- Learn about differences in how men and women spend money and how this affects marketing.

Imagine this situation. A man and woman go together to a big department store. The store has a wide variety [vơ 'rai ơ ty] of products - clothes, computers, food, appliances, automotive (xe cộ) supplies, furniture. They decide to separate and meet again in an hour.
1. What things will the man probably shop for?
2. What things will the woman probably shop for?
3. In the same situation, what would you probably shop for? Do you think you are typical or unusual? Why?

Sub-topic: Women enter the electronics market
The roles and responsibilities of men and women are changing in society, so are the shopping habits of the two genders. The electronics industry is one place when gender differences in purchasing are rapidly changing.

- (Until recently) The electronics market consisted mostly of men. Today, however, women are some of the biggest consumers of computers and other electronic products. With more and more women working and in control of their own and their family's money, women now want to have a say in the type of electronics that they have in their homes.

- Some experts report that women are actually buying  more electronics than men. A recent study by the Consumer Electronics Associations reports another interesting development. It states (v-phát biểu, tuyên bố) that almost a third of the new and more innovative electronics are sold to women.

=> So, not only are women becoming more interested in electronics purchases in general, but they are also increasingly willing (vui lòng) to try the latest products.

- Women in the U.S are now spending more than $50 billion on electronics. What are the implications (hàm ý nói) of this change in women's spending habits for marketing? Laura Heller (DSN Retailing Today), believes that until recently women have been ignored by the electronics industry. She say. "There's so much we don't know about this group: How they shop for electronics, how they fell about these products, and more importantly, how these products make them fell".

Businesses need to understand the changes in their customer population and create new strategies to meet consumer's needs. These strategies will focus on the need to appeal (v-hấn dẫn) to their new customers, that is, to appeal to women.

Discuss these questions and share your answers:
- Think of the men and women that you know. What changes have you noticed in their shopping interests? Give some examples.
- Think of a store that usually appeals to men. What could it do to appeal to women?

Let's get started because the topic today is really interesting. What I want to talk about is how people spend money. This is a really popular topic because everyone has a personal story about spending money. So first we'll look at the spending habits of wealthy people and then we'll move on to the spending habits of the poor.

Discuss these questions and share your answers:
- The professor pointed out that more and more women are making "big ticket" purchases such as computers and cars. Do you think this is true? Have you seen evidence of this change in spending habits?
- According to the lecture, marketers are now trying to appeal more to women. Do you think marketers need to use different marketing strategies for men and for women?

Practice Lecture:
Introduction #1: Today I'll be discussing some of the most important trends in the area of gender and spending, so that means what the latest research is telling us about how men and women spend money today.
And we'll be discussing several reasons for these trends, so what kinds of electronics women are buying versus what electronic products men are buying because you see all of this is incredibly important for marketers and advertisers who work with the technology industry today.

Introduction #2: Let me begin by asking:
How many of you have bought a new car recently, or maybe you've been in a car dealer recently?
This morning what I want to talk about is how new cars are marketed today.
First we'll look at the recent car market, and then we'll move on to look at a couple of recent case studies from the automotive world.

Introduction #3:
Let's continue our discussion of market plans. Now I know you read in your textbook that every business has a plan for how it will sell its product.
These plans are very different from company to company, very different. (what I'm saying is even two companies who sell the same product can market it in completely different ways.)
I'm going to cover three ways that we can analyze market plans and, then we'll look at one specific market plan.

Lecture:
We'll be talking about spending again today and the various ways that different groups of people in society spend money.
And the two groups we'll look this morning are men and women, (a favorite topic for many people).
And I'm going to cover some of the different ways that men and women spend money.
And then discuss some of the reactions by businesses to these differences. (see lots of differences)
And the main reason I want to focus on gender differences in spending is because these differences are starting to have very big implications (hàm ý) for marketers and advertisers.

Speaking in generalizations here:
- Traditionally, the wife and mother in a family has been the one in the family who has been concerned with taking care of the home and taking care of the children. (who thinks about preparing the food for the family or keeping the family healthy and warm ... those kinds of things). (here's how experts say) women want to "create a lifestyle". That means they tend to focus on the daily life of their family.
=> So when we think about spending money, the traditional purchases made by women have been things like the daily food for the family (shoes, clothes). These kinds of purchases are made for the daily needs of the family.

Let's move on (men): talk a about the traditional responsibilities and traditional spending by men.
Traditionally, (generalization), the man in family is the one who fixes things, (for example), if a door in the house is broken, the man fixes it.
(when it comes to spending, men traditionally want to get those things that will last a long time and that don't need replacing or repairing.) They're the ones who are concerned with the long-term value of purchases.

(And that makes quite a bit of sense). Now, the long-term value of an item increases as the price of the item goes up. (for example: the long-term value of a car, is more important to a family's finances than let's say the long-term value of a sweater or a pair of shoes.)
=> So items with a high long-term value have been important to men.
(Big ticket [expensive] items like cars, refrigerators, televisions, electronic equipment ... they're the things that last a long time.)
They have a longer value, so because men usually made the decision about the big ticket items, the experts have traditionally considered men to be more focused on the "future" in their spending behavior.

Read More ...

- Learn about trends in modern architecture

Does form follow function? A surprising study:

When you look at the outside of a building, can you tell whether it is an art museum, or a library, or a theater? Most people can't.

A recent study show that many modern public buildings no longer follow the famous rule in architecture: form follows function. The idea behind this rule is that people should be able to understand the purpose of a building, its function, from the way it looks, its form.

In the study, people in three countries - the United States, Canada, and Japan - were shown photographs of city halls, theaters, libraries and art museums. The researcher asked the people to name the purpose of each building in the photograph. Surprisingly, people in the study correctly only 32% of the time. This shows that for many modern buildings, including the towering skyscraper, form does not follow function.

"The form of building shows its meaning" said researcher Jack Nasar, who worked with Professor Kazunori Hanyu from Japan to conduct the study. "So it makes sense that architects design building to indicate their use. But our results suggest it doesn't often happen." In other words, people don't always know if the building is designed for shelter (chổ nương tựa), for work, or for cultural activities.

The researchers in the study believe that when buildings clearly show their purpose, visitors can more easily find their way, and city life is more comfortable and understandable for everyone. Some architects today are more interested in designing buildings to catch our attention than to tell people what goes on inside. Nasar and his team disagree with this idea: "You should be able to look at a building and have a good idea about what happens inside."

What does "form follows function" mean?

