奥运，已经不仅仅是一个竞技的聚会，几乎成了全体老百姓的节日。日前在中国就是如此，起码在北京是。开幕式那天全体市民平白无故捞到了一天假期。火炬所到之处，封锁出入，成了不上班的最光荣的理由。除了有车一族对于单双号的怨言，市民享受到了十年不遇的难得的清爽的空气和蓝天。（十几年来我是第一次在市区毫无顾忌地舒畅地呼吸。）奥运的赛程和结果，成了上班时间公开聊天的谈资。

仅仅如此？

另有异声。

从深层次看，我们不能不说，奥运是 强心针，分水岭，催化剂。无论从政治上或者经济上看都是。

不过，正如雅克•罗格(Jacques Rogge)所言：

“一些记者将紧盯政治问题，但他们中的多数会将重点放在奥运会的魅力上——魅力将占上风。”

“Some journalists will focus on the political issues, but most of them will focus on the magic of the Games – and the magic will take over.”

原文：

未来17天，北京将成为世界瞩目焦点。污染只是许多问题中的一个。在政府就“反华势力”造成的安全威胁发出警告之时，同样多的注意力也将放在中国刚性的官僚作风和控制措施，会否影响这场体育盛会给人们带来的乐趣。

罗格并不担心所有这些问题将造成什么结果。“我不担心，”他表示。“筹办奥运会从来都不轻松。1980年的莫斯科奥运会遇到同样的政治审查，引起同样的争议和争论，但那是一届非常成功的奥运会。

“一些记者将紧盯政治问题，但他们中的多数会将重点放在奥运会的魅力上——魅力将占上风。”

http://www.ftchinese.com/sc/story.jsp?id=001021229

Rogge is unconcerned at how all these issues are played out. “I am not worried,” he says. “The preparation of an Olympics is never easy. The Moscow Games in 1980 had the same political scrutiny, controversy and polemic, and it was a very good Games.

“Some journalists will focus on the political issues, but most of them will focus on the magic of the Games – and the magic will take over.”

这也许就是奥运所以蓬勃发展深入人心的原因所在----关注而不介入，关爱而不失公平。

不以成败论英雄！

刘翔比赛时间表和决赛时间

8月18日    11:10--11:58    110米栏第一轮
8月19日    21:05--21:37    110米栏第二轮
8月20日    21:30--21:50    110米栏半决赛
8月21日    21:40--21:50    110米栏决赛

作为上一届雅典奥运会男子110米栏冠军，刘翔此次卫冕之路不可能一帆风顺，环顾四周，可谓高手云集、虎视眈眈：

　　近来状态奇佳的古巴小将罗伯斯，继不久前以12秒87的成绩打破刘翔保持的世界纪录后，7月19日凌晨又跑出了12秒88的好成绩，可谓刘翔卫冕路上的最大障碍；世锦赛和奥运会双料亚军美国名将特拉梅尔，上周末也跑出了13秒19的成绩，与刘翔本赛季的最好成绩13秒18仅差0.01秒；曾在2005年击败刘翔获得世界冠军的法国小将杜库雷，虽然近来状态不佳，但也不排除在“鸟巢”突然爆发的可能；此外，佩恩、奥利弗、摩尔等高手个个实力不俗，难保成为“黑马”。

　　根据北京奥运会的赛程，刘翔在卫冕路上要经受预赛、复赛、半决赛和决赛四道考验。预赛被安排在2008年8月18日上午进行，复赛、半决赛、决赛分别在19日、20日、21日21点左右的黄金时间进行。8月21日的夜晚，刘翔能否演绎奥运卫冕的“经典时刻”，让我们拭目以待。

　　男子110米栏决赛时间：8月21日21：40～21：50

<embed id="VideoPlayback" style="width:400px;height:326px" allowFullScreen="true" src="http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-2331231951376786799&hl=zh-CN&fs=true" type="application/x-shockwave-flash"> </embed>

From Hawaii to Delaware, from Alaska to Louisiana, each of the 50 states has its own laws regulating education. From state to state, some laws are similar while others are not. For example:

• All states require young people to attend school. The age limit varies, however. Most states require attendance up to age 16, some up to 18. Thus, every child in America receives at least 11 years of education. This is true regardless of a child's sex, race, religion, learning problems, physical handicaps, ability to speak English, citizenship, or status as an immigrant. (Although some members of Congress have advocated permitting the states to deny public education to children of illegal immigrants, such a proposal has not become law.)
• Some states play a strong central role in the selection of learning material for their students. For example, state committees may decide which textbooks can be purchased with state funds. In other states, such decisions are left to local school officials.

