可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hello, everyone. And welcome back to America Under the Microscope. Hi, Lulu. Hi, James. This is the advanced episode for sex education. So we're gonna continue our talk about sex education we were doing in the basic episode, and I'd like to jump into some of the debates that Americans have on this topic, en ...which there are many. I can imagine. The other day I actually watched a video on social media. I think the teacher was teaching, I don't know like something related to LGBTQ and then there was an angry parent storming into the classroom and tried to rip off the pride flag or something like that. YEAH. So that is actually one of the big debates right now. So it isn't really like a subject to debate whether sex that should be taught. But the content of the lessons is a debate yeah. because some parents all they want is the basic biology. It's like ovum, testis, sperm, fertilizers and egg and so on and so forth and really dry science.en. And some are on the opposite end of the spectrum and they want to talk about everything from sexual orientation to gender identity, whatnot. And just like every kind of debate you can't always find, people can't always find the middle ground here. Yeah, but would you consider this I'm not gonna ask you about your personal opinion on this, but I am just going to ask, would you consider gender identity part of this sex education thing? because to me gender is kind of a different...basically it’s a whole different topic. I honestly would put it in a separate unit, completely separate part of the curriculum. It's like part of the social emotional learning because it doesn't necessarily need to be in line with sexual education because sex ed is at least in my mind it is the actual act of partake in sexual relationships. It doesn't really matter who was two adults, then you need to know about how to do it in a responsible safe way. And gender identity, that's an identity lesson and I think that should actually be a separate lesson from sex ed. Yeah. so this point of view, it was like these debates and controversies, they're mostly about what should be included in sex education. Yeah. It's very much that and people's own personal beliefs, their own of whether they're more conservative in these kind of situations are not really do affect what gets done in the classroom. And since it's part of (you know ) the curriculum, this means it's also subject to the board of education and they get to also decide what is and is not included. Yeah, and then it's the protests and then it’s the... more debates and then it’s the media coverage, the whole shebang. AH. American media coverage. It is an interesting watch. But you know that I think who is going to be really conflicted and also be put in a dilemma. I think are the teachers, the educators because they will have to teach the curriculum. But they have to teach it in a way that is non offensive to every single parent otherwise to get into trouble. So they do the impossible, got it. Yeah. If I could teach a way to make every single parent happy that would make me the best teacher on the planet.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hi, everyone. And welcome back to America Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话美国】. Hi, James. Hi Lulu. Hi, everyone. It has been sometimes since last time we’ve spoke. So how's the new semester treating you？ It’s been busy , dealing with teenagers is a handful. Actually I thought today we can talk about education-related topic. Cool. In fact the other day, I was talking to some of my students. I said what kind of subjects you did in school, and apart from the the major subjects, the academic subjects, we were talking about health education, specifically sex education. Really? Yeah. Usually that's a topic I find many students don't want to talk about. Well. I mean, I think many of my students they were saying that they wish they had more of a comprehensive sex education when they were in school. Because there wasn’t any when they were growing up. Yeah. So I thought let's talk about that. A little bit of a risky topic is talk about on this platform, but I thought it's a ,nonetheless, it is an essential element of education. Right？ I agree it's very important. So first of all, let's talk about your own experience when you were in school, did you get any like formal sex education？ Yes I did have ‘sex and health education’ what a lot of schools call it. And I had it at all three levels from primary school, middle school and high school. Oh, So that's always in the curriculum, 就是一直在课程设置里面的是吧？ Yes, and most public schools it very much is part of the curriculum. And let me guess based on all these other topics we talked about, it's not the same across the country. Every state has their own standards. That should be a mean for this program. It's not the same everywhere in America. No. A lot of people if they have never been to America, if they were just like listening to social media, whatever, people have this general perception of Americans are very, very open-minded when it comes to sexuality, for example, I don't think that's true. Is it? Not really ,to be honest, most Americans tend to be kind of conservative about it. Don't trust what you see in the media. Most people kind of keep to themselves about that kind of stuff. So what is like the sort of general family attitudes, like parents attitude? Are they happy that it's included or...? Well, I've read recently in a poll from planned parenthood, which is a big nonprofit organization that deals with sex education and pregnancy, that most parents are supportive of these programs in schools. And they want the schools to teach the children. The key factors which are involved are sexuality and health because it's part of being human and it's part of growing up. Em... Hang on a minute. You mentioned planned parenthood. Yes, in English there is something called like Family Planning, right? So It's kind of like has to do with when you want to get pregnant when you want to have babies. Is that true? 就有点计划生育就是跟我们的计划生育不是一样的意思, but it sort of is about planning when do you have kids? It's along those same lines, but a lot of planned parenthood, what they do is they also do education about sexuality, sexual health, sexually transmitted infections and prevention and all these things. So it's not like necessarily about family planning. But when to have children. Em....try to avoid. Understanding what leads to children. And also to sort of like prevent unwanted pregnancy.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hello everyone, and welcome to bedtime stories with 安澜. In this segment, I'm going to be telling you some famous stories from Britain and many other countries. So get comfortable and let me take you on a journey far away, The Sword in the Stone. Long ago in England, a wise and good king ruled the land. His name was King Uther. Times were good and the people lived well. King Uther wanted a magician in his court. And so he chose the famous Merlin, Merlin the Magician. Merlin could see into the future. And he knew those good days were not going to last. King Uther and the Queen Guinevere had a child, a baby son. At a party in the castle for the royal birth, Merlin the Magician whispered into the King’s ear. He said, “Your Majesty, there is something you must know. Soon there will be lots of disasters in the country. Your child is in great danger. Let me take the baby far away. I will be sure he stays safe.” “Merlin!” said the King in surprise. “You are a great magician. And you are my friend. But there is no way we would let you take our child away!” Sadly, soon after the child’s birth the Queen died. Not long after, King Uther was killed in battle. That very night, Merlin came into the castle and took the child. The next morning, the royal nurse went into the nursery but all she found was an empty crib! The terrified nurse, the nervous nobles and servants looked everywhere. But the baby was gone! For years, there was no king on the throne. No king to decide the laws. Men of high rank fought each other to be king. Darkness fell over the land. Robbers and murderers ruled the streets of London. Evil men broke into houses and took what they wanted. Travelers on the roads were attacked and robbed. The people of England lived in fear. Yet far away, there was a quiet place. A good knight, Sir Ector, lived peacefully with his two sons. His first son was named Kay. His younger son Arthur had been adopted as a baby. Years before, a stranger had come to Sir Ector with a baby. He asked if Sir Ector would raise the child. The old knight took the baby in his arms. He was glad for a second child, which he named Arthur. Sir Ector raised the child as his own. When Arthur was ten years old, the same stranger returned to Sir Ector’s home. He could read and write, and so Sir Ector hired him to teach his two sons. Kay could not sit still for lessons and he stopped coming. But Arthur listened with wide eyes. He learned everything. That stranger was none other than Merlin the Magician! At the end of each day when Arthur finished his chores, that was time for the lessons. Merlin would sit with Arthur for hours and teach him about the world. Arthur was a thin lad, not strong like his big brother Kay. Merlin said not to worry about that. He said what mattered most was to have a heart that was big and strong. Merlin saw how the birds, foxes and deer followed Arthur. He could see that the boy had a very big and strong heart. By the time Arthur was 16, his brother Kay had become a knight. He was now called Sir Kay. Arthur became his brother’s squire, looking after his weapons and serving Sir Kay when he needed to. He kept great care of his brother’s clothes and helmet, his spears and lances. One day at lesson time, Merlin looked away. He stood up.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ So far we have been focusing on the basics, mostly the fun on the good side. But let's talk about the mystic. Is it actually a secret society? I was doing a bit of research before this episode and I found this really good quote from one of the lead in masons and I think it's really true. We are not a secret society or a society with secrets, but we are a private society. 