Astronomers are the funniest people on earth actually
Back when I used to walk around my college in a corduroy blazer and slacks I didn't call it "dark academia" I called it "professor drag" and the purpose was to smoothly walk into parts of campus I wasn't supposed to access
I’ve made the executive decision to move back home and start college. I am currently 23 and I was a little nervous thinking about going back to college at 24 and thinking I would be too old. Honestly 24 is still super young and age shouldn’t matter when it comes to education. I want a successful career. I’ll blend right in with the other students as well. I am proud of myself for making this decision.
source
how is a Greek chorus like a lawyer / they're both in the business of searching for a precedent / finding an analogy / locating a prior example / so as to be able to say / this terrible thing we're witnessing now is / not unique you know it happened before / or something much like it / we're not a loss how to think about this / we're not without guidance / there is a pattern / we can find an historically parallel case / and file it away under / ANTIGONE BURIED ALIVE FRIDAY AFTERNOON / COMPARE CASE HISTORIES 7, 17 AND 49
Antigonick, Anne Carson p 33
I wanted to share a resource for reading practice that I stumbled across recently. It’s called the Chinese Reading World, and it was a project led by the University of Iowa.
The site was put together from 2005 to 2008, so it’s not super up to date. However, there is a ton of content! Everything is sorted into 3 levels: beginning, intermediate, and advanced.
Each level has 30 units, and each unit has 10 lessons. The lessons begin with a vocab pre-test, then there is a reading with some comprehension questions. Lastly, there is a vocab post-test, which is the same as the initial test (at least for the lessons I’ve done so far). There’s audio for each lesson text, but unfortunately it can’t be streamed—you have to download it. There is also an achievement test at the end of each unit.
My experience has actually been that I already know all the words on the vocabulary tests, but the reading passages contain other words that I’m not familiar with.
So far, the readings I’ve encountered are not very long. This is nice since reading longer pieces can be frustrating at times. With shorter readings, you can just read 1 or 2 on some days and read more when you have more time/patience. I believe the readings are taken from Chinese newspapers.
Also, every unit has a theme. With 90 units total, there are bound to be themes that interest you. Example unit topics:
Directions and Asking Direction 方向和问路
Sports and Outdoor Activities 体育和户外运动
Chinese Music and Musicians 中国音乐和音乐家
Chinese Minorities and Local Customs 地方习俗和民族风情
Chinese Sports and Olympic Games 体育和奥林匹克
Contemporary Chinese Literature and Writers 中国当代文学和作家
The 3 levels also each come with 5 proficiency tests. They seem to be based on vocabulary knowledge, so expanding your vocab is clearly a huge focus of this site. The only thing I’m unclear is about is I’m not sure exactly when the proficiency tests are meant to be taken. After completing all units? Or are they spaced out so you are supposed to take test 1 after the first few units, test 2 after the next few, etc.?
I’ve started working my way through the advanced section this week. With 300 advanced lessons alone, it really feels like I have an infinite number of articles to go through!
reading a textbook for class and i’m going insane. why is this just poetry. what. this is a STEM class what’s going on.
they should invent being awake and attentive and having energy