what does "symbolism may be all there is to offer" mean?? Hi there, below is an excerpt from Time magazine. I'm not sure what "symbolism may be all there is to offer" means. Can anyone help? I'd like to thank you in advance. This French tax hike would affect only 15,000 households and produce 650 million in increased revenue. Yet given the bleak economic picture Hollande and most other euro-zone leaders face, symbolism may be all there is to offer. How about the meaning of "far more than symbolic" here? This article is perplexing...orz The dim outlook makes it unlikely Hollande will be able to fulfill his campaign pledge to lower France's 2013 budget deficit to 3% of GDP without doing the one thing he's avoided: enacting deep spending cuts. If that happens, the consequences for France's welfare state would be "far more than symbolic".

what does "rushed to his cause" mean? The phrase comes from this sentence: He has not yet said which party he will side with, but Republicans attacked him in television advertising during the race, and Democrats "rushed to his cause." I googled it but got no answer. Does it mean that Democrats came to support him or...they doubted his intention? Or it means something else? I'd like to thank you in advance.

What does this sentence mean? I read a sentence in The Last Lecture: The person who knows only successs can be more oblivious to all the pitfalls. This appears in the context talking about start-up companies like to hire people with a failed start-up in their backgrounds. Does it mean that only success can help them forget the failure? Can somebody help?

How to break down this sentence? It's a sentence in my translation homework. I've looked up all the words I don't know but I still can't fully understand it. How to break down this sentence? Is there any word omitted in this sentence? The Warranties and all other provisions of this Agreement, in so far as the same shall not have been perofrmed at Completion, shall remain in full force and effect notwithstanding Completion.

A question about TV series transcription --- What did the girls say? Recently, I started to do transcription of a TV series called Gilmore Girls. Here is the link of a part of the conversation between two girls, Rory and Lane. Lane's a Korean girls whose parents are very conservative. (http://www.freewebtown.com/kellyliwod/01.wma) And I find the script on the Internet: RORY: When are you going to let your parents know that you listen to the evil rock music? You're an American teenager, for God's sake. LANE: Rory, if my parents don’t get upset over the obscene portion size of American food, I seriously doubt I'm gonna make any inroads with Eminem. But I encountered some questions... 1.I didn't hear "going to " in "When are you going to...". Did Rory really say the words? 2. What does " the obscene portion size of American food" mean? It means that American food often comes in large portion? Can anyone help me?http://www.freewebtown.com/kellyliwod/01.wma @ srgause: Thank you for answering. I tried the link and it's at work. Could you try again?

What does "for God's sake" mean? When to use it?

2010 Summer Camping Trip in Mongolia part 1: the Family Support Village Edit PUBLIC_FLAG_#{@journal.pf_int} RSS feed of Kelly's latest journal entries Pdf 2010 Summer Camping Trip in Mongolia part 2: the Family Support Village Jul 24th 2010 23:09 Our first service location in Mongolia is the Family Support Village, which is situated on the verge of the capital city, Ulaanbaatar. About four thousand poor children live here. The village is like a relay station. Economically struggling Families get help from here and move out when their economic situation become better. 家扶村是我們在蒙古的第一個服務據點，約有四千多位貧童居住於此。它位於首都烏蘭巴托邊境，像是一個中繼站，經濟困頓的家庭於此獲得援助，一旦經濟狀況改善就會搬離這個村落。 In this village, the only three erections here are the community centre, the water pumping station and the wall surrounding the whole village. Mongols tend to paint their houses with thick, colorful paints, which is quite different from Taiwan. Taiwan’s buildings are usually in gray or dark colors. Except for the three erections, in every yurt lives a family. The yurts are actually not that small inside and it’s cool in summer and warm in winter days. Every yurt has a skylight on its top. Mongols open skylights in day and let the light in. Another thing special is the threshold, which represents the host’s dignity, so one should never step on it. Mongolia is covered with vast plains, so it’s dusty there. The floor is always dusty and people here use T-shaped wooden mop stick with rag to mop the floor. 在家扶村中，唯三的建築就是活動中心、供水站和包圍整個村落的城牆。蒙古的房屋習慣漆上厚厚、具有各種繽紛色彩的油漆，這跟台灣總是灰黑色的建築迥異。除了這三棟水泥建築物外，在村落中的一個家庭就是一個蒙古包。蒙古包內部其實不小，冬暖夏涼，蒙古包上方都會有一個天窗可打開，白天時可打開以增加照明。很特別的一點是門檻，蒙古包的門檻代表著蒙古包主人的尊貴，所以是不能踩踏的。而在蒙古到處都是大草原，風沙大，所以地板上總是沙沙的，在這兒人們總是用T字型的木拖把柄墊著抹布來擦地。

Brief Introduciton Hi, I'm Kelly, a Taiwanese undergraduate student. I'm so excited to find there are so many people learning different kinds of language here. I like English very much because I think it sounds beautiful and the voice of a speaker is relatively brighter when he speaks in English compared to any other language I've known. Though this can be a personal illusion, that's why I like English. =) I do want to polish my English skills. So if there's any error in my article, please let me know. And if there's anyone interested in Chinese, maybe we can become friends and help each other. :D