Why did the researchers show photographs of different building to people? What was the result?
Why do the researchers believe that form should follow function?

Louis Sullivan:
Sullivan believed that celebrate form follows function.
Sullivan believed that things ahead of anyone else.
Sullivan thought of its height.

Sullivan had all these really new ideas: For example, one of his idea was the way he thought about ... and the way he designed, ... skyscrapers. He believed that the skyscraper should celebrate and show off its height. He means that the skyscraper should be tall and also be decorated with lots of attractive shapes.

Practice Lecture:

Talk about a very important person who really influenced modern architecture, and that's Louis Sullivan. Most people who have studied architecture know something about him.
I'm going to cover some of the bid ideas we got from Louis Sullivan because he's going to be very important to us in this class.
A little background. Sullivan was born in Boston but soon moved to Chicago in 1873, and that's important because many of Sullivan'g great buildings are in Chicago.

Sullivan had many ideas about skyscrapers:
(the thing you should know about Sullivan, he was a true visionary ... By visionary, I mean someone who has the ability to imagine things for the future. He thought of things before anyone else.)
- Sullivan had all these really new ideas about (for example) the way to design skyscrapers. He believed that the skyscraper could ... should celebrate and show off its height. So what I mean is, it should be tall and also be decorated with lots of attractive shapes, like plant shapes [dáng đứng], and other pretty decorations. They should not be just a tall, plain box.
- Sullivan is most famous for one particular idea. He said that, in architecture, form follows function (let me repeat that). So the purpose of a building should help the architect create the design of the building. You get the picture? The building should look like what it is, what its purpose is.

Lecture:
We begin our discussion of modern architecture, and this afternoon I'll be discussing a very general concept that is important for our understanding of modern architecture.
Now, as I discuss this concept, I'm going to give you a little background on modern architecture. Then later, I'll move on to focus on one giant architect of our times, and that's Frank Gehry.

- First, let me give you a tiny little bit of background on modern architecture. Now, we all know that a building does more than simply give us shelter. We can all think of some buildings that are just really beautiful, or really interesting. So, this tells us that sometimes architecture can also be well art.
Let me explain what I mean.
Let's take a look at these famous buildings just go to get an idea:

   Here's a building by the famous architect Antoni Gaudi. It's an apartment building, (from our point of view today), it certainly is more than just a shelter for people. It's also very pleasing to the eye, it's very fun to look at. It's truly a work of art. Isn't it fabulous? (adj-thần thoại)

   Now, here's the tallest building in the word right now. It's a skyscraper in Taiwan, called Taipei 101. Most people who see this building love it, not only because it's an office building, and not only because it's so tall. It's also incredibly (adv) beautiful. Don't you think so?

This is an important point: that architecture has a purpose, but it's also something that can be very beautiful at the same time. It can please the eye.

- (Question) All right. This brings me to the key concept for today (in modern architecture), so let's say architecture from 1990 to the present, there's been this big question: What is the relationship between a building's form and its function? This was the question asked by the world-famous American architect named Louis Sullivan.

Sullivan believed quite strongly the form follows function. But what was Sullivan's point? _Well, Sullivan wanted to say that the purpose of a building should tell the architect how to design the building. And consequently, people should be able to know what its purpose was just by looking at it.

So, most architects agreed with Sullivan and followed his idea .... this for the next several decades.

- Now, I want to move on the show you how architects have changed their attitude about form and function. This is very interesting. In the last 25 years, many famous architects have ignored what Sullivan said. They've chosen to go against the idea that form follows function. And they've built some fantastic buildings.

This leads us to my favorite modern architect, and he's very famous for not believing that form follows function. His name is Frank Gehry.

Let me show you his most famous design:
   + This is the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, in Spain. It's a very well-known museum. There's famous art inside (paintings and statues inside), but do you think this looks like a museum? No, I don't think so: Take a look at these curves (n-đường cong), these round shapes ... (Gehry designed this), so there are no real corners, no straight lines. it looks like a ship. And it's on the water, as you can see.
=> So, when people visit the museum, what do they notice?_They notice the shiny curves, the reflection of the water, but they might not immediately think. "Ah-ha! This is a museum."
=> So what I'm trying to show you here is that: There is very little connection between the form of the building and the purpose of the building. (to show the art to people. It's an art museum, but it doesn't really look like one.)

   + Let's analyze another Frank Gehry building. Here it is. This building is very playful (adj-khôi hài), very fun, and it really catches the eye. but I have a surprise for you. This is actually the computer science research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) (the most famous university for science and technology in the world). So it's a very serious place.
=> So again, we see Frank Gehry making a kind of game out of the whole form and function idea. He's being ironc (mỉa mai, châm biếm), meaning he's actually doing the opposite of what he claims to be doing - designing a building for a serious purpose. You could say, he's really twisted the form and function idea. And he's had a lot of fun along the way. This place is really crazy.

Read More ...

- Learn about the reasons that fairy tales (chuyện cổ tích thần tiên) developed and continue to exist.

Describe the characters. Describe what is happening in the pictures.

Name all the fairy tales that you are familiar with. Which do you still remember from your childhood? Why do you think you still remember them?

Common Themes in Fairy Tales:
- A child's world is rich with stories. The tales they see in movies, read in books, or their parents and grandparents tell them, they take them on magical journeys. They take them to many different places, where they meet many strange and wonderful people, animals, or creatures.

When we take a step back, however, it becomes clear that the stories are not quite as different from each other as they might first appear. (các câu chuyện ko hoàn toàn khác nhau như chúng xuất hiện lần đầu)

Fairy tales:
- These first magical stories told to children: they contain many similar main ideas or themes (chủ đề). These themes are also similar across cultures (qua nhiều nền văn hóa):
 Explain: No matter where a child is born, his fairy tales probably have characters like a poor servant girl who marries a prince, starving (starve v-đói, thiếu ăn) children who find a new home, or a young peasant boy who discovers that he is actually a lost king.
In fact, the most popular theme in fairy tales involves a person rising above his or her low position in life.

- Another very common theme is caution (lời cảnh báo, sự cẩn thận):
The main character or protagonist (n-vai chính, ng thủ lĩnh) often receives a warning: "Be home before midnight" (says the godmother [n-mẹ đở đầu] to Cinderella).

Fairy tales teach the young listener the terrible consequences of ignoring warnings. The message is predictable and clear: if you ignore the warning, you will pay the penalty.

