【每日國際選讀】
#文末挑戰多益選擇題📝
🖥 ZOOM 的網路禮節！
開啟「接收通知」和「搶先看」每天吸收雙語時事新知
來讀華爾街日報獨家

Zoom Etiquette
線上會議禮節

🖥ZOOM IS a blessing and a curse. The ubiquitous virtual meeting place keeps us close to important people in our lives but never lets us truly escape the office. And it’s quickly forced us to develop new etiquette.
ZOOM這東西好壞參半，無所不在的線上會議讓我們與重要的人保持緊密聯繫，但卻從未讓我們真正逃離辦公室，並迫使我們迅速發展新的社交禮儀。

-ubiquitous: 隨處可見的
-escape: 逃脫
-etiquette: 禮節

🎙First, always know where your camera is pointed. This lets you conceal your new double chin and helps everyone forget you swore off wearing pants in March. Next, master muting. If you see people tearfully flailing on screen, assume they’re trying to get you to unmute. Conversely, if you’re bad-mouthing your boss with the mic on, your resume may need updating.
首先，一定要知道你的鏡頭面向哪邊，這有助於隱藏你的新雙下巴以及讓大家忘記你在三月時曾發誓要穿上褲子。接著是全靜音，如果你看到人們在螢幕上手揮來揮去的，就先假設他們要你解除靜音，相反地，假如你開著麥克風說你老闆壞話，那你就可以先去更新履歷了。

-conceal: 掩蓋
-double chin: 雙下巴
-swear off: 發誓
-flail: (尤指手或腳）胡亂擺動
-bad mouthing: 講某人壞話

☕️Also, no eating. It’s hard to pay attention to last month’s sales figures while watching someone chow down. That said, a well-timed sip of coffee can perfectly punctuate your point.
然後，不要吃東西。當看著別人大快朵頤時實在很難專注在上個月的銷售數字上，但一杯適時的咖啡卻可以完美地強調你的觀點。

-chow down: 大口吃（非正式場合）
-well-timed: 時機剛好的
-punctuate: 加上標點，此有加強的意思

未完待續...
使用 ZOOM 還需要注意些什麼呢？
加入文末每日國際選讀計畫，解鎖完整語音導讀版

——
原文連結請看留言
——

❓❓多益模擬題❓:
Smartphones are so _______ nowadays that people cannot live without it.
A. everywhere
B. populous
C. ubiquitous

-

【每日國際選讀，熱烈招生中！】
華爾街日報訂閱超值方案 📰
專屬 #臉書社團，浩爾 #每日語音導讀
「留言+1」，就送你 #優惠碼 及 #導讀試聽！

#一定要穿褲子
#沒發言時要按靜音
#是不是偷開分頁逛網拍
#ZOOM今年獲利創新高
#還有什麼呢？

I'm a private tutor. I run a small tuition centre. After deducting rent, marketing & administrative costs - I take home around $2500 a month. I teach more than 10 classes weekly.
It has been a very demoralising few weeks.

1. Amidst the suspension of centre-based tuition classes - parents have asked for discount on fees. I tried to help whenever I can by waiving off fees or giving discounts, knowing fully that it will be at my own expense.

Yet, I've received a lot of comments from parents who do not have financial difficulties, going "e-learning should be cheaper".

e-Learning IS not cheaper than classroom based learning. It has been 2 sleepless weeks with this mad scramble to move classes online. We've had to to spend sessions doing orientation for you and your children to help explain how to do classes online. We had to buy IT equipment, video recording equipment - all of it not cheap with my measly $2500 monthly salary.

You think it's less effort - it's not. It's more effort and more work. And you want to pay us less.

Please don't undermine our efforts by requesting to pay us less. If you have financial difficulties, we will discount for you. But don't say "e-Learning should be paid less". Thanks.

Rental still goes on - landlords who don't take the initiative to help and pass on rental rebates, I'm looking at YOU!

2. We totally understand that why we have been closed down. Health comes first - sure.
However, can don't call us non-essential?
School is essential, tuition is non-essential. Minister said that. True facts of life.
But, but. Can you also see this.
In every sector, there are good people and there are bad people.
In the tuition sector, there are some of us good ones and some of us bad ones.
I dare say, I care about each and every-one of my students. I do my best to motivate. I do my best to talk to them when they have family troubles. I come up with extra worksheets when I know they are lagging behind.
In schools, you also have teachers who are not motivated, who only come to school for the paycheck and do the minimum.
If all school teachers are good - need tuition teachers for what?
If everybody scoring A1, A2 and A* - then no need for tuition. Some parents find tuition because their kids have been failing.
We don't need you to recognise us. But don't call us non-essential can?

