Вывод
Итак, цель завершена. Что я заметила: поначалу (первые две недели) я каждое утро начинала с TED. Ближе к Новому Году энтузиазм куда-то испарился, и мне было сложнее выкраивать время для просмотра видео (отчасти виню в этом предпраздничную суету).
После Нового Года буду продолжать :)
Дневник цели
How misused modifiers can hurt your writing - Emma Bryce
Summary
Modifiers are words, phrases, and clauses that add information about other parts of a sentence—which is usually helpful. But when modifiers aren’t linked clearly enough to the words they’re actually referring to, they can create unintentional ambiguity. Emma Bryce navigates the sticky world of misplaced, dangling and squinting modifiers.
Highlights/Quotes
- "Thief robs town with world's largest chocolate bunny.» --> That's a classic case of a misplaced modifier.
The modifying words, in this case, "with world's largest chocolate bunny,» modify the wrong thing, the robber's actions instead of the town.
To correct this particular sentence, we simply rephrase to make it clearer what the modifying phrase is talking about.
"Town with world's largest chocolate bunny robbed by thief." - Sometimes, modifying words, phrases, or clauses don't appear to be modifying anything at all. That's called a dangling modifier. "Having robbed the bank in record time, it was possible to make off with the town's chocolate rabbit as well." The modifying phrase in this sentence seems unrelated to anything else, and so we're clueless about who the chocolate-loving criminal could possibly be. Giving the modifier something to modify will solve the problem.
- Another group called the squinting modifiers: they're stuck between two things and could feasibly refer to either.
Often, these modifiers are adverbs, like the one in this sentence: "Robbers who steal chocolate bunnies rapidly attract the outrage of onlookers.»
We can reword the sentence:
"Chocolate bunny-thieving robbers rapidly attract the outrage of onlookers."
Vocabulary
- dangling - (грам) обособленный --> dangling adverb — обособленное наречие
- to squint - косить (глазами)
- This just in: - Поступило новое сообщение / Свежая новость!
- And lest you think that - и чтобы вы не думали, что
- far-fetched - неестественный, притянутый за уши
- to create unintentional ambiguity (æmbɪˈɡjuːəti) - создавать ненамеренную двумсмысленность
- to make off - убегать, удирать
- feasible - возможно, вероятно, выполнимо, осуществимо --> With the extra resources, the project now seems feasible.
Erin McKean: Go ahead, make up new words!
Summary
In this fun, short talk from TEDYouth, lexicographer Erin McKean encourages — nay, cheerleads — her audience to create new words when the existing ones won’t quite do. She lists out 6 ways to make new words in English, from compounding to “verbing,” in order to make language better at expressing what we mean, and to create more ways for us to understand one another.
Highlights/Quotes
- Every language is just a group of people who agree to understand each other. Now, sometimes when people are trying to decide whether a word is good or bad, they don't really have a good reason. So they say something like, "Because grammar!"
- there are two kinds of grammar:
1. one lives inside your brain, and if you're a native speaker of a language or a good speaker of a language, it's the unconscious rules that you follow when you speak that language (You can make a plural of ‘a wug --> wugs’)
2. there are other rules that are more about manners than they are about nature. So you can think of a word as like a hat. Once you know how hats work, nobody has to tell you, "Don't wear hats on your feet." What they have to tell you is, "Can you wear hats inside? Who gets to wear a hat? What are the kinds of hats you get to wear?" Those are more of the second kind of grammar, which linguists often call usage, as opposed to grammar.
Six ways of making new words:
- steal them from other languages (borrowing - заимствование)
- squishing two other English words together (compounding - словосложение). Words like "heartbroken," "bookworm," "sandcastle" all are compounds. So go ahead and make words like "duckface," just don't make duckface.
- use so much force when you squish the words together that some parts fall off (blend words - словослияние). «Brunch" is a blend of "breakfast" and "lunch." "Motel" is a blend of "motor" and "hotel." Who here knew that "motel" was a blend word? Yeah, that word is so old in English that lots of people don't know that there are parts missing. "Edutainment" is a blend of "education" and "entertainment." And of course, "electrocute" is a blend of "electric" and "execute."
