The Ten Commandments, a Key to Understanding Western People

Although many left wing people in Europe and the US are working hard to destroy Judaism and Christianity, the Ten Commandments remain the basis for what has made the West so successful. If you want to understand how Western people think, you should definitely spend some time learning about the Ten Commandments.

Dennis Prager, a well-known rabbi, has produced a series of videos explaining the Ten Commandments (be sure to click on [CC] to see the words while you watch):

Ten Commandments: Background-1 『十誡』2007、1998年動畫版 Two Cartoon Versions

The Ten Commandments are the moral basis of Western culture. They are so basic that even atheists accept most of these ideas without thinking clearly about where they come from. This 2007 cartoon version of the Bible story is an easy way to start learning about the Ten Commandments:

Rent this movie from a video store to see it with subtitles in your own language. You MUST see this movie! Buzzfeed says so, so they must be right. ；-）

These are some of the important people at the beginning of the story:

Moses	Leader of the Hebrews
Yocheved	Mother of Moses
Miriam	Sister of Moses
Aaron	Brother of Moses
Ramses	Son of Pharaoh
Zipporah	Wife of Moses
Jethro	Zipporah's father

Unfortunately, the YouTube version does not have provide English subtitles (captions). Some of the dialog appears below, followed by a summary of the first twenty-odd minutes.

Ten Commandments: Background 2 『十誡』1956年電影介紹 Movie Version

Many people think that the 1956 Ten Commandments movie is the best version ever made. The spoken English in this version is not so easy to understand (people speak using old-fashioned words from an old translation of the Bible), but the movie is quite beautiful to look at and the acting is excellent. They don't make movies like this anymore! These are clips that show important scenes from the movie:

Pharaoh tried to kill all of the baby boys of the Hebrews, but Yocheved saved her son Moses. She put him in a basket and sent it down the River Nile. Pharaoh's daughter took the basket out of the water and raised Moses as her own son.

As a young man, Moses saw a slavemaster beating a Hebrew. Although he was now a prince of Egypt, Moses knew in his bones that letting the slavemaster do this was very wrong. Moses killed the slavemaster, so Pharaoh sent him far away to die in the desert without food or water.

Many years later, God spoke to Moses from a burning bush. He told Moses to return to Egypt to free his people, the Hebrew slaves.

Moses showed signs that God had sent him, but Pharaoh thought these were simple tricks. Moses then asked Pharaoh to let God's people go, but Pharaoh refused.

God brought Ten Plagues to Egypt, each one worse than the other. He started by turning the waters of the Nile into blood. In the last plague, the firstborn son of each Egyptian family died. Pharaoh finally let the Hebrews go free.

Ten Commandments: Chinese & English 十誡：中英文對照

[Updated 8 October, 2016]

Because the Ten Commandments have been the basis for Western culture for almost 1700 years, students of English should definitely know what they say and what they mean. The Ten Commandments appear in two slightly different versions, once in Exodus and once in Deuteronomy.

因為長達1700年以來西方文化以十誡為基礎，所以學英文不可不知道其內容與含義。

The following English and Chinese text is taken from Deuteronomy (申 命 記) 5:6~5:21 in the NET Bible, a completely new translation that can be downloaded for free:

English: http://netbible.com/content/download
Chinese: https://bible.org/chinese/e/download/pdf

底下的中英文對照十誡摘錄自 NET Bible

『NET Bible全名是New English Translation Bible新英語譯本聖經。縮寫的NET 代表可在互聯網上免費使用並下載(請參WWW.BIBLE.ORG)。以下簡稱為網英，中譯本稱為網中。』：https://bible.org/assets/downloads/chinese/tc_00-preface.pdf

Ten Commandments, 1: I Am the Lord Your God 第一誡：我是你的神

"I am the Lord your God" is the basis for ethical monotheism, the idea that there is only one true God (Greek roots: mono = one, the = God), the God that created this world and that God wants us, his children, to behave ethically (= to not do evil to each other): 單神論與自由息息相關。

Let's have a discussion. After watching the video of the First Commandment, please think carefully about these five questions, provided by the Prager University web page for the First Commandment.

