#GRE高分公開課
【GRE、學術高頻字彙】防疫期，No complacency (n.)

紐約州州長表明，雖然疫情有些微趨緩，但不應該自滿鬆懈 (Not time for complacency)。

Complacency (n.)在這使用非常漂亮，也是GRE填空題的常客。韋氏字典定義該字爲:
self-satisfaction especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies （沒意識到風險或缺陷).

知名心理學家 Angela Duckworth 在形容世界頂尖人才都有的恆毅力(grit) 特質時也用了這個字：To be gritty is to resist complacency. It’s the opposite of being complacent.

但在GRE填空當中要考好，背好單字只是「必要條件」，不是「充份條件」。

若你有近6個月要考GRE 考試的計畫，不知如何開始或如何準備備考計畫，我在下週一 (4/13) 的公開課會地毯式地分析、分享我如何在在閱讀、填空、寫作上(AWA) 都拿到近滿分的成績。歡迎你來聽聽。（欲索取線上公開課請直接在下面留言）

公開課一秒報名: https://www.accupass.com/go/ntegre0413

【玳瑚師父隨筆錄】 《一場遊戲罷了》
It Is Only A Game (English version below)

三年前原已半退休的吾，著實讓人驚訝及不知所措。驚訝是因為吾「還年輕」，心情也很定，不該「告老還鄉」。不知所措乃吾很早就已成 為多戶家庭的家庭醫生及家庭師父，她他們一有事就立馬「飛鴿傳書」，來電的意思，尋求吾快而有效的援助。相信是長年累月的依賴，所以她他 們有以上所述之的反應，是可以理解的。

每個人似乎早已根據累世種種的「業蹟」，分配好角色與戲份，然後在好無準備的情況下，粉墨登場。從童年的喜戲不成眠，少年時的飯來 張口，衣來伸手，錢拿了就走，青年時的愛在夕陽下，職場闖蕩，壯年時的成家立業，老年的偶爾憒忘，晚年的搖搖晃晃，最後的掛在牆上。這樣 的戲份算是不錯的了，有些被分配的角色是一出場就被親生父母給殺了（墮胎），有些則一出場就殘缺，有些則一出場，就患先天性疾病，被人們 鄙視，終生鬱鬱寡歡。

在人生的旅途上，被欺負、被鄙視、被謾罵、被打壓、被批評，或不公平地對待等等，到哪裏都有。為什麼會這樣？因為這裡是人間。有修 沒修的，全部混合在一起，自然而然有上等及下等人啊！有修的就繼續精進努力，沒修的就早點起修吧！至少妳你下次出場，不用一出場就死，也 不用一出場就病入膏肓，懂嗎？

職場中的暗箭難防，官場中的狐假虎威、紙醉金迷，商場中的妳你欺我詐，都是頑迷眾生的自尋煩惱遊戲罷了！睿智的人是不會與其同流合 污的，更不用為之黯然神傷，反應常提醒自己，那祇是一場遊戲罷了。

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It was quite a surprise to many when I announced my semi-retirement 3 years ago. They were shocked because I was still young, barely of retirement age, and of stable emotion, thus should not be calling it quits so soon. They were also quite lost as many of them regarded me as their family 'doctor, and adviser whom they would ring as soon as they needed my swift and effective assistance. I guessed they have grown very reliant on me, thus their reaction upon knowing my intention to semi-retire.

It seems that everyone has been allocated a specific role and 'air-time' according to their karma accumulated over eons lifetimes. They took to the stage in total unawareness. From unbridled joy and sleepless nights during childhood, to the teenage years where they took for granted the daily meals and money, and onto young adulthood where they basked in the temptations of career and romance. This is followed by raising a family in their prime before the eventual decline into old-age forgetfulness. Their last act would end with a photo of themselves hanging on the wall, if anyone bothers to remember them. It would be quite lucky if you get to 'act' in these roles. The unlucky ones would not even survive the first scene, being killed by their own parents through abortion. Some start with physical disabilities or congenital illnesses resulting in them being despised and having little joy in their lives.