- changing how the words operate (functional shift - конверсия). You take a word that acts as one part of speech, and you change it into another part of speech. (a friend-->to friend)
- take a word and you can kind of squish it down a little bit (back-formation - обратное словообразование). So for example, in English we had the word "editor" before we had the word "edit." "Edit" was formed from "editor."
- take the first letters of something and squish them together (NASA, OMG)
- Why should you make words? You should make words because every word is a chance to express your idea and get your meaning across. And new words grab people's attention. They get people to focus on what you're saying and that gives you a better chance to get your meaning across.
Vocabulary
- whippersnapper - молокосос
- to squish - сплющивать
- to get an idea (a meaning) across — чётко изложить мысль
- nay - более того (как вводное слово) --> I suspect, nay, I am certain — я подозреваю, более того, я уверен
Robert Waldinger: What makes a good life? Lessons from the longest study on happiness
Summary
What keeps us happy and healthy as we go through life? If you think it's fame and money, you're not alone – but, according to psychiatrist Robert Waldinger, you're mistaken. As the director of 75-year-old study on adult development, Waldinger has unprecedented access to data on true happiness and satisfaction. In this talk, he shares three important lessons learned from the study as well as some practical, old-as-the-hills wisdom on how to build a fulfilling, long life.
Highlights/Quotes
- The Harvard Study of Adult Development may be the longest study of adult life that's ever been done. For 75 years, we've tracked the lives of 724 men, year after year, asking about their work, their home lives, their health, and of course asking all along the way without knowing how their life stories were going to turn out.
- The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keep us happier and healthier.
- We've learned three big lessons about relationships. The first is that social connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills. It turns out that people who are more socially connected to family, to friends, to community, are happier, they're physically healthier, and they live longer than people who are less well connected.
- The second big lesson that we learned is that it's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship, but it's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
- Our most happily partnered men and women reported, in their 80s, that on the days when they had more physical pain, their mood stayed just as happy. But the people who were in unhappy relationships, on the days when they reported more physical pain, it was magnified by more emotional pain.
- And the third big lesson that we learned about relationships and our health is that good relationships don't just protect our bodies, they protect our brains. It turns out that being in a securely attached relationship to another person in your 80s is protective, that the people who are in relationships where they really feel they can count on the other person in times of need, those people's memories stay sharper longer.
- What might leaning in to relationships even look like? It might be something as simple as replacing screen time with people time or livening up a stale relationship by doing something new together, long walks or date nights, or reaching out to that family member who you haven't spoken to in years, because those all-too-common family feuds take a terrible toll on the people who hold the grudges.
Vocabulary
- millennials - родившиеся в конце XX века (поколение Y)
- to lean in to work - погружаться в работу
- downright - попросту (sometimes memory is downright creative)
- sophomores - второкурсники
- to serve in the war - служить на войне
- to live in tenements - жить в неблагоустроенном жилище
- a committed relationship - серьезные отношения
- octogenarian - восьмидесятилетний
- to buffer from - защитить от
- to bicker each other - пререкаться (цапаться) друг с другом
- to take a toll - нанести серьезный урон
- family feud (fjuːd) - семейная наследственная вражда
- hold the grudges - держать обиду
How to write descriptively - Nalo Hopkinson
Summary
The point of fiction is to cast a spell, a momentary illusion that you are living in the world of the story. But as a writer, how do you suck your readers into your stories in this way? Nalo Hopkinson shares some tips for how to use language to make your fiction really come alive.
Highlights
- Fiction engages the senses, helps us create vivid mental simulacra of the experiences the characters are having.
- Stage and screen engage some of our senses directly. We see and hear the interactions of the characters and the setting. But with prose fiction, all you have is static symbols on a contrasting background. If you describe the story in matter of fact, non-tactile language, the spell risks being a weak one.