Kelly's notebook entry: Jul 28, 2010 My summer camp in Mongolia finished recently. Mongolia is astonishingly beautiful. There are vast plains and Mongolians who love being taken photos of. That’s such a beautiful country that I do want to visit again. 最近剛結束今年暑假的蒙古營隊。蒙古非常地美麗，有大片大片的草原和很喜歡拍照的蒙古人。那是一個我會想再度拜訪的國度。 June 26th, we finished our final exams in the afternoon and started the final preparation work. We rehearsed and made props, staying together in a small room all day long. After the day-long work, a lot of things were still waiting us to do, like packing luggage, preparing applications, and distributing and thinking hard to squeeze all the goods for children into the trunks. We slept only three or four hours a day. Everyone was at the edge of the amount of bearable load. However, luckily, we had a very warm group; we cheered up each other, always gave partners warm hugs and never complained about the heavy loading of works because we all knew clearly in our mind what our purpose is. And for this meaningful purpose, no matter how tired we were, we would go on. 6/26，下午剛結束期末考，我們開始最後的工作準備。從早到晚，排練劇本、製作道具，大夥兒一整天一起待在一個小房間中，準備進度還不夠，又要收行李、分裝物資、辦文件等出國雜事，每天三四個小時的睡眠，從早排練到晚，回到家中再繼續收行李。大家都快炸了，真的很辛苦，有些負荷不了，但是慶幸的是，我們擁有一個十分溫馨的團，大家都會彼此打氣，不會喊累，總是給予彼此擁抱與笑容。我們都清楚我們的目標是什麼，並且因為這個有意義的目標，再累，我們都會走下去。 It’s the leaving day, June 28th. Even though we were pretty tired these days, we were still very excited. We took pictures, chatted and practiced Mongolians we were still not much unfamiliar with. Though this is my first time to leave Taiwan, I had a group of good friends with me and I was quite relaxed. I know we were just like a family. We would mutually help and always be with each other. It is Korean Air that we took. At first I thought I would stay nervous on the plane, but it turned out that while the plain was taking off, I felt dizzy and closed my eyes. And then I just accidentally slept all the way to Korea Inchon airport. 終於，到了出發的這一天！六月二十八日。即使這幾天累癱了，但是在機場的大家還是十分興奮，我們拍照、趕快練習還沒背熟的蒙文、嘻嘻哈哈地聊天。這是我第一次出國，離開台灣，心中有些小緊張，但是因為有這個一群好朋友陪著我，我整個人很放鬆，我知道。我們是一個團，像是一個家，大家都會一直陪在彼此身邊。我們坐的是韓國航空，原本我以為在飛機上我會一直很緊張，飛機起飛一瞬間，我的頭的確好暈，有些不舒服，所以就把眼睛閉起來休息，沒想到連續熬好幾天夜的我就這樣睡著了！我就這樣整程不省人事地睡到了韓國仁川機場。 When we were waiting to transfer planes in Inchon, we found a little shop where offers free traditional Korean costumes to try on. We happily played around. The cloth that I wore seemed to be the cloth of cook or something. The two red cloths are the cloths of the King and the Queen. We arrived at Ulaanbaatar around eleven in the night. Though it was quite late at night, the airport was crowded with people waiting for their family and friends. We also found our passionate leader-Batald. (The name means hero in Mongolian.) Ulaanbaatar airport isn’t big and the light is a little faint but the immigration control is somehow strict. It took us great efforts to let all of our trunks in. The moment the plane landed, one of our Mongolian teammate said immediately: “It rained just now.” That’s maybe a unique sensitive smelling ability of Mongols. Just as she said, the time we walked out of the airport, we smelled a special, lovely scent, which combined with the cool of the night, the smell of grass and more smells that I couldn’t clearly tell. What I was sure was that it was the smell of freedom, nature and large plains. 在韓國機場等待轉機時，我們發現一個可以免費試穿韓國傳統服飾的小店面。大家便開始開心地試穿，我穿得好像是廚師之類的服裝，兩件紅色衣服則分別是國王跟皇后。大約晚上11點多，我們到達了蒙古的首都—烏蘭巴托。雖然已經很晚了，但是機場卻擠著等待家人、朋友回國的人們。我們也等到了我們熱情的團長—巴特。烏蘭巴托機場不大，燈光有些昏黃，但是入境管制卻有些嚴格，我們費了好大一番功夫才讓所有的團員跟我們的行李、道具等入關。方才飛機一降落時，團中的蒙古同學就說：｢剛剛下過雨了。｣那或許是蒙古人特有的敏銳嗅覺吧！一步出機場，果然撲鼻而來一陣奇異的香味，帶著暗夜的清涼，像是草香，卻又含了更多無法分辨的味道，嗅聞起來令人渾身舒爽。第一次，我發現可以用嗅覺來感覺廣闊的自然，雖然無法分辨，但是的確是一股，自由廣闊的自然的味道。 We got on a bus which has furry seats. We opened the window and greeted the fresh wind. When we were enjoying the cool wind, all of a sudden, the cap on one of our teammate’s head flied out of the window! Suddenly, the relaxing atmosphere froze and disappeared, and then followed by a burst of laughter. 我們坐上有毛毛座椅的公車，開著窗，迎著舒爽的風，外面一片漆黑。就在我們享受這涼爽的風時，突然，一位團員頭上戴的帽子就這麼從車窗中飛了出去，瞬間車中的陶醉氣氛凝結，隨之而來的是如雷震耳的爆笑聲。 Ulaanbaatar wasn’t lonely deep in the night. There were goats passing by our bus. FIFA live games were played at bars in the city. Whenever a player kicked in, we would hear the hoorays from somewhere far away, as if the whole city’s people all stayed in front of the same television watching the game. In this night, at Ulaanbaatar where it just rained, our adventure in Mongolia began. 深夜的烏蘭巴托不寂寞，馬路上不時有羊群經過，而且城市的酒吧也正播放著世界足球賽事，每當進球時，總會聽到從遠處傳來的歡呼聲，彷彿整個城市的人都守在同一部電視前一般觀看賽事一般。就在這剛下過雨的夜晚，我們抵達了烏蘭巴托，在蒙古的冒險，開始了。