- The plots, or story lines, of fairy tales vary, but they usually follow the same sort of progression:

• The protagonist does not obey a warning or is unfairly treated.
• He is sent away or runs away.
• He must complete a difficult or dangerous task, or must suffer in some other way, in order to make everything right again.
• He returns home in a better condition than before.

At some point in the fairy tale, something magical happens, the protagonist meets mysterious creatures. Perhaps he rubs a lamp and a genie appears to grant his wishes. The creatures sometimes give him helpful magical gifts with special power, like a cape (n-áo choàng) that makes him invisible.

Summary: There is danger and drama (n-kịch tính), but most fairy tales end happily. The protagonist í successful and rewarded with marriage, money, survival and wisdom (n-sự thông thái). And the audience learns an important lesson about life without ever leaving home.

_ What is the definition of a fairy tale?
_ What are two of the most popular themes in fairy tales?
_ What is one of the lessons that children learn from fairy tales?

"Cinderalla", there are over 700 variations of the story ... 700 variations of the story from many countries: Italy, Denmark, Vietnam, Russia and France, to name a few.
The oldest version of Cinderalla is "Yeh-hsien" from China. The Chinese version of Cinderalla is the earliest recorded version of the tale. This version is over 1000 years old ... from the 9th century.

Transcript of fairy tales:
Let's begin today by looking at the plot we find in a lot of fairy tales. It has five steps:
- Step one: the character is treated unkindly by the family. Step one is the most common and important.
- Second, he or she receives magical help.
- Then third, he or she meets a prince or someone else of a higher status in life.
- The fourth step is the character must prove his or her identity.
- And finally, ... the fifth step, ... is marriage. (for example: Cinderella, she married the prince. He is the person of a higher status.

Question:
Why do these stories usually have a character who is treated unkindly? What do you think?
_ Well, this treatment is what helps the character look for change. Without the desire for change there would be no tale. So this is very important.

Idea:
One idea that runs throughout every story (we must be cautions ... we must live cautiously). In these tales, peace and happiness can only exist if warnings are obeyed. This idea is key to fairy tales.
Let's look at a few examples. Cinderella may have a magical dress, but she must be back when the clock strikes twelve. The king may invite fairies to the party for the new prince, but he must invite ALL the fairies or terrible results with follow.
This idea that we see in every story is very important, ... the idea that all happiness depends on one action. All will be lost if one bad thing happens.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of seeing movie version of a fairy tale?
(movies make it harder for children to use their imagination)
What are the advantages and disadvantages of reading a fairy tale?
_ Possible ideas

The five most common fairy-tale themes can be summarized as follows: Lack of something causes the protagonist to go on a search, during which he or she encounters a magic helper, who helps the protagonist pass a test, after which the protagonist receives a reward.

Practice Lecture:
We'll be discussing two fairy tales:
- Cinderella: the story of a poor girl who marries a prince.
- Harry Potter: (the other is very modern) the story of a boy who discovers that he has magical powers.
By looking at these two tales we'll see that the themes used in these stories are really quite similar, even though they are centuries apart (adv-cách nhau, có khoảng cách) (cách nhau hàng thế kỷ).
(the two house stood 500 metres apart/hai nhà cách nhau 500 mét)
It is important to note (in fact) that the themes in older stories, like Cinderella, still have great meaning today.
Cinderella and Harry Potter have a lot in common. Let's look at a few of the points that these stories share. (write these down, these comparisons of stories, because there will be something on the quiz about them.)

First, both characters are taken in by other family members and the families are very unhappy ... Both live in homes that are terrible places for them, where they are not happy and not loved.
Example:
- They both have at least one relative their own age: Harry has a cousin and Cinderella has two stepsisters. (the parents love - not Harry and Cinderella)
- An important part of every fairy tale, it is (in fact) a key part of every tale, is that they both have a wish, a wish that we see in many fairy tales. They wish that they could be somewhere else leading a different life. And this wish is what makes many of the events in the story occur.
- The one final thing that they have in common is that. In both stories a miracle (n-phép màu, điều kỳ diệu) happens. The miracle is that they are given a chance. A chance to change the unchangeable, to become what they wished for, to live a better life. They both find their place in the world, and people who love them.

Lecture:
Today, we will be discussing fairy tales. Let me start off with a definition so we have a clear idea of what we mean by fairy tales. Fairy tales are stories that magical people and creatures in them.

Things happen in fairy tales that can't happen in ordinary life. (example: A boy becomes a bird, a princess sleeps for a hundred years, mirrors talk, pumpkins become carriages (bí ngô trở thành xe ngựa), a lamp is home to genie (thần linh). The word we use to describe the events that happen in fairy tales is magical.

Questions: Let's dive in and focus today on the purpose of fairy tales and answer this question:
Why were fairy tales created?
Let's start by looking at the audience. Who were fairy tales written for?
- Some people assume (v-cho rằng) that fairy tales were created for children. (in fact) It is absolutely not the case. Form very beginning, thousands of years ago, fairy tales were stories that adults told other adults.

But why did they start telling fairy tales? What was the purpose of fairy tales?
We will look at three general, different ideas about purposes that fairy tales serve. These purposes are important to discuss because they help us understand why fairy tales were meant for the adults imagination:
- The first idea is that fairy tales cause a sense of wonder in the reader or listener. Explain: Wonder is the emotion that we feel when we are excited by the idea that something new and unexpected or unexplainable has happened.
   It is this sense of wonder, this sense of strange and magical things happening, that some scholars believe is the reason that fairy tales exist. They help people wonder about the workings of the universe. (where anything can happen at any time. In fact, all kinds of strange things happen in fairy tales.)
Explain how this works: If we can imagine that anything can happen to the characters in fairy tales, then we might also believe that things can happen in our own lives....So, you see, fairy tales help make us hopeful. They make us believe that life really can get better. Isn't this a wonderful explanation?

- Another possible purpose of fairy tales, that is entertainment. Just entertainment. People didn't have TV's or radios or even theater in most places, so what did they do? They played music, they talked, they told each other stories.
Explain: Scholars support this idea by pointing out that fairy tales because very popular in Europe and America during the late 1800s. (by the way, I will include some dates on the quiz, so you should probably include them in your notes.)
The daily life and work was extremely routine and boring. For example: factory work, or being a worker on a farm, this kind of work can be very hard on the body and mind and leave little time for daydreaming and leisure and imagination. So, fairy tales helped people escape from the routine in their lives.