Ten Commandments, 2: No Other Gods 第二誡：不 可有別的神

The Second Commandment does not seem relevant or useful in today's world. However, Dennis Prager explains that this opinion is mistaken: 第二誡表面上與現代生活毫無關係。這個想法其實是錯誤的。比如說「萬般皆下品，唯有讀書高」和第二誡有關係。請看影片介紹：

Dennis Prager speaks very clearly, but you might need help with unfamiliar words. When you watch, be sure to click on the captions box to see all the words he says. Five questions to think about (provided by Prager University) appear below.

Ten Commandments, 3: Do Not Misuse God's Name 第三誡：不可妄稱神的名

"Misusing God's name" sounds a little odd to modern ears, so it is often misunderstood. Dennis Prager explains what this commandment really means and why it is important: 『妄稱神的名』對現代人來說不容易理解，甚至容易誤會：

Please look at the following five questions provided by Prager University.

Ten Commandments, 4: Remember the Sabbath 第四誡：守安息日

In today's world, almost everybody knows about weekends. Most people work (or go to school) from Monday to Friday, then they spend a day or two resting. But where did this idea come from? Why not work seven days a week? The answer lies in the Fourth Commandment。安息日使希伯來奴才得以解放，有機會全面休息。週末的觀念來自第四誡，但某些人偏偏不想休息。那種人算不算自由呢？其實，他們只不過是『金錢的奴才』啊！

Below are some questions to think about:

Ten Commandments, 5: Honor Your Mother and Father 第五誡：孝敬父母

Chinese philosophers introduced the idea of filial piety （孝道）, so the Fifth Commandment makes a lot of sense for East Asian people. But what does it mean for Western people?
『孝敬』與『愛』區別何在？Dennis Prager 認為孝敬父母是對抗極權最好的方法。
你同意嗎？

Ten Commandments, 6: Do Not Murder 第六誡：『不可謀殺』

Dennis Prager explains that the 6th Commandment is often mistranslated and misunderstood as "Do not kill", but the real meaning is "Do not kill"
第六誡經常誤譯為『不可殺人』。事實上，第六誡希伯來原文的意思是『不可謀殺』。

Ten Commandments, 7: Do Not Commit Adultery 第七誡：不可姦淫

Question: what is adultery?
Silly answer: Something that adults do
表面上 adultery 似乎與 adult（成人）相關。

Actually, adultery is related to adulterate: to add something to food or drink to make it less pure. Adultery is similar: adding an outside person to a marriage, this making it less pure, a violation of the 7th Commandment.
事實上 adultery 和 adulterate（摻雜使品質變劣）有點類似：加入第三者使婚姻變得脆弱。

Ten Commandments, 8: Do Not Steal 第八誡：不可偷盜

The meaning of this commandment may seem quite obvious, but Dennis Prager helps us think a little deeper about what it really means. Does "stealing" only refer to money? Expensive things? What would happen if everybody really obeyed this commandment?
『不可以偷東西？還用你跟我說！』 這是很多人的自然反應，但事實上所謂的『偷』不一定指財產。猶太人心目中的『偷』包括『八卦』。

Ten Commandments, 9: Do Not Bear False Witness 第九誡：不可作假見證

In a court of law, a witness is someone who speaks about a crime (from personal knowledge or to provide background). “Bearing false witness” means saying things which are not true, but not only in a court of law.

Ten Commandments, 10: Do Not Covet 第十誡：不可貪戀

Dennis Prager explains that the commandment against coveting is very different from the other commandments. Commandments One to Nine are about things that people should do or not do, but the Tenth Commandment is about something that people think.
第十誡與前九誡有很大的差別：前面幾誡與行為有關，而第十誡規定的是思想。

SpeedDial: How To Install It

[Updated June 4, 2016]

SpeedDial is a wonderful way to create sets of visual bookmarks. Instead of using browser-supplied bookmarks, you can roll your own SpeedDial entries: vary the size, position and image (use your own screenshots or graphics). You can also create your own groups.
[roll your own = DIY]

These are some of my Language Study bookmarks.

To install SpeedDials on your own computer, you should:


(1) Install a good browser, either Firefox or Pale Moon (a smaller, faster version of Firefox). If you enjoy letting the NSA watch you, you can probably also use Google Chrome or use a Chromebook. I recommend Pale Moon for its speed and stability (but recent updates have been less than ideal: YMMV).

