名作為引言或前導，然後判斷該書可能的內涵，以及其內涵在現代社會所展現的意義或啟示。
這種培養英文廣泛閱讀的教學與學習方式，並沒有明顯的城鄉差別，因為閱讀素材從紙本或網路上俯拾皆是。舉例說，今年元月廿七日的《聯合報紐時周報》有一篇題為In the Business of Feeling Good （為善最樂的行業）。這篇短文雖然是轉載自《紐約時報》的散文，可是文字簡潔優美、文法結構簡明易懂。更重要的是其內涵跟此次學測作文考題中的兩本書有異曲同工之處。高一學生應可瞭解，並體會該文的內涵。
台灣的學生愈來愈忽略閱讀習慣的養成，難怪此次極具創意與啟發性的學測英文作文考題會讓大家吃不消。其實，廣泛閱讀不但可以增長作文能力，同時也可以藉由不斷增加的詞彙、新知，以及上下文呼應的文本結構，培養英語聽力。
語言是活的。中文如此，英文亦然。閱讀是聽、說、讀、寫四種相輔相成的語言能力中，最容易培養，也最能有效發揮語言溝通功能的基礎。但願此次學測的英文作文試題，為大家帶來嶄新的教育啟示。
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Here's the NYT article "In the Business of Feeling Good" found online.
http://newtelegraphonline.com/in-the-business-of-feeling-good/
In the Business of Feeling Good
Jan 26, 2015Our CorrespondentNEW YORK TIMES, Top Stories
Mark Bustos is a stylist at Three Squares Studios, an upscale salon in New York where clients like Norah Jones and Marc Jacobs pay $150 for a haircut. But on Sundays, Mr. Bustos takes to the streets and offers free haircuts to the homeless.
“Can you believe this is happening?” asked David Terry, who sat on a park bench beneath Mr. Bustos’s scissors recently. Even for those with nowhere special to go, it seems, there is something about looking your best.
“Whether I’m giving one at work or on the street, I think we can all relate to the haircut and how it makes us feel,” Mr. Bustos told The Times. “We all know what it feels like to get a good haircut.”
My comments: My deceased dad said to his stylist, "You are doing good deeds every day. People feel good after getting a good haircut. In fact, everyone who works conscientiously is making a contribution.
He got the idea when visiting family in the Philippines in 2012. Struck by the number of children he saw living in poverty, Mr. Bustos said, he rented a barbershop. “It made me feel so good,” he said. “It was right to bring it home to New York.” Others find their own ways of mixing business and charity. Ann Dunn, who once worked in public housing, said she became “obsessed” with finding unwanted cats a home. Her dream was to open a cat sanctuary with a cafe.
“If we said, ‘Come meet cats and adopt them,’ probably people wouldn’t come,” Ms. Dunn told The Times. She and Adam Myatt, who produced calendars with photos of feral cats, raised $40,000 to open Cat Town Cafe & Adoption Center in Oakland, California. Cat cafes are well established in Japan, but few double as adoption centers.
Cat Town claims to be the first permanent one of its kind in the United States. It sells coffee, handmade bagels and vegan treats. Customers visit cats in a separate area, where the felines lounge in beds shaped like cans of tuna instead of in cages more typical of a shelter.
My comments: Guess what? According to Wikipedia, the world's first cat cafe opened in Taipei, Taiwan in 1988. It is not for the sake of adoption, though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_caf%C3%A9
“It takes them out of an ugly environment and puts them in an appealing situation where they can connect with lots of people who may adopt them,” Rich Avanzino of Maddie’s Fund, a rescue group that helped Cat Town Cafe, told The Times.
An hour of playtime with the cats costs $10, and a cat’s adoption fee is $50. Ms. Dunn and Mr. Myatt said the business has always been about saving cats instead of making money. The comedian Margaret Cho said she learned about giving back to the community from a friend: Robin Williams. Mr. Williams, who commited suicide in August, had raised millions for the homeless and was “the security blanket we all had,” Ms. Cho told The Times.
When she was mourning his death, another friend told her, “Don’t mourn Robin — be Robin.” Ms. Cho started performing at a youth shelter and where homeless people congregated. Donations — coats, shoes and blankets — were arranged on tables.
At one donation table, Michael Austin, who had spent eight years on the streets, said he had been given free clothing before, but nothing so good. “This is wonderful,” he said. Most shows, Ms. Cho said, raised about $2,000. She would break the money into single dollar bills and give them away.
“There is nothing better than making it rain dollar bills on a homeless man,” she said. “It’s a beautiful thing, and why not?” Mr. Bustos, the stylist, said people often ask him how to join his team for good. “My answer is just go and do it,” he said.
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