- One more idea about the purpose of fairy tales. Some say that fairy tales serve the purpose of civilizing (v-văn minh) people. Now, what do I mean by civilizing?
Civilizing really means educating people about good behavior.
Let's look at how this works. (Think of the plots [mưa đồ] in fairy tales - the events in each story) These events teach us things. They teach readers important values of life and society. Values like hard work, honesty, goodness.

This is really good way to teach people how to be good citizens. There are always clear consequences in these fairy tales. For example: people get punished for not obeying their parents, so we learn to obey our parents. Most fairy tales show characters getting rewards when they change their behavior and follow the rules of family or society.

Take a step back: see these stories that you think of as simple and childlike (adj-ngây thơ), are really not so simple.
In fact, they're really very deep. Fairy tales are stories about who we are and what we believe in. They may come in the form of entertainment, easy to understand tales of wonder, but they're actually quite powerful.

Let me wrap up with this thought. If you doubt [daut] (v-nghi ngờ) the power of fairy tales, think for a minute about how many of these stories you still know.

Read More ...

- Learn how geography influences culture

What geographical features (ocean, mountains, etc.) are in these pictures? What other geographical features can you think of?
Describe the climate and main geographical features of the area you grew up in.

+ Geography helps explain the success of Silicon Valley:
- Silicon Valley is commonly used nickname for the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area in California.
- Silicon Valley is a specific geographic area - the northern part of Santa Clare Valley and surrounding (v-bao vây, bao quannh) communities on the San Francisco Peninsula and in the East Bay.
- Its name comes from the word of technology. This area has a high concentration of computer-related companies that make and use silicon chips.

How did this small area become the center of such an innovative and successful industry?
- Many people point to geographical reasons to explain Silicon Valley's high-tech success. Pleasant climate and available space are two geographical features that attract people and companies to Silicon valley. These features hold them there after they arrive also.
In a survey of Silicon Valley companies, more than two-thirds rated the location and climate as outstanding.
- Other factors (another reason) have helped Silicon Valley's success as well. Although the area exists in a valley, but it is not isolated. There are major universities (a key factor in the spread of new ideas and training workers). It is also close to San Francisco,a major city and financial center. This means investment money is available.

About market:
Some of the biggest markets for Silicon Valley's product are the countries across the Pacific Ocean: Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea.
And the bay city of Oakland is one of the few major ports on the West Coast of the United States, making it easier to exchange goods.

These geographical advantages have helped Silicon Valley overcome some of the barriers (n-chứng ngại vật, hàng rào) to trade that exist in other regions. They encourage rather than inhibit (v-ngăn chặn, hạn chế) business relationships.

When you consider geography, access to new technology and technicians, availability of investment money, and ease of transport, there isn't much to prevent Silicon Valley's growth and success.
Silicon Valley is the heart of the high-tech industry in the United States.

Questions:
Where and what is Silicon Valley?
What are three geographical features that help explain the success of Silicon Valley?
Silicon Valley is close to an ocean and a port city on a bay. what influence do these two geographical features have on business in the area?

Think about the main geographical features of the city that you live in or grew up in. What influences do they have on the area?
What geographical features might have a negative influence on the success of an area? Why?

Imagine that you are going to hear a lecture on how waterways (rives, oceans, canals) affect the development of an area. Which aspect of the lecture will help the class best understand how waterways affect development? Why?
- an example of a waterway that has influenced development.
- an explanation of how a waterway influences development.
- a detailed definition of a waterway.

So, let me show why waterways have been so important: In the time before rail-roads, and before road systems and trucks and airplanes ... waterways were the main way, it is the least expensive way to exchange products. So you can see that, when a city was close to a waterway, it could have more exchange of products, and as a result, more economic development. (water that is deep and wide enough for ships to travel on, ... to transport ... move product back and forth)

- Waterways allowed exchange of ideas and products.
- In the past people learned about the world through contact with other people.
- Isolation from waterways meant slow development.

A lecture comparing waterways in Western Europe to waterways in Africa:
Discuss how two different areas of the world, ... two continents, ... Europe and Africa, ... have developed differently, and how waterways have played a role in this development.
Let me start by explaining the physical features and climates of these two areas and how they vary from each other. (v-khác nhau mỗi vùng)
- First, physical features. Rivers in Western Europe flow gently (adv-nhẹ nhàng, dịu dàng) through a large flat areas of land. They connect wide geographical areas. In Africa, rivers don't flow through flat land. In fact, they fall a thousand feet or more on their way to the sea. There are also many waterfalls that make it difficult for ships to pass.
- Their climates vary also. In Western Europe, rivers stay about the same all year because of regular rainfall and melting snow ['melting]. But Africa's rainfall is not consistent [adj-ko nhất quán]. Rivers rise and fall dramatically with the seasons.

What main georaphical feature is compared in the chart? How does the student indicate this?
What two aspect of Western Europe and Africa are compared?

The list of the six things that affect a culture. On your own, put them in order of the strongest (1) to the weakest (6) influence. Be prepared to explain and defend your list:
- Geography: the geographical features of a place
- Religion: the beliefs and opinions about a higher power.
- Language: the language that is spoken
- Media: the many forms of media that we are exposed to (newspapers, film, radio, TV, etc.)
- Family: the people that love us
- Climate: the weather

Imagine that you live in a country surrounded by physical barriers. How do you think this would affect the culture? Would isolation bring people closer together? Would it make people more tolerant of each other or would the rules become more strict?

Do you agree or disagree with the following statement? Why?
"Geography creates limits but people determine what they will do within those limits."

Practice Lecture: how waterways allow the exchange of ideas
Let's look at the positive way that waterways influence the growth of cities and cultures. We've talked about how waterways allow the exchange of products, but they also allow the exchange of ideas. That's what I'd like to talk about today.

Question (start with a question): How do we learn about the world that exists beyond (prep-ở xa) our own culture?
Answer: Well, there are many ways that we learn about the world. Let me show you what I mean.
- In the past before travel and communication were/became so easy (there were no computers and no airplanes), people learned about the world through contact (actual contact) with other people and other ideas.
- It was geographical [dgiơ'] features like waterways that made contact between people and ideas possible.

Let's look at how this worked: In the past, the closer to waterways that people lived, the more opportunity they had to exchange ideas about the world, and this exchange of ideas helped cultures growing and develop.
- We know that this is true because, when we study cultures that live in isolation from waterways, we see some things that are similar. (explain: Ships travelling on rivers, lakes, and oceans carried people, but they also carried people's ideas and experiences.) Cultures that were not near waterways usually developed more slowly than others, than cultures near waterways, because they couldn't easily talk to people from other places and exchange ideas with them.