就是我们没有什么不可告人的秘密, 但是我们是一个private society, 我们是一个那种私人会所的感觉. Exactly. You have to be the selected for you to join. Yeah. Some of the rituals their secret is to non-masons, but masons don't really hide their membership, and the actual main hall in London Freemasons Hall is open to the public. They have their own museum. Oh, Yes, I think I have read somewhere. It’s in the center of London. 有一个Freemasons Hall就是共济会的一个博物馆, 大家感兴趣在伦敦的话可以去看一下. Yeah. And it's a really nice museum. They got a really nice library and it's all completely free. My dad actually used to work there as a guide and working in the library. He always used to say you used to get these people that walking from the street and they were like really nervous or embarrassed. They would actually ask, are we allowed to come in? Of course. I'll give you a guide tour. Because they thought this is like all behind closed doors this kind of deal. Exactly. Yeah. Because when you think of a secret society, you do think a lot about the seediness. You know the things that all the seedy secrets that they cannot share. You said there are secret rituals. And I've heard about like a secret handshake, like you mentioned before. Is it a dumb question to ask what is that secret handshake? It is a dumb question. Is it truly that secret that nobody knows? I have kind of had someone use a secret handshake on me, and to be honesty you can't really tell but I don't really know what it is myself. But this is the part I don't really understand, if masons don't hide their membership. Couldn't they have just asked are you a mason as well? Why would they have to use the secret handshake? Well, a lot of them don't so much anymore. Again, it's all about tradition, it's about ritual. And this is one thing that we love in Britain is tradition. We love rituals even when they don't really make much sense anymore. Yeah, just look at all these royal rituals. Exactly. You mentioned about conspiracy theories and some of them might absolutely love them, they’re brilliant, So the first one is Freemasons secretly control the world. Oh yeah, this is a very very famous well-known conspiracy theory. 一个很主流的阴谋论就是说，像Freemasons or I don't know like there are other similar organizations. They are the ones behind. They are the puppet masters. Exactly. And I guess I can somewhat understand where this comes from because in the past, in the 19th century, in particular, many influential people were masons such as judges, politicians. Now people join lodges based on their physical location and also because of their interest. So, if you're gonna get a bunch of politicians meeting... People start to talk. People start to talk. If you get a bunch of judges and lawyers and barristers all gathering together every week, people start to talk. I do have a question though, now again, this has to do with the whole class thing. Do you think when people hear freemasonry, they think of a certain... it is attaching to a certain class, for example, middle class or working class or… Oh, Yeah. It's kind of upper class, middle class, but nowadays freemasonry is open to everyone. There is that idea that it's only kind of the elites that are Freemasons. But nowadays that's not the case.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hi everyone and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hi, 安澜. Hi, Lulu. Hi, everyone. So, What kind of topic are we gonna talk about today? Well, Today I thought we talk about something a bit mysterious. Woo, Is it about folklore? No. OK. I thought today we'll talk about what is commonly known as a secret society. 神秘的组织，I think I talked about this topic with Brad before about secret societies in the world and conspiracy theories. If you're talking about the UK let me guess you're gonna talk about Freemasons. That's right. We're gonna talk a little bit about freemasonry. Freemasonry, Freemasons叫共济会. It's probably one of the most well known secret society. I know it sounds really contradictory. Oh, yeah. Exactly is one of the most famous secret societies in the world. Again, because it can be potentially sensitive. We're not siding with any opinions, we’re simply being informative. Exactly. Because it is something that every British person knows no matter how they feel about it. Always something that everyone feels they knows, but actually there's a lot of misunderstanding about Freemasonry. Em. Okay. So let's start with the very basic, I think our audience probably don't know anything about this society. Well, first of all, I should start by saying I do know a bit about Freemasonry because my dad is a free mason. OK, All right. Are you allowed to tell me? Well, I have to kill you afterwards, but no, I'm absolutely fine to tell you. Em, OK. So, Freemasonry is based on the traditions of medieval stonemasons. Yeah, actually I was gonna say although Freemasons is translated into 共济会, but mason is a stone cutter, a stone craftsman就是石匠, 对吧? Stonemasons是石匠的意思. Yep, exactly. So stonemasons were the ones who built cathedrals and castles and to do this, they traveled around the country. Now being a stonemason was a very highly skilled job. Em, I would imagine so. And obviously, back then people couldn't read and write, they had no ID cards. So, to show that they were a qualified and professional stonemason, they used signs and words to show who they were. I think we definitely have similar things in China or we had similar things in China, the stonemasons, also carpenters. They have their signs, their own systems.