Ha Noi, the capital of Vietnam (2/3)

The Khue-Van Pavilion (Van-Mieu)

(cont.)

7. Quan-Su Pagoda (The Ambassadors' Pagoda):

- In the 15th C. it was the site of a Guesthouse for ambassadors coming from buddist countries, with a small pagoda close by. Rebuilt in 1936 - 1942.

8. Ba-Da Pagoda (The Pagoda of the Stone Lady):

- While the soil was being dug for the building of the citadel of Thang-Long (ancient Hanoi), the stone statue of a woman was unearthed. Hence the name of the pagoda.

9. The Temple of the Two Ladies:

- The Trung sisters (1st C.) rose against the Chinese Han invaders. They became queens but were in the end defeated.

10. Quan-Thanh Temple (Tran-Vu Temple):

- Built under the Ly (1010 - 1225); later rebuilt. Tran-Vu was the god of the North. (attributes: a Tortoise and a Snake). Bronze statue (1677): 3.7m in height, 4 tons in weight.

11. Tran-Quoc Pagoda:

- Built probably on the site of an old royal Summer Place. A stele (1639) on its history.

12. The Literature Temple (Van-Mieu):

- Built in 1070; later rebuilt. Dedicated to Confucius. Also the first University in Vietnam. Portico, Khue-Van Pavilion, 82 stone steles bearing the names of the laureates of "Tien si" royal examinations (1484 - 1789).

13. The Temple of the Kneeling Elephants (Voi-Phuc Temple):

- Built under Ly-Thanh-Tong (1054-1072) and dedicated to Ling Lang who used his war elephants to defeat the Chinese Song aggressors. Thu-Le 200 park and lake.

14. Lang Pagoda:

- First built under the Ly dynasty (1010-1225). Statues of the Monk Tu-Dao-Hanh and King Ly-Than-Tong - re-incarnation of Tu-Dao-Hanh - Stone stele (dated 1656).

15. Ngu-xa Pagoda:

- The biggest bronze statue of Buddha in Vietnam.

16. Co-Loa Citadel (Spiral-shaped Citadel):

- In Dong-Anh suburban district. The remains of a fortness with walls arranged in a spiral, built in the 3rd century B.C to serve as capital for King An-Duong-Vuong. Temple to him and Princess My-Chau whose love for her husband caused the fall of the Kingdom.

(to be continued...)

(A Handbook for the English Language Translator - Hữu Ngọc et al.)

Ha Noi, the capital of Vietnam (1/3)

The Lake of the Restored Sword

922.8 sq.km - population: about 2.700.000

- City proper (4 districts: Hoan-Kiem, Hai-Ba-Trung, Dong-Da, Ba-Dinh) + 11 suburban districts.

1. The old quarter:

- In the 15th century, the "City with 36 guilds and streets" was the embryo of present - day Hanoi's Old Quarter with narrow streets bearing evocative names (Silk St, Sugar St, Vermicelli St, Votive Objects St, etc...) The Dong-Xuan market intruduces you to tropical fruits, flowers and vegetables, and such hand-icrafts as basketwork, ceramics, etc...

2. The Lake of the Restored Sword (Ho Hoan-Kiem):

- Legend has it that one day, after victory over the Chinese Ming invaders, when King Le-Thai-To was boating on the lake, a golden tortoise came up out of the water to take back the sacred sword that had been given to him by the god to save the homeland (15th C.) - Noteworthy: The-Huc Sunrise Bridge, Tower of the Pen Brush, Portico of the Ink - Slab, Ngoc-Son (Jade Hill) temple built in the 19th C., on an islet: dedicated to General Tran-Hung-Dao, 13th C., who defeated the Mongols in the 13th C., Van-Xuong (God of Literature) and La-To (Patron Saint of Physicians).