Argument: Some people argue that access to waterways was one of the most important influences on how a culture learned about the world.
(access to something -n- cơ hội/quyền sử dụng cái gì: example: students must have access to a good library)

Lecture:
Today we're going to talk about an aspect of geography called cultural geography. (to discuss the ways that the geographical features of the Earth affect the spread of cultures.)

- First, what is cultural geography?: It's the study of the way that the physical environment of the Earth interacts (v- ảnh hưởng lẫn nhau) [intơ 'ackt] with  the people and cultures of the Earth.
(Let me explain more so it's clear: Cultural geography studies the location of cultures. A cultural geographer sees differences in cultures and wants to know what effect the geography of the culture in the spread, or lack of spread, of cultural elements, like beliefs and customs.

Some experts say that there are 15,000 different cultures in the world. I mean groups of people who share similar ways of going about life. They have a common set of learned beliefs, values and behaviors.

Culture regions (vùng, miền) differ greatly in size: Some are very large, like the Islamic culture region that makes up millions of square miles of North Africa, the Middle East and Southwest Asia. Some are very small, like Spanish Harlem, which encompasses (v-bao quanh, vây quanh) about two square miles of Manhattan in New York City.

So, a cultural geographer wants to know, why? Why are there so many cultures on Earth today? If we all started out more or less the same way, how did we end up with 15.000 different cultures?

- Let's look at this idea, at how geographical features affect the spread of culture. Today, I'll discuss barrier effects. (this is the term used to describe things that stop cultures from spreading)

Physical barriers are natural elements that prevent cultures from spreading. These physical barriers isolate people. They isolate them by somehow preventing or limiting cultures from changing.

Isolation is one general reason why we have so many cultures. Let's look at how this works: when people can easily communicate, they exchange information and ideas ... (values go back and forth between the cultures). Geographic isolation makes communication difficult, and this cause differences between cultures.

We'll discuss five (5) classic examples of physical barriers:
- The first is oceans: Oceans were barrier ['bariơ] for centuries. People living on islands surrounded by ocean, it were usually prevented from (to be unable) to exchange things with other cultures. So, until shipbuilding and navigation (ngành hàng hải), oceans were a powerful barrier. This is even true today.
Example: some islands in the Pacific Ocean are home to people who have little contact with the outside world.

- Forests are another example: In the past, forests were much larger than today. (nearly all of what is now the western United States). How did this affect culture? Well, once a group of people settled (v-định cư) in the forest, they became separate from other groups. (Can you imagine this?) The forest was so dense (adj-rậm rạt, dày) that they couldn't easily go through it. Forest societies were isolated because it was so difficult to travel.

- Our third example of a physical barrier is mountains: In areas that are extremely mountainous (adj-nhiều núi), we see that communication between cultures is also inhibited.
An example: the island of New Guinea, (You heard of it?) It's an island near Indonesia and Australia, in the South Pacific Ocean. this is small island (the total population is 7 million - there are an estimated 700 languages spoken. (What an amazing fact!) It makes no sense that so many languages exist in such a small space until you look at the geography.
Let me explain: New Guinea is extremely mountainous and has many deep valleys. It also has dense tropical forests in the lowlands. These extreme geographical features resulted in (v_prep-dẫn đến) hundreds of relatively isolated areas of people and these groups have developed their own languages.

-- Now, the last two types of barriers are deserts and tundra (n-địa chất):
You can easily see why deserts ['dezeơt] have also tended to isolate people and inhibit the spread of culture.
Tundra, you might not be familiar with Tundra, Tundra refers to areas like you find in northernmost North America and Europe. It's an area at the very high latitude (vĩ độ cao) at the top of the Earth. The environment is very cold, sub-freezing, and treeless (ko có cây). Native people adapted to this harsh (adj-khắc nghiệt) environment but the harshness of the climate made it difficult to access.

Those are the five barrier effects. The bottom line is, physical barriers have isolated peoples and culture. It's hard to imagine today, because of amazing advances on travel and communication but these barriers were a significant influence in the development of the cultures of the world.

Read More ...

- Learn how sleep affects thinking

Your sleep habits:
1. Most nights, I sleep fewer than 6 hours/ 6-8 hours/ 9 or more hours.
2. I am most likely to skip sleep in order to hang out (v-lang thang, đi chơi) with friends.
3. I usually make up for lost sleep (bù đắp thời gian mất ngủ) by adjusting my schedule.

Are your answers similar to or different from your partner's answers?
Which of your answers do you think is the most interesting?
Do you think it is possible to make up for lost sleep? Why or why not?

A college student health center about how lack of sleep can affect academic performance: The importance of sleep to academic success
- It's no secret that many college students do not sleep enough.
(Academic students, social life, part-time or full-time jobs, and relationships are often more important than sleep) Students experience even more sleep deprivation (n-bị tước quyền) as midterm and final exams approach.

Sleep is Serious Business:
- Lack of sleep can cause these harmful side effects: daytime drowsiness (ngủ gật ban ngày), inability to cope with stress, weight gain, poor health, low energy.
- Most importantly for students, sleep deprivation makes studying and learning more difficult. It also hurts the body's ability to stay/keep healthy.
- To show that many young adults are suffering from sleep deprivation that is severe (adj-khắt khe) [si'viơ] enough to impair (v-làm suy yếu) daytime activities.
- These young people get an average of 6.8 hours of rest per night, but many function on much less. According to current research, most undergraduates need 8.5-9.25 hours of sleep (most adults, 7-9 hours).

Burning the candle at both ends:
- College life only increases the problem of sleep deprivation as students try to burn the candle at both ends. (some students work a part-time job to help pay for college expenses, some students have to support a family while going to school). Because of all these pressures, there is also an increase in stress.
- Stress can lead to insomnia (n-chứng mất ngủ) (the inability to sleep).
- Sleeplessness is especially bad as final exams approach and students cram (v-ôn luyện) for exams. When students force themselves to stay awake to study, they have to function on even less sleep. Too many nights of staying awake can lead to long-term sleep problems.

sleepless (adj-thức, ko ngủ)
sleeplessness (n-sự khó ngủ, ko ngủ được)

Sleep is a necessity, not a luxury:
Your top academic performance depends on getting enough sleep. So remember, as you plan your schedule, be sure to allow plenty of time for sleep. You will have more energy, better health, and greater chances for academic success!.

