C

Sometimes it is difficult to talk to taxi drivers.They must give all their attention to the road as they work out the shortest way to the place where you are going.However，passengers from Wangfujing were in surprise when they took a taxi.The driver just would not stop talking—in English.

Organized by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy，“Dare to Speak”examines if Chinese people will speak English in“real­life”situations.

Matthew Knowles，an acting student from South Carolina at Beijing Film Academy，acted the part as the“driver”.He collected six passengers on Saturday morning，most of whom were female white­collar(白领) workers.

“Of course they were surprised at first，wondering why I’m driving a taxi，and wondering whether this is a real taxi，but then most of them were pretty willing to speak，”he said.Knowles said he was also surprised by his“passengers”.“Apart from my first‘passenger’，who could speak very little English，all the rest spoke English very well，and it was fun to communicate with them，”he said，adding that some“passengers”were quite talkative.

The“foreign taxi driver”project was just one of the“Dare to Speak”activities，which have been going on since the end of October.Other projects included a foreign store owner near a high school in Beijing，a cook in a Shanghai university canteen.They were testing the willingness of Chinese people，especially students and white­collar workers，to speak to foreigners in English.

Rong Xin，senior manager of IELTS(雅思) with the British Embassy，said they hoped to let IELTS takers in China know that communication is the ultimate goal of IELTS.

“We hope that more and more IELTS takers in China can realize the importance of communicating in English in real life，instead of just getting high test scores，”she said.

D

    One day last month，I read a story about two teachers who gave awards to their students．The awards were labeled the“8th Annual Ghetto(贫民区)Classroom Awards，”They were intended to be“light-hearted”and the teachers didn’t mean anything bad．One student was recognized for his academic difficulties with the award．

    The world learned about it because his mother posted it on social media．She wasn’t proud．She was angry，confused and hurt for her son．Did I mention that the students to whom the awards were given were in a class for kids who receive special services for learning disabilities? Yes，the "Ghetto Classroom" was the special education classroom．

    When I read this story，I was sure of three things：That student got the message that he was a loser；he would never forget those teachers；he would head to high school without a lot of confidence．

    Humor can be tricky．I learned this the hard way，in my first year of teaching．Someone mentioned that one of my students，whom I had placed into the "athletic" category，had taken ballet lessons for years，and I gently teased her for it．At least I thought it was gentle．I also thought it was okay，until the day when she came to me after class and told me that it hurt her feelings and she'd like me to stop．

    I'm thankful every day that she had the courage to talk to me．Over the years I think I figured out how to throw away my sarcastic(挖苦的)wit(风趣)and learned how to have humor without being hurtful．

    It's really quite simple：You can make fun of yourself in a self-deprecating(自我贬低的)way，but never make fun of your students．

(B)

        Teaching materials for learning Chinese are provided here. There are sites where you may find interesting instructions suitable for you. Here are some sites to begin your surfing.

      You may start with these pages from these websites--just to get a little taste of it without working too hard.

     ●A Is for Love

    Flash cards for learning a few Chinese words.

    ●Listening to the sound of Chinese

    Play a few words of Chinese on your computer.

    ●A few Chinese words

    Each word is enlarged for easy study.

    If you are studying Chinese，these tools can help.

    ●Zhongwen site

      More than a dictionary!

    ●Clavis Sinica

        Excellent programme by Professor David  Porter. It displays(显示)  a whole document in Chinese [GB] or [BIG5]，and gives individual(个人的) word's definition(定

义)，pronunciation as well as much more information when you click on that word. If you are studying Chinese，this is a very useful tool.

     ●Chinese Character Visual Dictionary

    If you tike to know more，go to the following sites on the Internet.

    ●The Chinese Outpost

    Pronunciation，Character and Grammar by Mark Andrew Baker. The best. A must-visit site.

  ●Learn Cantonese/Mandarin Online

    ●Internet Based Chinese Teaching and Learning

    ●Rainland Kids discover Chinese -- Site is in Germany

    If you want to have a better understanding of China，go to this one.

    ●Wanfang Data

    As an affiliate(分支) of Chinese Ministry of Science ＆. Technology，Wanfang Data has been the leading information provider in China since 1950s. With a wide range of database resources and value-added  services，Wanfang Data has become a gateway to understanding Chinese culture，medicine，business，science，etc.

Google's self-driving cars have gone a total of 100000 miles with no accidents and now the company is working towards making their cars even safer. Google recently secured a patent for technology to communicate with pedestrians.

    The details of the patent show that the car will be able to sense when a person is standing in front of or close to it and will then decide the next step to take. The screens, which can be fixed on the doors or hood(引擎盖) could flash warnings like “Stop”, “Safe Cross” or a traffic sign that will inform pedestrians about what the car is doing. The speaker system can shout out the text shown on the screens and send out other warning messages.

    The patent says, “The car may include sensors which detect a pedestrian trying or about to cross the roadway in front of it. The car's computer system may provide a notification(告示) to the pedestrian of what the car is going to do or is doing.”

    This past Halloween, Google was teaching cars how to recognize children who dressed up for the holiday, part of a feature that is educating them how to react and act around children.

    It is also said that an eye or robotic arm will be added that can tell pedestrians the car has “seen” them. The arm could mimic that of a human, as it “sweeps” for pedestrians to cross, but the message can come across unclear when it's coming from a robot and not a real person.

Sometimes it is difficult to talk to taxi drivers.They must give all their attention to the road as they work out the shortest way to the place where you are going.However，passengers from Wangfujing were in surprise when they took a taxi.The driver just would not stop talking—in English.

Organized by the Cultural and Education Section of the British Embassy，“Dare to Speak”examines if Chinese people will speak English in“real­life”situations.

Matthew Knowles，an acting student from South Carolina at Beijing Film Academy，acted the part as the“driver”.He collected six passengers on Saturday morning，most of whom were female white­collar(白领) workers.

“Of course they were surprised at first，wondering why I’m driving a taxi，and wondering whether this is a real taxi，but then most of them were pretty willing to speak，”he said.Knowles said he was also surprised by his“passengers”.“Apart from my first‘passenger’，who could speak very little English，all the rest spoke English very well，and it was fun to communicate with them，”he said，adding that some“passengers”were quite talkative.

The“foreign taxi driver”project was just one of the“Dare to Speak”activities，which have been going on since the end of October.Other projects included a foreign store owner near a high school in Beijing，a cook in a Shanghai university canteen.They were testing the willingness of Chinese people，especially students and white­collar workers，to speak to foreigners in English.

Rong Xin，senior manager of IELTS(雅思) with the British Embassy，said they hoped to let IELTS takers in China know that communication is the ultimate goal of IELTS.

“We hope that more and more IELTS takers in China can realize the importance of communicating in English in real life，instead of just getting high test scores，”she said.