Learning About Chinese Characters

There are more than 80,000 Chinese characters, but most of them are seldom used today. So how many Chinese characters do you need to know? For basic reading and writing of modern Chinese, you only need a few thousand. Here are the coverage rates of the most frequently used Chinese characters: Most frequently used  1,000  characters:  ~90%  coverage rateMost frequently used  2,500  characters:  98.0%  coverage rateMost frequently used  3,500  characters:  99.5%  coverage rate Two or More Chinese Characters per English Word For an English word, the Chinese translation (or the Chinese word) often consists of two or more  Chinese characters. You should use them together and read them from left to right. If you want to arrange them vertically, the one on the leftmost should go to the top. See an example for the word English below: As you can see, there are two Chinese characters for English (the language), which are ying1 yu3 in Pinyin.  Pinyin  is the international standard romanization scheme for Chinese characters, which is useful for learning the phonetics of Mandarin. There are four tones in Pinyin and we use the numbers here, i.e., 1, 2, 3, and 4, to depict the four tones. If you want to learn Mandarin (or Pu3 Tong1 Hua4), you have to master the four tones of the language. However, one pinyin usually represents many Chinese characters. For example, han4 can depict the Chinese characters for sweet, drought, brave, Chinese, etc. Thus you have to learn the Chinese characters to master the language. Chinese  is not alphabetic, so the writing is not related to its phonetics. In Chinese, We dont translate the Western alphabet since the letters have no meaning, though we do use the letters in writings, especially in scientific writings. Styles of Chinese Writing There are many styles of Chinese writing. Some of the styles are more ancient than others. In general, there are large differences among the styles, even though some of the styles are quite close. Different styles of Chinese characters are naturally used according to the purposes of the writing, such as Xiaozhuan mainly used for seal carving now. Besides the different styles, there are also two forms of Chinese characters, the simplified and the traditional. The simplified is the standard writing form employed in the mainland of China and the traditional form is mainly used in Taiwan and Hong Kong. There are total 2,235 simplified characters contained in the Simplified Character Table published in 1964 by the Chinese government, so the majority of the Chinese characters are the same in the two forms, though the count of commonly-used Chinese characters is only about 3,500. All the Chinese characters on our site are Kaiti (the standard style) in the simplified form. Japanese Kanji are originally from China, so most of them are the same as their corresponding Chinese characters, but Japanese kanji only contains a small collection of Chinese characters. There are a lot more Chinese characters not included in Japanese Kanji. Kanji are used less and less now in Japan. You dont see a lot of Kanji in a modern Japanese book anymore.