_ How much sleep do college students need and how much do they usually get? What is the approximate amount of sleep they lose per night?
_ What are two reasons that college students don't get enough sleep?
_ What are three negative results of not getting enough sleep?

Lack of sleep causes many problems. For example:
- It hurts the body's ability to stay healthy. Usually, this is the result of the fact that the immune system [hệ thống miễn dịch] (the part of the body that protects us from infection) is weakened without sleep. it is easier to get infections (nhiễm, nhiễm trùng), such as colds and flu.
- Another problem that occurs is weight gain (n-tăng cân). This happens because the body loses the ability to handle sugar; for instance, it turns sugar into fat rather than burning it as energy.

_ It's a problem to feel drowsy (adj-uể oải,buồn ngủ) when driving because drivers can't concentrate and react quickly.
_ It's good to pull over and take a nap (chợp mắt một lát) because you feel less tired after resting.
_ It is not the best idea to listen to loud music because the effect doesn't work for very long.

Sleep advice:
some of the advice that is given on how to improve sleep: 03 major areas
- Psychological solutions: meaning what can we do to get our minds to relax.
- Physical solutions: meaning what we can do to get our bodies to relax.
- Environment: the space that we sleep in.

1. Have you ever had too much sleep? What was the situation? What effect does too much sleep have on person's mind, and personality?
2. Work alone and write a list of five pieces of advice for a classmate who is having trouble sleeping. Put them in order from the most effective to the least effective.
3. Do you agree that getting sleep is necessary in order to do well on a test? Have you ever crammed and done well? Done poorly? Why do you think this happened?
4. What was another idea in the lecture that you found important and interesting? Why?

Practice Lecture:
A survey question: If you become sleepy (buồn ngủ) while driving, what do you do to stay/keep awake? (You all had techniques, things that you do, tricks [v-lừa, đánh lừa] really, to stay awake while driving.)

- One technique that many of you use is that you use some kind of loud noise to stay awake. For example, many of you turn the radio up and open the car window to hear the traffic noise.
=> But let me say a bit about this. This might seem like a good idea, but actually, it doesn't work for very long. The loud noise and wind make you feel more awake briefly, but they won't keep you from feeling drowsy (adj-ngủ gà ngủ gật) behind the wheel. [sau vô lăng]
- Drinking caffeine was another technique that many of you use. Some examples of the different caffeine-rich things you all use to help you keep awake: coffee, tea, soft drinks with caffeine, eat chocolate. (contain caffeine too)
=> That's true. But let's look at this technique. the caffeine drinks are a common way to try to stay awake while driving, buy the truth is that caffeine only helps for short time, and drivers still feel drowsy.
=> So it may keep you from falling asleep, but it won't stop drowsiness, which can have a bad effect on your judgment (sự phán đoán, phán xét) and reaction time.

sleepy (adj) buồn ngủ, ngái ngủ
drowsy (adj) ngủ gà ngủ gật ['drauzi]
drowsiness (n) tình trạng ngủ gà ngủ gật ['drauzinis]

- Look at one last technique from your surveys, the best really. This technique involves getting some sleep. For instance, one student said that he pulls over and takes a nap. (smart thinking) The fact is that stopping and taking a 15-20 minutes nap, just a short one, it is the safest way to stay awake on a long drive.

Lecture:
Discuss the reasons why we sleep. (in other words) Why do people sleep? (we'll answer the question), And you might find some of this especially interesting because I'll be discussing some of the interesting evidence on how sleep affects learning:

Why do our bodies need sleep? we all know how it feel when we need sleep: we feel drowsy, we have trouble concentrating.

Let's look a bit at two of the reasons (why we sleep):
Scientists continue to do studies to learn more about exactly why humans need sleep, they aren't 100% sure. They don't know, for example: why human beings cannot simply rest, meaning lay down quietly, as insects do. But they do know some of the reasons why we sleep. (two of the reasons):
- One reason is that it helps our bodies recover. Sleep helps the body recover from all the work it did while the person was awake. (This makes sense, right?) Because we all know how bad we feel when we suffer from sleep deprivation. [đép ri vei sn]
- Another interesting reason why we sleep. These studies show that sleep is important for learning. It aids [eid] or helps learning. Let's look at how this works: As a person sleeps, the brain continues to work. It performs tasks like organizing long-term memory, and integrating new information learned during the day, and physical tasks like repairing and renewing the nerve (dây thần kinh) cells in the brain.

How important:
- This is really important for you as students. In some experiments, a person trying to learn something doesn't actually learn it and improve their knowledge until after they have had more than six hours of sleep.
- A study done at Trent University in Ontario, Canada, suggest that students who studied hard all week and then stayed up all night partying on the weekend lost as much as 30% of what they had learned during the week.

Why do you think this is true?
- It seems the brain needs time - time to file away (v-sắp xếp) some new information and skills in the proper places in the brain so that they can be found and used later.

Scientists want to know more:
- One way scientists learn about the reasons we need to sleep is they look at what happens to people when they don't sleep enough - when they are deprived (-v bị tước đoạt) of sleep.
- There are many studies done to learn about the effects of sleep deprivation. These studies all show the same thing: over time, sleep deprivation can have serious side effects (n-tác dung phụ-kéo theo). There are three areas that are most affected. (There is impairment (n-làm suy yếu) of our thinking ability and impairment of our physical abilities and also our moods, our psychological condition is affected.)

Now, let's look at some examples of how the thinking ability of the brain is affected by lack of sleep:
+ (this diagram of the brain, look at just one part of the brain, the frontal lobe (n-thùy tráng) - the part of the brain that is at the forehead) So what does the frontal lobe do? It helps the body with speech and with creative thinking ... there have been some interesting studies that show there is less activity in frontal lobe when people are sleep deprived. So, this means that people who are sleep deprived have difficulty with functions performed in the frontal lobe. (for example: when speech is affected, people are less able to speak clearly. This means that their speech is slurred. They stutter or speak in a flat, monotone voice, speak at a slower than usual pace.)
+ Another example is, sleep-deprived people don't have speed or creative abilities to cope with making quick and logical decisions. And once they have made the decisions, they don't act on them very successfully.
+ Studies have also shown that a lack of sleep impairs people's ability to focus on several different but related tasks at one time. For instance, that tasks are done but more slowly and less efficiently. A good example of this is that a person can react to a complex problem, but similar to the verbal (bằng miệng) tests, they will probably pick an unoriginal (adj-ko đầu tiên) or easy solution.