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hello again欢迎来到Happy Hour英文小酒馆。关注公众号璐璐的英文小酒馆，加入我们的酒馆社群，邂逅更精彩更广阔的世界。 Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain Under the Microscope, Halloween Special, 欢迎回来《闲话英伦·万圣节特辑》。 Hello，安澜。 Hello everyone. Hello and Happy Halloween. Basically, one of my favorite festivals, last year we were doing superstition in the UK, so what we're gonna talk about today? Well, I thought for Halloween it would be nice to do something a little bit historical and also a little bit creepy. So I thought today we can talk about witches. Oh, witches 就是女巫, ok, actually I have a quite a lot of background knowledge in this. I know, so that's why I thought it would be good if we can talk about witchcraft in Britain. Do you know that in university I actually wrote a paper on Witch Hunt. Really? Yeah, always been a fascinating topic, like 安澜 was saying, it's not just a fantasy or supernatural topic, it has a lot of history behind it. First things first, when you talk about witches in British culture in British history, were they always evil? Were they always like an evil presence? Not really, no, back in medieval times, and also early, they've always been witches and a lot of them were generally seen as good. They were seen as good? So what did they actually do? Well, they were known as cunning folk. Cunning folk. Yeah, a man could be a witch back then, they would help to cure people, help the crops to grow, woman to have children. It was a type of folk belief. It's a little bit like 巫医 that sort of ideas, like witch doctor almost. Type of thing. But obviously if you read a lot of stories in the West, in Britain which they were hunted, they were seen as really, really evil. That was from around the 15th century. 15th century. Yeah. How did they turn from the cunning folk which is harmless helpful neighborhood people to this evil presence? Basically, it was caused by two Kings, so Henry the 8th actually made witchcraft a Capital Offense. Capital Offense, 就是要杀头的罪。 Yeah. But why? Because he was worried about the influence of these witches on society, it was also about the church as well, but it was actually another king, a Scottish King who then became king of England, James the First. So King James the First was someone who was really scared of witches. Yes, that's because he believed that witches were attacking his family. That paranoid? A little bit, but he was kind of educated king, so what he did was he wrote a book about finding witches. Finding witches so that they can kill them. Pretty much, and this actually started a witch hysteria when ordinary people started to believe that witches were dangerous.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Welcome back to Geek Time advanced. Welcome, Lulu. Hi, Brad. So we're gonna continue on with talking about cyber security. Remember, last time when we were finishing up, I asked a question if there are so many people who are experts in cyber security, why are the attackers still winning in a lot of the situations? Why are they still able to make the attacks successful, so to speak. Well, one thing that makes it difficult is that they are always looking for new ways. There's always new computer systems. They make a new operating system. Windows does this every like 5 years or so. And whenever they make a new operating system, there is always going to be some flaws in it. And so basically, while the defenders are out there trying to keep the system defended, the attackers or the bad people are going out there and finding things and then using those exploits to hack into the system. The defenders are always two steps behind the attackers. Can you not preempt some of these attacks if you already know, or if you already see the potential of a loophole? You can. And sometimes people will find a loophole before anyone attacks it. Sometimes they don't even know if anyone has attacked it before they find it. So it's always really difficult. There's... whenever they make a new system, they can look for all the loopholes, but they're never going to find them all. I suppose as the defending side, you have to be all encompassing, all enveloping. You have to really take care of every little detail, but as the attacker, you only need one loophole to be in. I see, so cyber security essentially is ultra important because last time we were talking about it is linked with the integrity of critical infrastructure. Right. People's livelihood, the