(2) After you have installed either Pale Moon or Firefox, go to Mozilla to install two add-ons: SpeedDial and Eversync. After installing add-ons, you usually need to restart your browser.

(3) After restarting your browser, click on the small triangle to the right of the SpeedDial icon:

(4) From the SpeedDial menu choose Global Options:

Paragraph Structure: The Hidden Costs of Cheap Meat 廉價肉類的隱藏代價（作文結構）

The Hidden Costs of Cheap Meat

{1} Meat produced by factory farming seems much cheaper than meat from traditional farms, but in the long run, are we really saving so much money? Let’s look at the hidden costs. {2-5} Factory farm animals are very crowded: artificial hormones make them grow faster and antibiotics are used to keep them healthy. Tons of farm waste pollute the water and the air, thereby sickening farm workers and people living nearby. What’s more, the water from these farms makes germs very strong, so many antibiotics have already stopped working. Incurable diseases are a heavy price to pay for cheap meat. {6-8} To further increase their profits, some farm companies feed parts of dead animals to the live ones. Sooner or later, crowding causes health problems. These bad conditions can lead to strange new kinds of sickness such as mad cow disease, H5N1 and other kinds of bird flu. {9-10} Nowadays, meat is certainly less expensive than it was 100 years ago, but  is a high price to pay. Viewed in this light, was meat from traditional farms really so expensive?

Some longer words above can be cut up into short, easy-to-understand parts:

antibiotic	ANTI	BIO	TIC	抗生素
	against	life	[NOUN]
artificial	ART	FIC	IAL	人工
	skill	make	[ADJ]
incurable	IN	CURE	ABLE	不可醫治
	not	make sickness OK	CAN
sicken	SICK	EN		使生病
	sick	make	~ darken, thicken …

Florida Chicken House (Public Domain Image)

Notice how this short persuasive composition begins and ends with questions to make the reader think. Sentence 1, the topic sentence, introduces the idea that "cheap" meat is not really cheap. Sentences 2-8 provide examples of hidden health costs, and the composition finishes by concluding that poor health makes "cheap" meat seem expensive. Perhaps the old ways were better.

Look below to see other ways that the writer makes different parts of this composition fit together:

Paragraph Structure (Old MacDonald VS Factory Farms)

Write a short paragraph to explain which is better: Traditional farms or Factory farms? This short video (a review of the ideas in The Meatrix) can give you some ideas:


The Old MacDonalds and the Factory Farm from WSPA Canada on Vimeo.

Paragraphs in English usually have three parts:

(1) A topic sentence. This explains what you want to talk about.

(2) Supporting sentences. These sentences give examples or proof. Try to make sure the sentences fit together and help each other.

(3) A closing sentence. This sentence repeats the ideas of the topic sentence, but uses different words.

Here is an example of a paragraph about Canada (adapted from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Formal_Paragraph_Writing, CC--BY-SA Wikibooks):

There are three reasons why Canada is a great country. First of all, Canada has an excellent health care system. Every Canadian can receive quality medical care for a low price. Secondly, Canada is a good place to earn a living. Jobs are easy to find, and people are paid well for their work. Finally, Canada has an excellent system of education. Students are encouraged to learn and continue studying at university. As a result, Canada is a highly desirable place to live.

A paragraph explaining why Canada is a great country (CC--BY-SA Wikibooks)

Notice how the writer uses a number ("three") and three adverbs/adverbial phrases ("first of all, secondly, finally") to link the topic sentence with each of the supporting sentences. The closing sentence uses the phrase "as a result" to link all three supporting sentences with the topic sentence:

Remember to take notes when you watch The Meatrix and the Old MacDonalds video you see above. At least six problems are mentioned:

#	Problem	Description
1	Animal cruelty	The farm companies don’t treat the animals kindly
2	Antibiotic resistant germs	The water from these farms makes germs too strong, so some medicines don't work anymore
3	massive pollution	The air and water from these farms makes the neighbors sick
4	destroyed communities	Rich companies buy off lawmakers and put small farmers out of business
5	Artificial hormones	These man-made hormones stay in the meat and make people sick
6	Mad cow disease	To increase their profits, some farm companies feed dead animals to live animals. This could also make people sick.