3. Common comment from school teachers and from the public - "They should pay school teachers more" or "Tuition teachers make so much money".
You know how many times I roll my eyes at this?
Straits Times - I'm looking at you. Thanks for always reporting on "million dollar" tutors. Now everybody thinks that all tutors make millions.
Reality check - If you are a school teacher and you think you will make a lot of money leaving the public sector, feel free to go try your luck.
Is every school teacher a Principal? or a Cluster Superintendent? or a Director? No right?
Same thing with the private sector ok? The top tutors make a lot of money. The normal tutors like us make close to the 'median' $4600 of the typical Singaporean.
We don't have CPF.
We don't have AWS.
We don't have performance bonus.
In November & December, we eat bread but still pay rent.
Whatever we earn in 10 months, must ration across 12 months, because November & December parents go holiday and don't want tuition.
No - regular tutors don't make millions.
Stop dreaming. Most school teachers are not zai. If they leave the public sector, they will eat grass.
I make $2500 a month - if you feel that is fantastic, you can be my guest. You have a choice. If you think you can make more as a private tutor, take the plunge into the world of the unknown.

4. Teachers got a lot of admin work, not like private tutor only need to teach
We don't have admin work. We have "admin work" - marketing, accounting & trying to keep the business alive. We don't only teach.
You have a 'clear thick' line between yourself and parents. We don't. We are obligated to answer, and talk to parents everyday. Do you know there are parents who call us and talk to us everyday about their kids and their anxieties? (a lot of parents from top schools are actually very anxious about their kids) I spend 1 to 2 hours daily talking to 2 to 3 parents everyday.

5. Thank you for classifying us together with KTVs, Bars & Entertainment
I called the bank to lower my credit card interest because in anticipation of school closures, I invested heavily in video recording equipment and IT equipment that I actually cannot pay for with my measly salary.
Guess what the bank said? You are not from an eligible 'adversely affected' sector.
Adversely affected = tourism, aviation, F&B and entertainment.
Entertainment qualifies but private education doesn't qualify.
Again, i understand why we have been shut down. But can everyone remember us private tutors have families to feed too? Mortgages or rent to pay? Bills to pay?

6. We are human beings too
We have feelings. We have empathy. We have tried to help whenever we can. My tuition centre offers free tuition all these years to whomever are on MOE Financial Assistance scheme. When parents face difficulties (retrenched, fell sick), we always cut our fees or give free. When students ask for extra help, we coach and we don't charge extra.

We are trying our best too. Really. We are all in this together.
I don't know since when being a 'private tutor' is a nasty thing.
Maybe tuition centres like Learning Lab, Mavis Tutorial or any of those big tuition centres with big MRT and bus adverts and sprawling land space of more than 10000 square feet might make millions of dollars a year. Maybe they have strong investors with hundreds of millions. But hey that's not us. Don't assume that we have a mountain of profits to stomach this because we don't.

Also, a lot of our kids and a lot of our parents always tell us that school teachers always say bad things about private tutors. "Tuition is a waste of money", "don't need go for tuition", "private tutors are not qualified and don't know what they are teaching".
Some teachers seem to spend a lot of time bad-mouthing private tutors.
Just focus on teaching your kids please. You still have a job.
I may not have one when the dust settles.
Also, remember that a lot of us private tutors were once school teachers.
Some of us left because of school mergers.
Some of us left because we were pregnant, had kids and could no longer cope.
Some of us left because we don't want to deal with this crap called EPMS.
Some of us left because we don't want to deal with all the politics, committees, organising overseas trips and want to just focus on the kids.

Please support your tutors, thank you. A lot of us, really do care, genuinely for your child.
-
#80161: https://www.nuswhispers.com/confession/80161

Tonight's nostalgia. 🌹
Anastasia holds a lot of wonderful memories for me. Glowing flashbacks of my childhood, steeped in a tea of golden retrospect and flecked with russian blue.
Dragging my parents and long suffering grandparents to watch it with me - thrice - in the soft quiet plushness of the cinema. Mouthing every word of every song in the darkness. My granddad's hilarity. Asking my grandma if I could call her "grandmama" like Anastasia did, and her bemused assent. How that fizzled out after a while because it was too much of a mouthful. Spending countless hours on the dial-up modem obsessively researching Angelfire websites about the Romanov family. Their stoic beauty in black and white. The terrible end. The conspiracies. A forgetter named Anna Anderson. Telling everyone in school that because my middle name was Nicole, I (sorta) had the same middle name as Anastasia Nikloaevna Romanov. Finding friends to be my Olga, Tatiana, and Maria.
Fast forward to twenty something year old me: @thejoshfather gifting this music box to me for my birthday. It was small, precious, perfect. A russian treasure. Everything I thought it would be. The lullaby of my childhood. Me buying 2 Together in Paris necklaces for my gran(dmama) and I. I guess it won't be Paris, now. I guess it'll be Heaven. I'd like to think the streets will be equally as chic, the evenings as golden, that Heaven smells like fresh baguettes in the morning. Her hand, reaching out to me from the mist of sunlight I blink my eyes against. Calling. Welcoming. My childhood lullaby, drifting from an angelic music box that no longer needs winding.