stock exchange is all on the internet. People transfer money from bank to bank via their computers. People pay their bills nowadays via computer. Everything is online. Can I just ask like a I don't know if it's a related question, so talking about who has access to certain internet. Who has like, I don't know if it's called privilege, security clearance, how does that work? When you work for a company, basically, the idea is to give every user as limited a privilege as possible. We often call this privilege. So basically, they say okay you need access to these rooms, you need access to this data. And We're only going to give you access to those bits of data because that's what you need. And so limits the liability for the company saying that okay you don't have access to the things you don't need. If you did access those that might be a problem. So you're breaking the law. Yeah. Basically the ideas that we want to limit the accessibility to things as much as possible.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hi, everyone. And welcome back to Geek Time. 欢迎回来【极客时间】. Hi, Brad. Hey, lulu, how's going? It's being great. And Brad, I would like to propose a topic today. Ok Let's talk about one of your majors, which is Cyber Security, right? Ok, good topic. 网络安全. Let's start with the basic. What is Cyber Security? I mean we can translate it. But exactly what is the security about? Is it about data? Is it about I don't know, finance? What is it about? So, cyber security is the total your security of your data and your devices. But when we think about it, right, there's you can look at it as two main ideas. You're protecting your data, whether it's your personal data or the company data or protecting critical infrastructure, companies, computers, your computer, or country's electric grids, their voting machines, their financial systems. So, it's not just data ,it’s devices as well. Okay. Am I to understand it's like several tiers, so you protect personal data, you need to protect like organizational data, like a company or organization, and you also have to protect sort of infrastructure in a country, in a community, like you said, electric grids and then voting machines, financial systems to make sure the country or the community or the region runs smoothly, operate smoothly. Right. Can I ask you just out of curiosity? What does this cyber security major fall under? What is like the big faculty or the big...? So this one is between two faculties usually, most of its under IT, like information technology. But oftentimes with cyber security, it's not just on the IT side of things. It's also on the administrative side of things. So they often will combine the two. So my focus was yeah... Like public admin. Yes, kind of. I see, and would you say it is a popular major to choose based on your observation? It's fairly popular. I think a lot of people tend to go with just more of the basic IT support. I think cyber security is a little bit more daunting for some just because they look at it and they think that's got to be really difficult, but I think it's not any more difficult necessarily than the other IT majors. So let's start with basic two more advanced security measures or settings. Obviously for most dummies, like me the first layer is password, but I know that is not really safe. Yes,when you have a network,of course you need to have a password. And then when you think about passwords, you don't want to just have numbers because then this makes it very simple to decode or decrypt your password. You add in letters and then symbols and then the more you add, the more complex it becomes, the more safe it is. But aside from passwords, a lot of times, people can or systems will use what's called a white list and what's called a blacklist. What you allow and disallow. Yes, right. A white list would just be we only allow these devices, right? And so anything that's on our white list as it is, are the only things that can enter. Or they might use a blacklist where they just say these devices can't be...can’t come onto the network. A white list is a little bit safer, but it also makes it a little bit more difficult if you want to add a new device because you have to go into the system, you have to allow that device. Yeah, unfortunately, I think a lot of people nowadays do not really have the basic awareness. I'm not even talking about the know how but the awareness of cyber security and we opt for convenience rather than total security. Then of course on top of that, we have things like the antivirus software. Most people might run one or two different ones on their systems. But if you're like, really into cyber security, we use something called sand boxing. Sand boxing? Yes. So basically you have your operating system on your computer. When you log onto your computer, you use your computer. But you can actually kind of create what's called a virtual machine.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hi everyone, and welcome to our new segment 【It Means What?】