Procedure:
Write all three sections BY HAND (don't use a computer). Make at least three drafts of your composition on 26-hole looseleaf notebook paper (standard B5 paper). Number each draft #1, #2 and #3.

(1) The first time, don't worry about vocabulary, grammar or spelling. Write as fast as you can, and don't stop to check a dictionary. When you finish, you will see probably see a mess: draft #1. Don't worry! Even professional writers work like this.

(2) Clean up the mistakes and missing words in your first draft. You now have your draft #2. Show it to a classmate or a friend. Ask that person to comment on the ideas and the organization. Is the main idea of the composition clear? Do the different parts (topic sentence, support, closing) seem to help each other?

(3) Use your friend's suggestions to make a cleaned-up version. This is your draft #3. Keep all three drafts to show your teacher.

(4) Use the PC (http://www.gingersoftware.com/grammarcheck) or Android version of Ginger (http://www.gingersoftware.com/android-keyboard-page) to check your grammar and spelling. Upload the final cleaned-up version section by section to the Composition web form: http://tinyurl.com/CUTe-Composition

Better Farming Methods
Young people can make a difference. Growing food using sustainable methods is personally rewarding and very important for society. Something to think about!

Cheap Meat, Cheat Meat (The Meatrix) 便宜沒好『肉』（駭肉任務）

The Matrix is a famous science fiction movie (Wikipedia: English & Chinese). Near the beginning of the movie, Neo meets Morpheus. Morpheus tells him that nothing he sees is real. He offers to show Leo the Matrix:

The Red Pill, Blue Pill scene has been adapted to make a flash video called The Meatrix. This video shows consumers the reality about the cheap meat that they eat.

The Meatrix characters (from left to right): Leo, Moofeus, Chickity and Smith

In The Meatrix I, Leo meets Moofeus (Cows go "moo,", so "Morpheus" = "Moofeus"). When Leo takes the red pill, he sees where meat, milk and eggs really come from:

A few years later, The Meatrix II came out:

Twelve years after the original Meatrix film, the Matrix Relaunched came out. Click on [CC] to watch this short video with English captions (no Chinese is available yet):

Unfortunately, the people who translated the Chinese subtitles for the Meatrix II (http://www.vegtomato.org/issue25/traditional/veg_special_report25.htm) made some mistakes. Here is a corrected version, with mistakes and key words marked in red:

Simple English Composition

If you want to write well, you don't need to use many difficult words, but you do need to make  your sentences seem to belong together. One way to do this is by using related words to talk about a topic.

The composition below uses three groups of words:

(1) Words to Refer to a City Beijing, this city, the capital, there

(2) Words to Refer to Breathinga problem breathing, coughing, lungs, air pollution

(3) Words to Refer to Doctors and Medicinelung specialist, doctor, prescription, medicine, pharmacy, get well


Many people want to live in Beijing, but this city has a very serious problem with air pollution. Mr Wang had been living in the capital for ten years. Like many people there, he had a problem breathing.

Last year, Mr Wang was coughing so hard that he decided to get some help. He visited a famous lung specialist who told Mr Wang that his lungs were not working well. The doctor then wrote Mr Wang a prescription for some medicine. "This medicine will definitely help you," he said.

Mr Wang went to a nearby pharmacy. "Can you fill this prescription for me?" he asked. "No problem. This medicine is very popular. I hope you get well soon," said the pharmacist.

Mr Wang took the medicine home. The air was just as polluted as before, but Mr Wang trusted his doctor, so he was full of hope. Mr Wang took all of the medicine, but he still didn't get well. Finally, he decided to move to a small town in a remote area, with fresh air and clean water.

How do you say 食人族 in English? (syntax tree)

[Updated 25 April, 2017]
English vocabulary is often a problem for foreign students. Many college students worry if they can't say or write a word in English. They sometimes ask their teacher questions such as "How do you say 食人族 [ShyrRenTzwu (GR) ShiRenZu (Pinyin)] in English?"

Please stop worrying about such problems. Many years ago, you learned lots of useful words in junior high school. Now you can use these old words in new ways! Also remember that in English we like to put together pairs of nouns to make compound nouns, such as "English teacher" (somebody who teaches English) and "truck driver" (somebody who drives a truck). Now you can answer the 食人族 question by yourself:

How do you say 食? Eat.
How do you say 人? People.
So how do you say 食人族? People eater!