- Fiction plays with our senses:
-taste,
-smell,
-touch,
-hearing,
-sight,
-the sense of motion. - It also plays with our ability to abstract and make complex associations.
- So when you write, use well-chosen words to engage sound, sight, taste, touch, smell, and movement. Then create unexpected connotations among your story elements, and set your readers' brushfire imaginations alight.
Vocabulary
- queasy - привередливый; испытывающий тошноту
- as limp as cooked noodles - такие же вялые, как вареная лапша
- simulacra (ˌsɪmjʊˈleɪkrə) - подобие, видимость
- to interprete the squiggles - разгадывать завитки, загогулины
When to use "me", "myself" and "I" - Emma Bryce
Summary
Me, myself, and I. You may be tempted to use these words interchangeably, because they all refer to the same thing. But in fact, each one has a specific role in a sentence: ‘I’ is a subject pronoun, ‘me’ is an object pronoun, and ‘myself’ is a reflexive or intensive pronoun. Emma Bryce explains what each role reveals about where each word belongs
Highlights
- The difference between subject and object:
- the subject as the actor in a sentence
- the object as the word that is acted upon - The object can also be the object of a preposition ("She danced around me, while he shimmied up to me.»)
- In its function as a reflexive pronoun, "myself" only works if it's the object of a sentence whose subject is "I».("I consider myself the most important pronoun at this year's party.»)
- "Myself" can also add emphasis as an intensive pronoun.("I, myself, have heard others agree.»)
Vocabulary
- to shimmy - танцевать, двигая бедрами (the definition of shimmy is when a woman with big enough breasts shakes her torso along with her breasts and shoulders from side to side causing her breasts to shake in erotic motion.The word shimmy was a word most used during the 1920s when shimmying was more popular)
- give it oomph (ʊmf) - придавать пикантности, шарма
Adam Savage: How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries
Summary
Adam Savage walks through two spectacular examples of profound scientific discoveries that came from simple, creative methods anyone could have followed — Eratosthenes' calculation of the Earth's circumference around 200 BC and Hippolyte Fizeau's measurement of the speed of light in 1849.
Highlights/Quotes
- the simplest questions could carry you out to the edge of human knowledge
- This is what really gets me going about science. Whenever I'm having trouble understanding a concept, I go back and I research[br]the people that discovered that concept. I look at the story of how they came to understand it. What happens when you look at what the discoverers were thinking about when they made their discoveries, is you understand that[br]they are not so different from us. We are all bags of meat and water. We all start with the same tools. I love the idea that different branches of science are called fields of study. Most people think of science as a closed, black box, when in fact it is an open field. And we are all explorers. The people that made these discoveries just thought a little bit harder about what they were looking at,[br]and they were a little bit more curious. And their curiosity changed the way people thought about the world, and thus it changed the world. They changed the world, and so can you.
Vocabulary
- inertia - инерция
- a notch - зазубрина
- it gets me going - это с ума меня сводит
Julian Treasure: 5 ways to listen better
Summary
In our louder and louder world, says sound expert Julian Treasure, "We are losing our listening." In this short, fascinating talk, Treasure shares five ways to re-tune your ears for conscious listening — to other people and the world around you.
Highlights/Quotes
- We are losing our listening. We spend roughly 60 percent of our communication time listening, but we're not very good at it. We retain just 25 percent of what we hear.
- Listening is a mental process, and it's a process of extraction.
We use some techniques to do that:
- Recognition (распознавание образов) -- we recognize patterns to distinguish noise from signal, and especially our name
- Differencing -- we listen to differences, we discount sounds that remain the same.
- Filters -- culture, language, values, intentions, expectations etc. - We're losing our listening, because:
- we invented ways of recording -- first writing, then audio recording and now video recording as well
- the world is now so noisy
- the art of conversation is being replaced by personal broadcasting
- we're becoming desensitized -- our media have to scream at us with these kinds of headlines in order to get our attention. And that means it's harder for us to pay attention to the quiet, the subtle, the understated. - Listening is our access to understanding. Conscious listening always creates understanding. And only without conscious listening can these things happen -- a world where we don't listen to each other at all, is a very scary place indeed.