欢迎大家回来我们的新版块【词源考古研究所】. In this segment, we’re going to explore the interesting origin of words and phrases. So 安澜, what is the word for today? Well, today I've chosen one of my favorite words in English. Let me guess, it's alcoholic. Yes. 安澜这个酒“精”啊. It is whiskey. 就是威士忌. Actually I'm not a whiskey drinker but I always wondered, that doesn't sound English that the word whiskey. No, it actually comes from a Gaelic word. Gaelic is the language from Scotland? Gaelic is a language from northern Scotland and it's completely different to English. So you wouldn't understand Gaelic. I would not understand Gaelic. Actually you can watch Gaelic programs on BBC. What's the point if you don't understand it. Exactly, and it's just so it's very, very different from English. 这个叫苏格兰盖尔语. If you are interested, you can check it out online and see how it sounds. Yes. So it comes from this Gaelic word which means “water of life”. Water of life, isn't that Aqua vitae? Oh, that's Latin. So the Gaelic is “Uisge Beatha” , so it’s Uisge and it became whiskey. 所以是苏格兰盖尔语里面的叫做 “water of life”, 生命之水. Now the reason why they called it “water of life” is that whiskey was not actually originally a drink to be enjoyed. It was a medicine. I thought it was just because they really loved drinking. No, so whiskey started to be distilled in Scotland, so you distill whiskey. You don't make whiskey. 蒸馏, distill. It's like with wine, you fermented, 如果是葡萄酒水果酒它是发酵, 然后 whisky这种烈酒很多是蒸馏distilled.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Now brings the next question. Supposedly I were a member of a trade union and they organized a strike, but I don't want to like, I don't agree and I voted not to have a strike. Then what if the strike still goes on because I'm in the minority. You would still probably have to go on strike. I have to? Yeah, because you belong to that union, if you belong to that union, you've chosen to be with them. If the majority of your union colleagues agree and think should go on a strike, then you have to join them. 明白了, 所以就是说实际上即使你不同意, 但是你们工会里大部分的人都投票同意了, 你还是得必须参加罢工. Exactly. It's a little bit like for example, if a country goes to war, if you don't agree with it, you can't exactly just say I don't agree, so I'm not gonna do anything. So that's the analog you'll be using. Yeah, I see, I see. So it's almost like a mini government type of thing. It is. The unions are designed to act as a balance against management. I see. It’s a check and balance system. Exactly. 其实是为了制衡这些employer. We know that in theory, but in practice, do they really have that much power? You said the London transport system, they have some very powerful unions. I've actually heard about this. Yeah, because quote on quote, if they don't reach a settlement, they go on prolonged strikes. They can hold London hostage because they stop running the underground. Pretty much. 整个伦敦就瘫痪了。 Exactly. And if the government or the local councils, if they continue to basically disagree with the unions or to stop negotiating, then it looks bad on the government. But I do... in real life, imagine myself as just a resident in London, if I have to commute to work, I have to take the underground, the tube every day. Oh, you probably will be very angry. I'll be very angry, but if I feel like I probably won't necessarily feel angry about the company or at the company, I probably will think all these people going on strike, they don't really have any consideration for others and they are asking for unreasonable amount, does that happen? Yeah, a lot. So people are not necessarily just other normal, just general public. They're not necessarily siding with these unions. No. In some cases, they don't side with the unions. One of the things about the transport unions is the they do actually annoy a lot of people. I would assume so. Because lots of people believe that, for example train drivers get a lot of money and some actually do. They got very good at paying conditions and when they complain about it, other people will just go, well, what are you complaining about? If you already getting way above average salary, you're still complaining because you can hold the entire city hostage. Then that's not going to be... But a strike will only work if you have the sympathy of the public. So if the public don't agree with the strike and they get angry, then the unions have less of a case and it makes the employers stronger. Okay. So eventually this will all be in the court of public opinion. Pretty much. So a good example is with the doctors and nurses. When they went on strike, they were very clear on the news about what their demands were, what they wanted. And of course people supported doctors and nurses. Yeah, of course. So lots of people were pressuring the government into siding and agreeing with the unions. I think you mentioned a very important point. You have to be very transparent, very open about what you want, what the conditions are. Yeah, for example, I remember watching news about the NHS strike, the medical workers strike. Then some of the nurses are coming out to tell their story saying how much their take home wage is every month, 每个月到手多少钱. Yeah, and we're talking about single mother working long hours getting paid above average, and it is that money having lived in London, I know that money is not enough, exactly, to support and your kids, let alone l