In the long journey of life, it is inevitable to be subjected to bully, verbal abuse, criticism, discrimination, pressure or unfair treatment. And you see this everywhere. Why is that so? It is because you are in the human realm where there are people of varying spiritual levels, thus you will meet people of different caliber. For those of you who have started your spiritual cultivation journey, please keep up the diligence. For those of you who still have not started, please do so fast. At least your next appearance in this 'theater of life' would not be short-lived, or fraught with illness. Do you understand?

The politics and back-stabbing at work, the intimidation and hedonistic lifestyle in officialdom as well as the deceits in the commercial world are games played by deluded sentient beings, inviting troubles and sufferings for themselves. The wise men would not be in the mix with the fools, and definitely not affected spiritually. Instead, the wise ones are constantly reminding themselves that this farce is all but a game.

Photo credit: Digital Journal

只是想跟大家分享一下偶們的作業哈哈哈
還有這個議題也很直得大家去關注～大家有興趣可以多多去了解一下Article13～
然後沒錯 這支影片包含裡面的新聞 全部是我剪的?
The current decade will be known as a decade of digital dependency. The proportion of people accessing the internet has increased from 20% almost a decade ago, to 72% in 2018. (Ofcom, 2018). With the existence of network publics, online expressions are automatically recorded and archived, Content made out of bits can be duplicated and can be accessed through various ways (Boyd, 2010). Websites like YouTube, Facebook and twitter have changed the online marketing trend with the help of content creators, brand influencers etc. who enjoy the freedom of expression on the internet across the world, but big changes are coming to online copyright across the European Union. Article 13 of the European Union directive on the digital single market requires the likes of Youtube, Facebook and Twitter to take more responsibility for copyrighted material being shared on the platforms (Reynolds,2013). Therefore, this video intends to provide awareness to a mass segment of internet users and content creators on the internet about the Political issue of Article 13 and recommend the viewers to raise their opinion against it but we realized that a number of millennials are not aware about the issue of Article 13 and the main reason for the unawareness is ignorance. People tend to ignore the obvious things according to the psychology of willful blindness. So, in this case, people ignore the news of article 13 which they could and should have known but don’t know because it made them feel better to not know it ( Popova, 2018) Our aim is to show to the audience what the cost of inaction can result in. Upon an informal survey conducted in regards to Article 13 , we discovered, Everyone has heard about it, but no one knows about it

Viewers of the video are recommended to raise their opinion by signing an online petition by visiting the website https://savetheinternet.info/. The reason behind choosing this website among several other online petitions was the number of supporters. This online petition has over 5 million supporters who have signed to show the politicians their disapproval towards the reform. History suggests that online petitions have been successful in bringing change with number of instances.

The viral progression of the video has been supported by a number of strategies. Viral Videos tend to be exceptional.` The media chosen to inspire the audience to propagate this video are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter. The major target audience will be millennials and people who belong to Generation Z. In order to attract and connect with the target audience, elements such as websites, news channels, and content from internet content creators such as 9Gag, PewDiePie were shown in the video. The target audience has a huge potential to push the video to a larger audience. The viral progression of the video is heavily dependent on Word-of-Mouth marketing which is the intentional influencing of consumer communications by professional marketing techniques (Kozinets, 2010). We aim the share the video with the hashtag #SaveYourInternet as we believe that hashtags can serve a motivational role for viewers to consume and distribute the content as per spreadability theory from the SPIN framework. ( Mills,2012 ) The video also highlights the behavior of the protagonist, who ignores such political news that has so much relevance in his actual life. We believe that the target audience will be able to relate themselves with the video and share it. Apart from that, the relevance of the issue of Article 13 can help the propagability and strengthen the integration among the viewers to become aware and act against it.