Rites of passage： A comparison of US,Malaysian and Brazilian adolescents

This study compares the life events perceived as ＂rites of passage＂ from adolescence to adulthood by respondents between the ages of 14 and 23 in 3 countries and discusses the possible influences of culture and globalization on these perceptions. Participants include： （1） 250 adolescents from the US （125 males and 125 females）; （2） 191 adolescents from southeastern Brazil （70 males and 121 females）; and （3） 163 adolescents from Malaysia （76 males and 87 females）. These adolescents ranked a variety of life events which may be perceived as indicative of adult status by completing a questionnaire about perceived rites of passage. Although there were similarities among the 3 groups, several differences also emerged. The most commonly noted indicator of adult status for Malaysian youth was physical maturity, followed by completing one＇s education. Participants from the US cited financial independence as the major indicator of adult status, while those from Brazil cited the ability to make important decisions independently from family and to take responsibility for others, such as children, aging parents or a spouse. Brazilian youth were significantly more likely to cite a love affair and voting in major elections as rites of passage than were participants from the other 2 countries. Participants from the US were significantly more likely to cite military service, and Malaysian youth were significantly more likely to consider completion of education and achieving physical maturity as rites of passage. Gender and age differences within groups were evident on some items, but these were not consistent across groups. Possible explanations for the differences between countries and implications for educators working with adolescents in rapidly changing societies are discussed.     

What do you think?

For many people in the U.K. owning a car is as essential as owning a house. Indeed many households now have at least two cars. Add to this the fact that most haulage in the U.K. is carried on the roads and you can begin to imagine the volume of traffic and the problems which this causes, not only in the big cities but     

The Use of English in Public Life in China

English as a world language has been paid much attention not only by individuals but also by governments in metropolises as well as small cities in China.Both individuals and governments in Tianjin,one of metropolises and Jiaozuo,one of small cities in China have realized the importance of English.Such a realization has resulted in the wide use of English in public facilities,such as traffic signs and tourist indicators,and English banking service Also,individual Chinese of different ages have a strong desire to learn English.Through comparing the use of English in a public life in these two cities,the authors intend to show a wide use of English in public life in China.     

The Infinitive Functioning As Adverbial

The infinitive is a kind of non-finite forms of the verb. It has partly the character of a verb, partly that of a noun and also that of an adjective and adverb. It shows its verbal character by its capacity of taking the ordinary verb-modifiers, objects and adverbial adjuncts, exhibiting, at least in part, the distinctions of tense and voice. It shows its substantival character by its capacity of filling the same functions in a sentence as an ordinary noun. It can act in the function of adverbial as well as attribute, subject, object, predicative, apposition and so on. In this article, we will only discuss the question about the infinitive used as adverbial.     

Beethoven

Beethoven(贝多芬）was one of the greatest composers(作曲家）in the world. He was born in 1770 and died in 1827.Even as a child Beethoven did not have a happy life. His father was a singer. But he was lazy and always drank a lot. When the boy was only four，his father decided to make him a musician. So Beethoven had to play hour after hour on different musical instruments（乐器）.He learned so fast that he was able to go around and give concerts when he was only 11. When he was 17，he won hi…     

Kobe is Moved by Chinese Young People's Patriotism

After the retirement of Michael Jordan(乔丹),Kobe(科比)from Lakers(湖人队)is the only player who can be described as"great".He has signed a contract with sina.com to open his Chinese blog and establish his official website in Chinese in 2009,which will no doubt be a sensational event to both the Internet and the sports circles.     

Science Letters:Brain metastases of melanoma-mechanisms of attack on their defence system by engineered stem cells in the microenvironment

This report gives a better emphasis on the role of targeted effectors (e.g. a combination of 5-FC with CD-NSPCs as compared to the application of NSPCs alone) and how such delivery of pro-drug activating enzymes and other tumor-killing substances may overcome melanocytic defence system, interact with and promote the host defence and immune response modulations not only in melanoma but, potentially, in other highly-metastatic cancers.     

Children’s participatory design for sustainable development and community planning

The urban developments have been carried out by only professionals for a long time because of efficiency and safety. However, most residents are ordinary people. Therefore, it is necessary to change the awareness of sustainable living environments, not only on the construction side but also the residents. In recent years, the number of cases of residents’ participation in planning, maintaining, and repairing increased. However, sometimes youths and children, who might spend a lifetime longer than adults in a city after the developments have been done, are not included in this “Residents”. Concerning youth and children’s participation, CFC (child friendly city) is one of the good practices for sustainable development. It was launched by UNICEF (United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) and UN-Habitat in the Habitat II in 1996. City governments, especially in European countries, started to view CFC as their key concept for preservation and/or sustainable development. CFC means not only being “Children” friendly but also “All people” friendly. Various effects have been reported since the Historic Cities/districts included CFC in their city planning as a common concept, especially in education, community re-development, and operation and maintenance by the community. It is expected that better city planning in preservation and sustainable development can be achieved by adding CFC concept. In this research, an ideal way of city planning involving resident participation and the possibility in the future are analyzed based on case studies. Then a strategy of sustainable development and community planning involving youth and children’s participation is proposed.     

迈克尔·欧文

Michael ?-" I feel that every time I get the ball at the moment I am going to score. "Michael Owen is 21. That fact needed checking yesterday and it quietly surprised in the way a familiar picture on the wall at home can suddenly take on a different look when moved or seen from a fresh angle. Owen is only 21, yet he is as established (确定的)a figure(象征) in the national psyche(精神,灵魂) as the woman     

The problem is actually not the communicative approach

I must begin by admitting unashamedly that I still see the communicative approach in foreign language and second language instruction (hereafter FL and SL respectively) more of a challenge than an imposition, a problem or even a shibboleth. Under the term communicative approach (CA), I would include not only the goal of communicating, but also some experience of communication in the classroom as the means to achieve that end.     