Summary:
So, you can see how important sleep is to the brain and to your performance in class and on tests, where speaking clearly and having creative answers and both very important skills.
So, for those of you who usually burn the candle at both ends.

Read More ...

- Learn about three revolutions in mass communication

Look at the picture of four ways to store information.
- Which of the four storage method takes up/use the most space? The least space? Which one holds the most and least information? Which is most and least easy to move?
- What do you predict will change in the future of information technology? What inventions (phat minh) or new behaviors will we see in the next twenty years?

A Look at the Beginnings of Mass Communication:
- The invention of a writing system is one of the most important invention of humankind, just behind the invention of the wheel and the ability to use fire.
- Historians say that the invention of a writing system was the beginning of mass communication.
- The earliest full writing system is more than 5,000 years old. It comes from the Middle East in what was then called Sumeria.

(The Sumerians had a story to explain their invention of writing: The king of Uruk sent one of his servants to another kingdom far away with an important message. when messenger arrived at the court, he's so exhausted from the journey that he was not able to convey (v-truyền đạt, chuyển) his message orally (adv-bằng lời nói). he was too tired to speak. The king heard about this and was upset. He came up with a clever solution. he made a flat tablet out of wet clay. He cut the message into the soft clay. The tablet was the medium for the message. There was no alphabet or writing system. Each picture or symbol was equal to a word or idea.)

- Historians ask, why would the king write a letter if the receiver could not read it? They also doubt that the earliest writing system was a written version of speech. It is more likely that writing began as a separate system of communication. It probably developed to keep track of weighing and measuring animals and foods.

- Historians agree on a few things, however. Early writing was pictographic (chữ tượng hình) (symbols) - based on pictures, and messages were carved into (v-được khắc chạm) heavy clay tablets. (abstract)

- Most importantly, they agree that a writing system was invented to store and transmit information. With the invention of writing system, information became portable. (important information was accessible to all people). Writing allowed people to share their words and knowledge with others, near and far away.

What were the two main reasons that a writing system was invented?
What is a pictographic system of writing?
What does it mean for information to be portable?

How would the world be different if writing were never invented? Use your imagination and think of some examples of life without writing.
What are some of the way that transmitting information has changed during your lifetime?

- Recent communication has been influenced by technology.
- Television and radio have made it easier to send information to large audiences.
- Radio sends out signals without wires.

major: very important, especially when compared to other things of a similar kind.
focus on: special attention given to a subject.

+ Look at these commonly used abbreviations:
avg: average
approx: approximetaly
btwn; between
cont: continued
diff: difference
ea: each
e.g. example
est; estimate
esp; especially
etc; et cetera (and other similar things)
id. identify
i.e. in other words
imp: important
info: information
max: maximum - min: minimum
vs: versus
w/out: without
yr: year

- Over the centuries, wider communication has become possible between people in many different societies. What are some of the results of this worldwide exchange of ideas and information?
- Knowledge states that there are three ideas key to mass communication. Review these ideas. Can you predict what a future communication revolution might be?

Practice Lecture:
I'd like to look at the recent history of communication (the early [đầu, sớm] history of writing), we see that communication has really been influenced by technology: (what do I mean technology?)
- I mean the use and knowledge of any tool that humans have invented.
-  And recently, there are quite a few technologies that make it easier to get and share information.

 Technology:
- Television is one technology. You all certainly know what television is, but the technical definition is: television is system for sending out and receiving moving pictures and sound over a distance.
- Radio-the next technology to look at is radio. (we all know what radio is in the general sense): I mean a system for sending out signals without wires.

These two technologies, television and radio, are two major ways that information is transmitted to large audiences today.

Lecture:
- We're going to continue our discussion of mass communications today. "mass communication": we mean communication from one person or group of people, through a medium (trung gian), which is some communication device, to many different people at once. So there are many people who are the receivers of the information.
(information through a medium to many)

- We'll look at how mass communication has changed over the centuries. We'll be looking at three major changes, revolution, in the history of mass communication.
     + Now, the first communication revolution was the development of phonetic (ngữ âm) writing. This occurred 3000 years ago (three thousand). (the development of phonetic writing meant that writing moved away from using pictographs (these are symbols that represent objects and ideas) and moved toward using symbols to represent the actual sound of the spoken word.
       An example: in pictographic writing, people actually drew some kind of picture of an idea. So for example, to communicate the idea of a dog, they drew a dog. But in phonetic writing people represented the sound duh-aw-guh with 3 letters: D-O-G.
     (this was revolutionary. Why? Because it made writing easier. It was smaller, so it was actually easier to produce. So, we see a real change in writing style.)
       Pictographic writing was done on heavy clay tables (bảng đất sét). It not only did the style of writing change, but the medium on which the writing appeared changed also. Tablets ['tablit] that were so heavy that they really weren't portable.). But around the same time that phonetic writing developed, a new medium was invented that is papyrus. (papyrus was a type of paper made from a grass plant. this paper was much lighter than clay [đất sét].)
      => So, this combination of a light-weight (hạng nhẹ) medium (papyrus) and phonetic writing made information more portable, so it could reach a bigger audience, it also made it easier and cheaper to store the information. So information became more portable and storable.
      => So, this meant that people had access to written material, so more people became literate (ng có học thức [rit]), they learned to read and write, which led to wider communication. People in different societies could convey information to people in other parts of the world, this was really the beginning of mass communication. (one group or one person could now communicate with many people).
     => So, as societies grew more literate, this resulted in a demand for materials for people to read. So, do you get the picture? All right. Because at this point, we're ready to look at the next change.

   + The next change (the second is printing): The bigger population of readers created the second communication revolution, and that's printing. And it also includes the printing press.
      A printing press meant that information could be reproduced quickly. in the year 305 (1,700 years ago), the first wooden printing presses were invented in China.
      The printing press became more widely used when Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press in Germany in the year 1455. that used metal and movable type. Now this was a very significant invention. The metal printing press made it faster and easier to print books and materials. => More information was available to many more people.

To explain why this is considered a revolution:
- Before the printing press, knowledge and information were in the hands of only a few privileged people. A scholar who wanted to know some specific thing or get some specific information had to travel to the place where the information was kept.
- But once information could be copied easily with the printing press, the information itself could travel to people beyond the society that created it.
- with the printing press, information was more accessible, so it was accessible to everyone. So you really see how big this revolution was.