- 5 tools to improve your own conscious listening:
- Silence. Just three minutes a day of silence is a wonderful exercise to reset your ears and to recalibrate so that you can hear the quiet again.
- Mixer. Listen in the coffee bar to how many channels of sound can I hear? How many individual channels in that mix am I listening to?
- Savoring. It's about enjoying mundane sounds. For example, is my tumble dryer. (Dryer) It's a waltz. One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three.
- Listening positions. The idea that you can move your listening position to what's appropriate to what you're listening to. ( Идея в том, что мы можем менять свою позицию слушания на подходящую к тому, что мы слушаем -- [активная-пассивная, сдержанная-открытая, критичная-сочувствующая])
- Acronym. the acronym is RASA, which is the Sanskrit word for juice or essence. And RASA stands for Receive, which means pay attention to the person; Appreciate, making little noises like "hmm," "oh," "okay"; Summarize, the word "so" is very important in communication; and Ask, ask questions afterward. - So I invite you to connect with me, connect with each other, take this mission out and let's get listening taught in schools, and transform the world in one generation to a conscious listening world -- a world of connection, a world of understanding and a world of peace.
Vocabulary
- to cease to hear - прекратить слышать
- desensitized - невосприимчивый
- savoring - наслаждение (моментом)
- mundane sounds (mʌnˈdeɪn) - повседневные звуки
Laura Boushnak: For these women, reading is a daring act
Summary
In some parts of the world, half of the women lack basic reading and writing skills. The reasons vary, but in many cases, literacy isn't valued by fathers, husbands, even mothers. Photographer and TED Fellow Laura Boushnak traveled to countries including Yemen, Egypt and Tunisia to highlight brave women — schoolgirls, political activists, 60-year-old moms — who are fighting the statistics.
Highlights/Quotes
- And here I would like to end with a quote by Yasmine, one of the four activist women I interviewed in Tunisia. Yasmine wrote, "Question your convictions. Be who you to want to be, not who they want you to be. Don't accept their enslavement, for your mother birthed you free."
Vocabulary
- to find ample inspiration for - черпать богатое вдохновение для
- dropout students - отчисленные студенты
Richard St. John: 8 secrets of success
Summary
Why do people succeed? Is it because they're smart? Or are they just lucky? Neither. Analyst Richard St. John condenses years of interviews into an unmissable 3-minute slideshow on the real secrets of success.
Highlights/Quotes
- Passion.
- the interesting thing is: if you do it for love, the money comes anyway.
- Work.
- "It's all hard work. Nothing comes easily. But I have a lot of fun."
- "To be successful, put your nose down in something and get damn good at it." There's no magic; it's practice, practice, practice.
- Focus.
- "I think it all has to do with focusing yourself on one thing."
- Push.
- "Push yourself. Physically, mentally, you've got to push, push, push." You've got to push through shyness and self-doubt.
- Now it's not always easy to push yourself, and that's why they invented mothers.
- Serve.
- A lot of kids want to be millionaires. The first thing I say is: "OK, well you can't serve yourself; you've got to serve others something of value. Because that's the way people really get rich."
- Ideas.
- TEDster Bill Gates says, "I had an idea: founding the first micro-computer software company." I'd say it was a pretty good idea. And there's no magic to creativity in coming up with ideas -- it's just doing some very simple things.
- Persist
- "Persistence is the number one reason for our success."
- You've got to persist through failure. You've got to persist through crap! Which of course means "Criticism, Rejection, Assholes and Pressure."
Vocabulary
- make someone tick - придавать кому-либо силы (что тобой движет)
- workafrolic - трудолюб (as opposed to workaholic)
- to put your nose into something - углубиться во что-то (посвятить всего себя чему-то)
- persistence - настойчивость