3. The West Lake (Ho Tay): 833 hectares.

- According to a legend, this place was formerly a forest - covered mountain on which lived a fox spirit with 9 tails. The monster was later drowned under huge waves unleashed by a dragon god and a lake was born.

- According to another legend, the Vietnamese Buddist monk Khong Lo (XIth. C.) was rewarded with a vast amount of bronze by the Emperor of China for his outstanding services; with this bronze, he had an enormous bell cast. The sound of the bell carried so far that a Golden Buffalo Calf, believing this to be the voice of its mother, rushed down from the North. It trampled the ground so hard that a lake appeared under its hoofs.

4. The Truc-Back Lake (Truc-Bach: white silk of the Ivory Bamboo Village)

- The Trinh Lords (18th C.) built on its shore a Summer Palace turned later into a reformatory for offending royal concubines. The latter were put to work and weaved a fine silk called Truc-Bach.

5. The Lenin Park:

- It was reclaimed from swamps. One year after the liberation of Hanoi (1955) the population started voluntary work for its building.

6. The One Pillar Pagoda (Mot-Cot Pagoda):

- Built in 1049 in the shape of a lotus. According to a legend, King Ly-Thai-To, who had no male offspring, once saw in a dream the Goddess Quan-Am sitting on a lotus and handing him a boy. He later married a peasant girl he had met by chance and a son was born to them. Therefore he had the pagoda built.

(to be continued)

(A Handbook for the English Language Translator - Hữu Ngọc et al.)

Making sentences

1. In order to:

I must study hard in order to finish my degree as soon as possible.

2. Look into:

My father is looking into his writing novel now.

3. Focus on:

She always focuses on her work when she goes to the school.

4. As long as:

As long as the teacher stays in our Lab, we can not go out.

5. As well as:

I know her and I know her sister as well.

I know her as well as I know her sister.

6. As if (as though):

He ordered everybody around as if he is their boss.

7. Attribute ST to ST (SB):

He attribute his achivement to his wife's support.

8. Look after:

I am very busy now. I am looking after my sister's baby.

9. Look up (stop by):

I have already looked up a good thing (paper) for our research.

When I want to go to a movie, I will look you up.

10. Be composed of:

This book is composed of many different results.

A letter: Up-to-date list of address.

Thank you for your letter of 11th November, asking for an up-to-date list of address of our branches.

We have pleasure in enclosing this brochure, showing the location of all our branches and agencies at home and abroad.

Yours faithfully

S.S Carson

-----------------

Book: "Business Letters for All"

Oxford University Press

Bertha J. Naterop

Erich Weis

Eva Haberfellner

ISBN 0-19-580232-2

LOVE AND HELP CHILDREN

Today’s children will become tomorrow’s civilization. Bringing a child into the world today is a little bit like dropping one into a tiger’s cage. Children can’t handle their environment and they have no real resources. They need love and help to make it.

It is a delicate problem to discuss. There are almost as many theories on how to raise a child or not raise him as there are parents. Yet if one does it wrong much grief can result and one may even complicate his or her own later years. Some try to raise children the way they were themselves raised, others attempt the exact opposite, many hold to an idea that children should just be let grow on their own. None of these guarantee success. The last method is based on a materialistic idea that the development of the child parallels the evolutionary history of the race; that in some magical way, unexplained, the “nerves” of the child will “ripen” as he or she grows older and the result will be a moral, well-behaving adult. Although the theory is disproven with ease—simply by noticing the large criminal population whose nerves somehow did not ripen—it is a lazy way to raise children and achieves some popularity. It doesn’t take care of your civilization’s future or your older years.

A child is a little bit like a blank slate. If you write the wrong things on it, it will say the wrong things. But, unlike a slate, a child can begin to do the writing: the child tends to write what has been written already. The problem is complicated by the fact that, while most children are capable of great decency, a few are born insane and, today, some are even born as drug addicts: but such cases are an unusual few.

It does no good just to try to “buy” the child with an overwhelm of toys and possessions or to smother and protect the child: the result can be pretty awful.