BB最喜歡隨手拿起什麼都放入口中，手指腳指玩具等等不用說，有時連你想像不到的都要放入口中品嚐一番。有兒科醫生可能會告誡大家，病從口入，千萬不要讓小朋友「咬呢樣、咬嗰樣」；亦有人說一旦養成吮手指的習慣，大個就很難戒，但大家有沒有想過原來一刀切阻止他們放東西入口，隨時會影響孩子的身心發展？

參考資料

Oral Fixation In Children | Oral Fixation Disorder & Treatment. (2015, August 07). Retrieved from Day 2 Day Parenting

Conger, C. (2012, May 14). 5 Modern Parenting Tips From Freud. Retrieved from HowStuffWorks
（2013年9 月29日）。口腔期滿足 較有安全感。臺灣蘋果日報，副刊。

Greutman, H. (2015, February 23). Is My Child's Chewing A Sensory Oral Fixation? Retrieved from Growing Hands-On Kids

Angelo, F. (2013, November 07). Oral Fixation vs. Oral Mouthing: Is There a Difference? Retrieved from Day 2 Day Parenting

Morris, S. E. (1997). Mouth Toys and Mouthing for Sensory and Oral Motor Development in Infants & Children with Feeding & Oral Motor Problems. Retrieved from Feeding, Pre-Speech and Speech Relationships in Infants and Children

Trailing by seven points with 3:12 left, the Denver Nuggets didn't panic. They made veteran plays.


The Memphis Grizzlies were hurt by their youth.

Allen Iverson had 32 points and 12 assists Wednesday night, and the Nuggets used a late run to beat the Grizzlies 106-102.

"This was a big win for us at somebody else's home," Iverson said. "Down seven points with 3 minutes to go. It was a gut check for us. I think a game like this is going to help us down the road."


Elias Says

Allen Iverson posted his own kind of triple double on Wednesday, leading the Nuggets to a win over Memphis by shooting 11-of-26 from the floor, 10-of-12 from the line and adding 12 assists. It was only the fourth regulation (non-overtime) game in the NBA this season in which a player had double-digit field goals, free throws and assists. Iverson also did it on Dec. 6, as did Joe Johnson (Nov. 14) and Dwyane Wade (Dec. 7).

• Read more Elias Says


Memphis had built its lead with a 6-0 run after Rudy Gay's 11-footer with 3:12 left, before Denver answered with a 12-0 spurt to seize control.

Iverson made all six of his free throws in the final 23.2 seconds, helping the Nuggets snap a six-game road losing streak that included losses at Dallas and New Orleans at the start of the three-game road trip.

"It was definitely important," Denver center Marcus Camby said. "We got our butts kicked the other night down in New Orleans against a great team. We wanted to salvage the rest of this three-game road trip.

"We had to stop the losing streak."

Anthony Carter finished with 18 points, five during the decisive rally, while Linas Kleiza added 15 for the Nuggets. Camby had 13 points and 19 rebounds.

Gay led Memphis with 30 points and 10 rebounds, and Mike Miller contributed 22 points. Kyle Lowry scored 19 and Darko Milicic finished with 14 points and matched his career high with 16 rebounds for the Grizzlies, who have lost four of five.

"It's the same story as before," Milicic said. "[We] just can't find ways to win."

Both teams were short-handed. The Nuggets were without Carmelo Anthony, the league's fourth-leading scorer, who missed his fifth game with a left ankle sprain. That, and previous injuries to guard Chucky Atkins and forward Nene, left Denver with 10 players dressed.

Memphis had one less because of injuries to guard Mike Conley and Pau Gasol, the team's second-leading scorer and leading rebounder. Also, forward Stromile Swift was suspended for the game after an exchange with Memphis coach Marc Iavaroni in Monday's loss to Dallas.

Denver's rally came from missed shots and a pair of turnovers from the Grizzlies. Camby blocked his fifth shot of the night during the stretch, and the Nuggets used their defense to turn the game.

"Unfortunately, we were our own worst enemies with the turnovers once again and not getting back well against a very, very good fast-break team," Iavaroni said.

While Memphis held a 51-39 advantage on the boards, Denver dominated the paint 60-40.

Iverson did everything possible to carry the Nuggets in the first half, scoring 21 points and handing out seven assists as Denver took a 54-52 lead into the locker room.

Denver committed seven turnovers in the opening quarter, and neither team seemed to be in a rhythm offensively. Memphis missed nine of 10 3-point attempts in the half and both teams had nine turnovers at the break.

There was poor ballhandling, wayward passes and mouthing about calls and no-calls.

At one point in the second quarter, Iverson opted out of a breakaway layup for a pass to J.R. Smith, who blew a reverse dunk. The next time down the floor, Smith misfired on a second slam, which Miller converted into a 20-foot jumper.

The Nuggets picked up their shooting touch in the second quarter and erased an early 11-point Memphis lead. They finished the night shooting 51 percent.

The teams stayed close in the second half, including a handful of ties in the third quarter. Miller scored eight points in the first 3 minutes of the period. Meanwhile, Iverson missed all seven of his shots, and Memphis carried a 78-73 lead into the final quarter.

"I got real good shots in the second half. The same shots I got in the first half," Iverson said. "I just went ice cold."

Camby said the difference in the final rally was converting on offense.

"We just knew if we kept being aggressive, shots were going to fall," Camby said. "Guys were missing a lot of easy shots throughout the ballgame that they normally make.

"We just knew we needed to get a consecutive streak of defensive stops in order for us to take the lead."