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain under the microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hello, 安澜. Hi 璐璐. Hi, everyone. So 安澜, I know that you have recently obviously also been in the UK. Yes, I have. You know when I was in the UK this time, I didn't notice because just they say it over and over again in the news, strikes, many strikes. And not just in the UK, in Europe, in general these days. Oh yeah. Certainly throughout Europe and also particularly in the UK, there are lots and lots of strikes. 所以今天咱们就要聊聊罢工这个事情. I know it's a bit sensitive. Well, it is a bit sensitive, but we can be focusing on what it actually means to strike. So we'll be focusing more on the actions. Not so much as in which side we support, but is more informative. Exactly. Okay. But first of all, why are there so many strikes in the UK in recent months? I know there always have been strikes, but it seems to be more frequent. Simply it's down to inflation. And the cost of living crisis. And the cost of living crisis. 就是生活成本的飚高, 还有通胀。We talked about this before. Yes. So there's been a massive increase in inflation, post COVID, and also post Brexit. In October 2022, our inflation went up to 11.1%. Wow, post COVID, post Brexit, you have this double whammy. 英国是既受到COVID新冠的影响, 还受到Brexit脱欧的影响. Yeah. So people are having a pretty tough time right at the moment. But it's important to note that even before COVID and even before Brexit, lots of people were having a tough time. I would say ever since 2008, 2009 with the financial crisis, there's been a lack of investment in public services. When you say public services, do you mean like infrastructure like a health care? Health care, schools, transports, that's because of austerity. What does austerity here mean? Well, austerity in this sense means that the government try to cut expenditure as much as possible.

可以搜索公号【璐璐的英文小酒馆】或者添加【luluxjg2】咨询课程or加入社群，查看文稿和其他精彩内容哦~ Hello everyone, and welcome to bedtime stories with 安澜. In this segment, I'm going to be telling you some famous stories from Britain and many other countries. So get comfortable and let me take you on a journey far away, The story of Dick Whittington. Long ago, a poor little boy lived on the streets in torn and dirty clothes. He never saw or knew his parents or his birthplace. He called himself Dick Whittington. One fine day, he met a man driving a wagon who was on his way to London. Dick asked if he could join him on his journey. The kind man agreed but did not ask him to pay. Little Dick was very excited to see London and imagined that its streets were made of gold. However, to his utter disappointment, London was covered in dirt and there was no sign of gold. Dick was soon all by himself. He had gone days without food or money. He was cold and starving. He begged for food, work, and money but no one showed him any kindness. Out of exhaustion and hunger, he collapsed one day at the door of a kind merchant Mr. Fitzwarren. The cook at his place was a cruel woman who told Dick to leave or she would pour hot water on him. Mr Fitzwarren, who had just returned from the London Exchange, took pity on the boy and brought him in. He ordered his servants to provide him with food and drink and the cook to let him work in the kitchen as her helper. Just when little Whittington hoped for brighter days, the servants mocked him and the cook beat him. When the kind merchant’s daughter, Miss Alice, found out about it, she felt sorry for him and ordered everyone to be nice to Dick. Dick Whittington slept in a bed in a tiny attic room that was full of rats and mice. They troubled him enough to prevent him from having a good sleep. A gentleman once visited Mr Fitzwarren who rewarded Whittington with a penny in return for brushing his shoes. Whittington set out with that penny to buy something for himself. On the way, he saw a woman with a cat. He wanted to buy the cat from her but the price was too high. He explained his situation and said, “A penny is all I have.” The good woman allowed him to have the cat for a penny. He named her Miss Puss and hid her in his attic room. She soon got rid of all the rats and mice and helped him sleep peacefully. Soon afterwards, it was time for Mr Fitzwarren’s ship to set sail on a voyage. As per custom, the master ordered each servant to send something of their own for trade so they could possibly earn a fortune. Poor Whittington had nothing to offer but Miss Puss whom he unwillingly gave for the voyage. Dick Whittington’s troubles were far from over. The cruel cook continued beating him and laughing at him for sending his cat on the voyage. Fed up with the situation, the poor boy fled from the house. While deciding which direction to continue his journey away from London, he heard St. Mary-le-Bow church’s bells ringing.