Yes, there is also a special word that means "people eater," but foreigners don't care if you use exactly the right word. If they know what you mean, that's usually enough, so STOP worrying about vocabulary! Try to make new words from old words.

Actually, there is a funny song that uses the compound noun "people eater." This is one of my favorite silly songs: The One Eyed One Horned Flying Purple People Eater. Enjoy:

The singer says he is afraid of the purple people eater, but on line 11 the monster explains that he doesn't really eat all kinds of people, only purple people. In other words, the singer thinks that this monster is purple and it eats people 吃人肉的紫色怪物!("Uh, oh! Please don't eat me, Mr Monster!")

A people eater who is purple: [NP [ADJP [ADJ purple]] [NP [N people] [N eater]]]

The monster explains that he only eats purple people, so the singer is safe ("I only eat purple people, and you are white, so I don't want to eat you!") 放心！我不吃白色人種，我只吃紫色人種啊！

A monster that eats purple people: [NP [NP [ADJ purple] [N people]] [NP [N eater] ]]

[NP = Noun Phrase, a group of words with a noun as its most important word;

ADJP = Adjective Phrase, a group of words with an adjective as its most important word]

Some of the lyrics are explained below:

Kinetic Typography: Language (Stephen Fry Comments) (Syntax Tree)

"Kinetic typography uses groups of words and short phrases to make a movie"

This sentence is a little bit long, but we can break it into smaller chunks. Each piece is much easier to understand.

[Syntax Tree] "Kinetic typography uses groups of words and short phrases to make a movie." This long sentence is made of two shorter sentences as shown above (S = sentence, NP = noun phrase, VP = verb phrase). Here is an analysis of the sentence: [S [S [NP Kinetic typography] [VP [V uses] [NP groups of words and short phrases]] ] [S [VP [TO to] [VP make a movie]] ] ]

Below is a delightful kinetic typography video made by a clever graphic artist called Matthew Rogers. Please notice that the movie includes closed captions in Russian (just click on CC to turn them on or off):

Kinetic Typography: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Here is a magnificent example of kinetic typography by Seth Brau.The English is not very difficult (I have glossed some words below the break), and the ideas are very important.


The Universal Declaration of Human Rights from Seth Brau on Vimeo.

The complete 1948 declaration is long and a little difficult. This video shortens the text and makes it a little easier to understand by adding beautiful pictures and music.


Below is the complete text and some notes to help you understand the words in the video, You can also find links in Chinese, Russian, Spanish and French:

Anne of Green Gables: Book and Video

After reading the Oxford Bookworms version of Anne of Green Gables, it might be fun to watch some scenes from the 1934 film version. This story has been made into movies and cartoons many times, but this version is well-acted and very clear.

(1) The first important scene is where Matthew picks Anne up at the train station. Matthew doesn't speak very much, but Anne has no trouble making conversation:

(2) In the next scene, Anne arrives at the house and meets Marilla, who doesn't seem very friendly. Anne is not happy with her name:

Survival Videos (Improvisation)-2

After reading the previous post in this short series [Survival Videos (Improvisation)-1], here are some more Sensible Prepper videos to use for writing reports:

20_Paper_Clip_Hacks_for_Survival_Everyday_Uses

Zip_Ties_19_Uses_5_Tricks_for_Survival

SHTF_Aluminium_Foil_20_Uses

If you want to see more ideas, more videos and suggestions appear below:

Survival Videos (Improvisation)-1 (making a visual summary)

YouTube has lots of silly videos, but there are many useful things to watch. In 15 Trash Bag Uses for Survival, the Sensible Prepper explains how to use Heavy-Mil ("heavy-mil = thick, strong plastic) trash bags to help you stay alive outside.

After watching this video, I decided to discuss eight of the fifteen uses.

Preparing for Disaster: Learn to Improvise!

Many Americans believe that it is important to prepare for earthquakes, tsunamis, blackouts, wars and other disasters:

Earthquake in Mexico City (1985), Public Domain image

Atomic Bomb (test explosion) -- Operation_Upshot-Knothole_-_Badger_001, Public Domain image