Although there is no national curriculum in the United States, certain subjects are taught in virtually all elementary and secondary schools throughout the country. Almost every elementary school, for example, teaches mathematics; language arts (including reading, grammar, writing, and literature); penmanship; science; social studies (including history, geography, citizenship, and economics); and physical education. In many schools, children are taught how to use computers, which have also become integral parts of other courses.

In addition to required courses -- for example, a year of American history, two years of literature, etc. -- secondary schools, like colleges, typically offer electives. Popular electives include performing arts, driver's education, cooking, and "shop" (use of tools, carpentry, and repair of machinery).

CHANGING STANDARDS

Until the 1950s required courses were many, electives few. In the 1960s and 1970s, the trend was to give students more choices. By the 1980s, however, parents and educators were taking a second look at this practice. The primary reason for their concern was the possible connection between the growth of electives and the slow but steady decline of American students' average scores on standardized tests of mathematics, reading, and science.

At the same time, college administrators and business executives began to complain that some high school graduates needed remedial courses in the so-called three R's: reading, writing, and arithmetic. About 99 percent of American adults reported in the 1980 census that they could read and write. But critics claimed that about 13 percent of America's 17-year-olds were "functionally illiterate." That is, they were unable to carry out such everyday tasks as understanding printed instructions and filling out a job application.

Experts scrutinized every conceivable cause for the decline in average scores in the early 1980s. One target was television, which was accused of producing mediocre programs. And American children, critics said, watched too much TV, an average of 25 hours a week. School boards were criticized for paying teachers too little, with the result that good ones tended to leave the field of education, and for giving students easier material to work with so that all of them could get a diploma -- a phenomenon known as "dumbing down" the curriculum.

No single cause was identified for what ailed American secondary education. Similarly, there was no one solution. The U.S. Department of Education established a national commission to examine the question. In 1983 the commission made several recommendations: lengthen the school day and year, formulate a new core curriculum for all students (four years of English; three years each of math, science, and social studies; a half-year of computer science), and raise the standards of performance in each subject. As a result, many schools have tightened their requirements, and test scores for American children have been rising.

In 1989 President George Bush and the governors of all 50 states gave the movement to reform American education a new impetus when they set six goals to be achieved by the year 2000:

• That all children will start school ready to learn.
• That 90 percent of all high school students will graduate.
• That all students will achieve competence in core subjects at certain key points in their progress.
• That American students will be first in the world in math and science achievement.
• That every American adult will be literate and have the skills to function as a citizen and a worker.
• That all schools will be free of drugs and violence and offer a disciplined environment that is conducive to learning.

Congress established a program called Goals 2000, by which the states receive federal grants to help them reach the goals. By 1996, progress had been made -- 86 percent of American students completed high school, scores on national math and science tests had gone up one full grade, and half of all four-year-olds attended programs to prepare them for school.

Meanwhile, there has been an effort to establish national standards in math, science, English, and history -- an endeavor that President Bill Clinton strongly supports. Speaking to the National Governors Association education summit in 1996, he said, "I believe the most important thing you can do is to have high expectations for students -- to make them believe they can learn,...to assess whether they're learning or not, and to hold them accountable as well as to reward them."

SOCIAL ISSUES IN AMERICAN SCHOOLS

In addition to the challenge to be excellent, American schools have been facing novel problems. They must cope with an influx of immigrant children, many of whom speak little or no English. They must respond to demands that the curriculum reflect the various cultures of all children. Schools must make sure that students develop basic skills for the job market, and they must consider the needs of nontraditional students, such as teen-age mothers.

Schools are addressing these problems in ways that reflect the diversity of the U.S. educational system. They are hiring or training large numbers of teachers of English as a second language and, in some communities, setting up bilingual schools. They are opening up the traditional European-centered curriculum to embrace material from African, Asian, and other cultures.