+ Third communications revolution, that is computers. We are all part of this revolution, which began in 1950s: the computer revolution.
    Computers have become the electronic storehouses and transmitters of large amounts of information, information that previously only existed in the physical form. (it was carved (v-khắc, trạm) in stone or written on paper.)
    Computer technology makes everything quicker and easier. Computer process, transmit and store information much more efficiently than any previous system. Computers have changed the nature of mass communication.

To wrap up, there are three ideas that are key to mass communication. Let me just state them clearly. First, the ability to store information. Second, the ability to transport information. And finally, having access to information. These are essential to mass communication.

Read More ...

- How celebrity (danh tiếng) [si'lebrity] news is changing the media.
- Think about your favorite singer, movie star, and athlete. What information do you know about each person? How did you find out this information?
- Why are people interested in famous people?

"People in our society today are focused too much on celebrities and all the activities of people in the entertainment world."  James Houran.

Many people would agree with this statement by James Houran, a psychologist. He and a group researchers interviewed over 60 people to try to understand our intense (adj-mãnh liệt) [in'tens] interest in famous people. They discovered three categories of "celebrity interest":
- Entertainment Social: People in this category have a mild interest in celebrities. For example, with their friends they might discuss the recent marriage of a famous movie star just for fun.
- Intense Personal: People in this category seem to feel that they have a special connection with a celebrity. This person say, "Tom Cruise is a good friend of mine", even though it is not true.
- Celebrity Sickness: Here, the interest in celebrities is to great that it is unhealthy, a kind of sickness. A person in this category might say. "When Helle Berry reads my love letters, she's going to fall in love with me." (U.S fits into the last category)

Houran's team says that this unhealthy interest in celebrities is caused by the increase in the amount of entertainment news in the mass media, both in print and broadcast media.
It is just one example of the effect the media has on people's lives today.

"People have been interested in celebrities for as long as there have been famous people". This interest has become much stronger with the increase in media coverage of celebrities, and all the entertainment content that we now have on the internet.

- Who is James Houran and what did he do?
- What percentage of people in the U.S have "celebrity sickness"?
- Why are more and more people interested in celebrities now?

according to: in the opinion of, as said by
kind: category or type of person or thing

= is/are                         + and
=/ is not/are not             |^ increase, rise, go up
> more than                  | decrease, fall, go down
< less than                       change, changing
# number                      % percent

Practice Lecture:
I want to talk about the science of how people relate to celebrities. I'm going to cover the idea of beauty and celebrities, and then the idea of how our brains feel pleasure when we see celebrities.

Let me start with a discussion of beauty. (celebrities are beautiful, right?):
- Research now tell us that when a person see a celebrity a part of the brain that's related to pleasure, that part of the brain gets excited.
- Scientists says humans have always had this brain reaction (phản ứng lại), and this is interesting because our ideas of what is beautiful always change, but in this case, the brain connects (v) beauty to pleasure.

Let's talk about another thing that happens in the brain.
- Biologists (nhà sinh vật học) say that when people see celebrities over and over again, so when we see a famous actor on television, in the movie, and in magazines ... (for example), the brain actually feels pleasure from seeing something it has seen before. So it seems the brain feels pleasure from repeated meetings with the same face or body.

We've talked about the brain's reaction, let's talk about how this relates to the past and today.
- So, the past. Scientists say that before TV and movies and photos the human brain felt pleasure from seeing friends and family. Those were the people we saw again and again, and those were the experiences that gave the brain pleasure.
- Now, we have media images (photos, video, movies) and the brain has changed. It's changed and it feels pleasure from seeing the faces of celebrities, of people we don't know and will never know.

Lecture:
(Yesterday: we talked about new coverage (n- tin tức) and its effects on people)
Today, I want to talk about another kind of coverage and that's the coverage of celebrities in the mass media. (movie stars, rock stars, and people like that in the media.)

The reason for this topic is: the amount of celebrity coverage has been increasing tremendously. And it's not just celebrity news sources. Today, it's not unusual to see news about movie stars or television start on the front pages of regular newspapers.

Some research:
I'd like to show you some search that actually shows how much new celebrity news coverage there is. So, take a look at this graph.
- It's got some pretty significant results.
- So, here you see the researches analyzed American news magazines, (that mean they look at serious magazines that have articles about government, the economy, crime, thinks like that). (The tall columns show the percentages of real news. And the short, red columns shows the percentage of articles about celebrities)
- You can see that in the last 25 years or so real news coverage has gone down about 10% and that celebrity news has doubled - meaning, there's twice as much celebrity news now as there was in 1980. That's big news.

Experts say:
Experts who study the media say that there is so much coverage of entertainment news - (like when a rock star gets married or divorced or when an actress has a baby) - so much of this in the newspaper (magazines or on television), (otherwise) that there is less and less time and space for real news, like news about events in the world.

Now, we have to ask ourselves:
- Why did this change happen?
- Why is there so much interest in celebrities today?

Let's look at one of the major reasons of the increase in media coverage of  celebrities:
- Back in the 1980s, newspapers were starting to lose money because more people were getting their news somewhere else, not from newspapers.
- So newspapers began to print more news about celebrities and fewer articles with real news. Why? Because celebrity news sells.
It's all about increasing their profits.There's no way around the fact.

Next, let's talk about another reason.
- This reason is also something we all know. It's the increase in the number of Internet sites and television channels. (In most places you can watch TV news 24 hours a day) So the number of new sources of news is another cause here.
(I may explain: they need to attract viewer and fill up (v) broadcast time and Internet space. They need content, and this content has to be popular with many people. So, more and more they feature entertainment news, especially Hollywood gossip.)

All right. That's enough about the change in the media.

Research about children and the media shows that kids today know much more about the lives of rock singers and movie starts than kids of the past, and they know much less about world and local  events, (like what the President does or about new law that affects them, for example).

Other research has pointed to another negative result of all the celebrity coverage.
- At the London School of Economics and Science, researchers found that the human brain isn't really made ... it's not meant to take all this constant news about celebrities. The proof (n-chứng cứ) of this ... they discovered, are losing touch with their friends and families.
- That means they're spending less time with the important people in their lives and spending more time with famous movie starts or rock starts, even though, they don't really know these celebrities. right?

To wrap up:
- I'm going to leave you with some predictions for the future.
Most media experts will tell you that the amount of celebrity coverage is not going to stop. It's going to continue to increase. (otherwise) And they also say that news (regular news coverage) is going to continue to decrease.

We'll discuss the possible effects of this in our group discussion.

Read More ...