One has to make up his mind what he is trying to get the child to become: this is modified by several things: (a) what the child basically can become due to inherent make-up and potential; (b) what the child really wants to become; (c) what one wants the child to become; (d) the resources available. But remember that whatever these all add up to, the child will not survive well unless he or she eventually becomes self-reliant and very moral. Otherwise the end product is likely to be a liability to everyone including the child.

Whatever one’s affection for the child, remember that the child cannot survive well in the long run if he or she does not have his or her feet put on the way to survival. It will be no accident if the child goes wrong: the contemporary society is tailor-made for a child’s failure.

It will help enormously if you obtain a child’s understanding of and agreement to follow the precepts contained in this book.

What does have a workability is simply to try to be the child’s friend. It is certainly true that a child needs friends. Try to find out what a child’s problem really is and, without crushing their own solutions, try to help solve them. Observe them—and this applies even to babies. Listen to what children tell you about their lives. Let them help—if you don’t, they become overwhelmed with a sense of obligation which they then must repress.

It will help the child enormously if you obtain understanding of and agreement to this way to happiness and get him or her to follow it. It could have an enormous effect on the child’s survival—and yours.

A child factually does not do well without love. Most children have an abundance of it to return.

The way to happiness has on its route the loving and the helping of children from babyhood to the brink of adult life.

(Special thanks to: http://www.thewaytohappiness.org/thewaytohappiness/precepts/love-and-help-children.html)

Topic: Why are human beings living longer nowadays?

Human beings nowadays are living longer and longer. There are many reasons leading to this achievement. We can list here some main ideas as better living environment, good health care and nutritional food.

First of all, a recent better living environment gives human a longer life. With development of economy, science and technology, humans nowadays gain better living conditions than before. Most dangerous work now is executed by modern machinery A man by himself can do his job and make more products effectively without being under a rough condition. And he may choose a good living for himself and his family as he likes, with green environment and comfortable entertainment as well. A convenient living gives people optimistic and active attitude which helps us live longer. Next, a popular education is broadcasted now for most people all over the world. Everyone is guided on how to stay alive in dangerous situations (we call it “safety culture”) when he was a child. And he is also taught to make his surrounding environment fresher and better.

One of the other important reasons why humans are living longer is good health care. To attain our aim of getting longer life, humans always hope to find out good methods to treating for all diseases. The twentieth century saw the development in medicine, for examples, pharmaceutals, antibiotics, vaccines and surgical skills… These major achievements will help humans against most health problems such as cold, fever, headache even cancers or AIDS. Besides, diagnoses now are more and more exact which can make treatments become more effective and easier. By building popular health networks, reaching good health care conditions of people is not an “impossible thing” even in rural communinties. The people with better health care should live longer.

The third idea we could show to explain the question in this topic is nutritional food. By development of biotechnology, humans have made recent food more nutritional with abundance than before. Therefore we can say that food is not still thehumans’ greatest challenge recently or in the future. Genetically modified food is a very strong demonstration for this opinion. Unfortunately, like all new technology, they also pose some risks, both known and unknown. To fix this problem, organic food became a good choice for us. It brings good health fundation to people by fresh food, and then we can live longer.

However the human is destroying his own life at the same time. The climate change is now widely recognized as the major environmental problem facing the globe. The greenhouse effect and deforestation will impact on our lives. Floods, droughts and other natural calamities became more and more complex problems. These consequences are mainly a result of human activities. Besides, terrorism and wars do not stop stepping up. The conflicts with effective modern weapons still cost the lives of many people. The growing risk of a nuclear war remains very serious. It exists possibility of leading human living be destroyed completely. The mass destruction of human lives is still a possibility.

There are many reasons leading people to live longer and longer. The three main ones are better living environment, good health care and nutritional food. However, human have to work together (corporate) against negative phenomena, then make our life better and longer.