The problem is actually not the communicative approach——Anthony Bruton reflects on Eleanor Watts'''' article ''''Cocking a snook at the communicative approach''''

I must begin by admitting unashamedly that I still see the communicative approach in foreign language and second language instruction(hereafter FL and SL respectively)more of a challenge than an imposition,a problem or even a shibboleth. Under the term communicative approach(CA),I would include not only the goal of communicating,but also some experience of communication in the classroom as the means to     

Politics in Language: on George Orwell’s View of Language in Nineteen Eighty-Four

Language stood in the foreground of George Orwell’s social and political thinking. Language is not only a vehicle for transmitting ideas, but also a product originating from social and political interactions. This paper examines the language, particularly the abuse of language, in the context of politics presented in Nineteen Eighty-Four, so as to find out George Orwell’s view of language: language as a manipulated tool to control people’s minds.     

Rose Mother and Rose Daughter

Aunt Liu lives in the same village as I do．Her only daughter is my classmate as well as my close friend．Now in our area Aunt Liu is known far and wide as Rose Mother and her daughter as Rose Girl. Why？Aunt Liu loved her husband Uncle Cheng very much．He drove a truck to make a living. He was a devoted father and a warmhearted husband. The three of the family were living a happy life full of love．But sometimes human life is as unpredictable as the weather．One day three years ago Unc…     

Analysis of Ultra Linguistic Factors in Interpretation

The quality of interpretation is a dynamic conception, involving a good deal of variables, such as the participants, the situations, working conditions, cultures etc.. Therefore, in interpretation, those static elements, such as traditional grammars and certain linguistic rules can not be counted as the only criteria for the quality of interpretation. That is, there are many other nonlanguage elements—Ultra-linguistic factors that play an important role in interpretation. Ultra-linguistic factors get rid of the bounding of traditional grammar and parole, and reveal the facts in an indirect way. This paper gives a brief analysis of Ultra Linguistic elements in interpretation in order to achieve better result in interpretation practice.     

Contemplation of the Fear in Frankenstein and Its Impact on Gothic Fiction

In the late 18th century and the beginning of 19th century,there appeared an important literary trend named Gothic as a part of Romanism.Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin Shelley(1797-1851) is a famous novelist of the Romantic period.Her masterpiece,Franken stein,is considered one of the best Gothic novels as well as the first science fiction in the modern sense.My thesis is engaged in the study of this work from psychological perspectives:that is the fear of desolation and irrational human ambition.Frankenstein not only adopted the traditional Gothic elements but also modified and added new ones.Thus it yields a great influence on the successive literature.     

Techniques of Defamiliarization in Beloved

Toni Morrision’s Beloved earns a wide degree of recognition for its stylistic brilliance and psychological depth in American liter ature and it is discussed not only as a presentation of slavery,but also as motherhood.This paper,in the light of Shklovsky’s theory of defa miliarization,aims to exam the application of the techniques of defamiliarization in Beloved from the following two aspects:narrative point of view and language strategies.     

Pattern Analysis on DC Breakdown Phenomenon of Polyethylene Films

Low-density polyethylene ( LDPE) film andhigh-density polyethylene (HDPE) film are two typi-cal polyethylene films and widely used in electricaland electronic equipment, such as covering and corein ultra-high frequency cables[1—3]. It is well knownthat the unexpected defects in insulating polyethylenefilms under a high voltage will lead to the occurrenceof insulation degradation and act as the beginning ofinsulation breakdown. The insulation degradation ad-vances not only with the accumula…     

Congestion control for ATM multiplexers using neural networks:multiple sources/single buffer scenario

A new neural network based method for solving the problem of congestion control arising at the user network interface (UNI) of ATM networks is proposed in this paper. Unlike the previous methods where the coding rate for all traffic sources as controller output signals is tuned in a body, the proposed method adjusts the coding rate for only a part of the traffic sources while the remainder sources send the cells in the previous coding rate in case of occurrence of congestion. The controller output signals include the source coding rate and the percentage of the sources that send cells at the corresponding coding rate. The control methods not only minimize the cell loss rate but also guarantee the quality of information (such as voice sources) fed into the multiplexer buffer. Simulations with 150 ADPCM voice sources fed into the multiplexer buffer showed that the proposed methods have advantage over the previous methods in the aspect of the performance indices such as cell loss rate (CLR) and voice quali     

Neutralization of English Consonants

This paper gives a brief account of English consonant cluster’s structure and phonetic features from the perspective of the definition and cause of neutralization of English consonants as well as their distinctive features and oppositions.It comes up with the final conclusion that neutralization exists in only thirteen English consonant clusters,among a large number of consonant clusters.     

Potential application of particle based simulations in reservoir security management

In order to model the movement progress in case of risks such as dam collapse and coastal inundation, particle-based simulation methods, including the discrete-element method and smoothed particle hydrodynamics, which have specific advantages in modeling complex three-dimensional environmental fluid and particulate flows, are adopted as an effective way to illustrate environmental applications possibly happening in the real world. The theory of these methods and their relative advantages compared with traditional methods are discussed. Examples of 3-D flows on realistic topography including the flooding of a river valley as a result of a dam collapse and coastal inundation by a tsunami are introduced. Issues related to validation and quality data availability are also discussed. The results show that the simulations provide a valuable insight in a given situation for the security management of reservoir dams. Validation can only be performed where both the initial and final states can be very well characterized.