Schools are also teaching cognitive skills to the nearly 40 percent of American students who do not go on to higher education. In the words of a recent report by the Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills, "A strong back, the willingness to work, and a high school diploma were once all that was necessary to make a start in America. They are no longer. A well-developed mind, a continued willingness to learn and the ability to put knowledge to work are the new keys to the future of our young people, the success of our business, and the economic well-being of the nation."

http://i.cn.yahoo.com/blog-5EuPdU0meqgkteOl3oKSutFdBhE-?cq=1&p=661&source=1Q5

比尔.盖茨退休前写给青年人的十条忠告

1.社会充满着不公平的现象。但你先不要想去改造它，只能先适应它。

（因为你管不了它。）

2.世界不会在意你的自尊，人们看的只是你的成就。在你没有成就以前，切勿过分强调自尊。(因为你越强调自尊，越对你不利。)

3.你只是中学毕业，通常不会成为CEO，直到你把CEO职位拿到手为止。

（直到此时，人们才不会介意你只是中学毕业）

4.当你陷入人为困境时，不要抱怨，你只能默默地吸取教训。

（你要悄悄地振作起来，重新奋起。）

5.你要懂得：在没有你之前，你的父母并不像现在这样“乏味”。你应该想到，这是他们为了抚养你所付出的巨大代价。

（你永远要感恩和孝敬他们，才是硬道理。）

6.在学校里，你考第几已不是那么重要，但进入社会却不然。不管你去哪里，都要分等排名。（社会、公司要排名次是常见的事，要鼓起勇气竞争才对。）

7.学校里有节假日，到公司打工则不然，你几乎不能休息，很少能轻松地过节假日。（否则你职业生涯中一起跑就落后了，甚至会让你永远落后。）

8.在学校，老师会帮助你学习，到公司却不会。如果你认为学校的老师要求你很严格，那是你还没有进入公司打工。因为，如果公司对你不严厉，你就要失业了。（你必须清醒地认识到：公司比学校更要严格要求自己。）

9.人们都喜欢看电视剧，但你不要看，那并不是你的生活。只要在公司工作，你是无暇看电视剧的。（奉劝你不要看，否则你走上看电视连续剧之路，而且看得津津有味，那你将失去成功的资格。）

10.永远不要在背后批评别人，尤其不能批评你的老板无知、刻薄和无能。

（因为这样的心态，会使你走上坎坷艰难的成长之路。）

登陆上来，才发现一点困惑，这一篇是应该放在主博还是放在子博。

我的一百个学生的分类刚刚放了几个学生的资料。虽然教过的人从3岁到53岁总有几千人了，但是我真正承认算是我的学生的不到十人。最基本的原则是只有真正是我 一步步带出来，后来因了我的原因而端起英语这个饭碗的，并且做到出类拔萃的才进入备选行列。其他的，说起来的话，仅仅是 “教过”而已。

这个孩子真的不一般。在第一眼见到她之后，任何一个人都会脱口而出：你太漂亮了。

我编一个谜语吧：谜面：陆子艺 打梅兰芳（还是谁的？）的一出戏名，谜底是：惊艳

情不自禁地和她合了个影。

越发衬托出她的娇美柔嫩。让你对她不得不发出源于内心的喜爱。

只是听说孩子忙，并不了解多少。忽然看到孩子的博客。竟然是个知名的小童星。艺名甜甜。

她的从艺经历和活动，她自己的博客有详细介绍：

http://blog.sina.com.cn/tthappygirl

2007年的少儿舞蹈比赛北京冠军，跳舞，唱歌，钢琴，模特，主持，表演，无所不能。虽然从艺只有两年，却已经拍过几十部电视剧，广告片，电视节目节目，和成龙，王小丫，蔡琴，周杰伦，黄晓明，刘雪华等大牌合作过。

也许我一直以“英语医生”自居，以解决难题为乐，很少见到这样优秀而玲珑剔透的孩子，机灵得几乎和你的思维同步。

搜索新浪视频，优酷，关键字：陆子艺，可以见到几十个甜甜的视频，在CCTV2,3,4,...

孩子太优秀了。

也有自己的苦恼。

一个字：忙。

希望有更多时间做自己喜欢的事。

又不由得想到，把孩子培养成这样优秀，母亲该付出多少啊。

星妈不易。

思，

在飞旋；

心,

在挣扎;

未来,

在呼唤;

命运,

在羁绊。

这一步，

不知能走多远；

这一刻，

不知能否重现。

地老天荒的誓言，

无私无畏的涅槃，

在昨天，在今天，

在明天......