Advertising Manipulates People Essay - 1111 Words

In our society, we are constantly surrounded by advertising. From the time our alarm clock wakes us up in the morning until we set it at night, our brains are bombarded with advertisements. Ads play a huge role in our lives, telling us what to buy, what car to drive, how our families should interact, and what we should look like. The business of Advertising is built on persuasion. Advertisements attempt to persuade us that we are not rich enough, pretty enough, thin enough, family oriented enough, and the list goes on. To put it more clearly, the advertising empire is built on the exploitation of the fears of the American people. They take the knowledge of our fears and attempt to convince us that if we buy their product, we will achieve†¦show more content†¦People then become convinced that if they buy this particular brand of shoes, they will be able to play basketball as well as that player, gaining them fame, fortune, and everything else that goes with it. If a woman wea rs the brand of designer clothing as a well-known actress, she will gain recognition and acceptance. These tactics are especially effective in targeting women. Flip through any women’s fashion magazine; what do you see on practically every other page? That’s right, an advertisement. The majority of them are for some type of self-improvement product. In the February 2004 issue of Cosmopolitan, there are one hundred and seven pages of advertisements. The majority of these ads are for make-up, hair care products, clothing, and diet aids. All of them are aimed at women, at their desire to be thinner, prettier, and have the nicest hair and clothing. The reason they are effective is because they play off of women’s fear that if they are not and do not have all of these things, then they will not be accepted by society. These advertisements are feeding off of women’s fears of rejection, of not being â€Å"good enough.† The saddest thing is that millions of women buy into these campaigns, believing that if they use a particular brand of lipstick they will be beautiful. Advertising by exploiting the negative self-image possessed by a large number of women has proved to beShow MoreRelatedDoes Advertising Manipulate People?2717 Words   |  11 PagesDoes advertising manipulate people? Discursive Essay Alexandra ID Almaty 2010 Discursive Essay Outline Essay question: Does advertising manipulate people? I. Introduction Thesis statement: Even though advertising today is a big informative source that gives people possibility to know about great diversity of products, advertising controls human desires and mind. II. Body A. Advertising manipulates emotions of poor people in their mind by usingRead MoreTaking a Look at Manipulative Advertising773 Words   |  3 Pages​The meaning of advertising is the act or practice of calling public attention to ones product, service, need, etc(cited in Collins English Dictionary). It has various forms such as televisions, newspapers, magazines, radios, mobiles, books, mailboxes, and through the networks. Advertising has become a part of our daily lives, and it affects our way of life because advertisements are everywhere: in the streets, supermarkets, shops and malls. In fact, advertising is one of the most influentialRead MoreThe Canadian Philosopher Of Communication Theory1533 Words   |  7 PagesThe Canadian philosopher of communication theory, Marshall McLuhan, once said that â€Å"advertising is the greatest art form of the 20th century†. Indeed, we are exposed to numerous advertisements every day. They come at us in many different forms and ways through TV screens, billboards, magazines, web pages, door-to-door sales, and even radio. Advertisements are not fundamentally bad, but a lot of them use manipulative tactic and tricks which influence us in ways we do not even realize. Even thoughRead MoreEssay on The Danger of Subliminal Advertising1438 Words   |  6 Pagesadvertisements, movies, radio, and even Spam mail have become a daily part of the lives of many citizens. However, most people do not realize the sinister methods advertisers and corporations employ with the media in order to obtain a profit. The use of subliminal and negative advertising has increased immensely and shows no plan of stopping anytime soon. This dangerous ploy manipulates the public and causes individuals to subconsciously crave a product or service. It is integral that society understandsRead MoreImpact Of Advertising On Female Identity Formation1592 Words   |  7 PagesImpacts of Advertising upon Female Identity Formation What does it mean to be beautiful? For the advertising industry, the standard of being beautiful is perfection. American culture is highly concerned with beauty. From magazine to television advertisements, women are bombarded with images of perfection—perfect figure, perfect hair, and perfect skin. Moreover, advertisements sell products that would help improve women’s appearance. The problem with these advertisements is the subjectivity of beautyRead MoreAdvertising is a Form of Propoganda1232 Words   |  5 Pagestendentiously manipulate the public opinion. It is mainly transmitted through the mass media, which in general can reach out to a large number of people in a short time. If you search up the term advertisement you will find that it usually means one of these things: a paid announcement, as of goods for sale, in newspapers or magazines, on radio or television, etc; a public notice or the action of making generally known; a calling to the attention of the publ ic. Basically the main goal of advertising is convincingRead MoreAdvertisements Are Manipulating Or Informing989 Words   |  4 Pagespeople’s daily lives. With the development of technological devices; it is impossible to escape from the advertisements. People now are surrounded by advertisements everywhere, on the TV screen, newspapers, magazines, and on the internet. Advertisements help people know information about the products and keep track of the new products. However, with all the advertising out there, advertising techniques have changed in several ways to grab the consumers’ attention and to keep the consumer’s loyalty to theRead MoreThe Effects Of Advertising On Today s Culture863 Words   |  4 Pageson the radio. With advertising all around, it has to have an effect on the people seeing it and hearing it. Advertisement has several negative effects on today s culture, such as it promotes conformity, affects one s self-image, and manipulates how peo ple buy. People may not even realize that advertising has these effects on them. That is how acclimated people have become to it. One effect that advertisement has on today s culture is that it promotes conformity. Advertising is supposed to encourageRead MoreEssay about The Power of Advertising 1374 Words   |  6 PagesAdvertising has been defined as the most powerful, persuasive, and manipulative tool that firms have to control consumers all over the world. It is a form of communication that typically attempts to persuade potential customers to purchase or to consume more of a particular brand of product or service. Its impacts created on the society throughout the years has been amazing, especially in this technology age. Influencing people’s habits, creating false needs, distorting the values and prioritiesRead MoreThe Ethics of Advertising: Do Advertisers Go Too Far?1397 Words   |  6 PagesThe Ethics of Advertising: Do advertisers go too far? Introduction: Advertising is any paid form of non-personal communication about an organization, good, service or idea by an identified sponsor (Berkowitz, Crane, Kerin, Hartley, Rudelius, 494). Advertisements are displayed through various means to a large audience. They can be found on the Internet, in a magazine, or even on the highway. Advertisements are everywhere! Their main goal is to grab the consumers attention about a specific

“Spellbound” a Cinematic Representation of Psychoanalysis Free Essays

The movie â€Å"Spellbound†, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, encompasses several Freudian concepts manifested in the characters; including amnesia, guilt complex, repression, and psychopathology. Psychoanalysis is a major element of the film and is used in the pursuit of â€Å"truth†; the â€Å"truth† being what happened to the real Dr. Edwards. We will write a custom essay sample on â€Å"Spellbound† a Cinematic Representation of Psychoanalysis or any similar topic only for you Order Now Also, dream work is a major tool used in the film to uncover the â€Å"truth†. Though â€Å"Spellbound† has several characters that embody Freudian concepts, I believe the four main characters are most important. John Ballantyne exemplifies amnesia, guilt complex, and repression; Dr. Constance Peterson represents the process of psychoanalysis; Dr. Burlov is a depiction of Freud; and Dr. Murchison conveys Psychopathology. The film, â€Å"Spellbound†, begins in the setting of green manors, a mental asylum. The head of the facility, Dr. Murchison, is retiring and a famous psychiatrist, Dr. Edwards, is to take his place. Shortly after â€Å"Dr. Edwards† arrives another psychiatrist, Dr. Constance Peterson, discovers that the man claiming to be â€Å"Dr. Edwards† is an imposter. This imposter is suffering from a guilt complex which causes him to be an amnesiac. Thus begins the pursuit of â€Å"truth†, using psychoanalysis, to uncover who the imposter is and what happened to the real Dr. Edwards. We find out that the imposter is John Ballantyne, a patient of Dr. Edwards, and an amnesiac; which is why he believes he is Dr. Edwards in the beginning of the movie. John Ballantyne’s amnesia is related to the guilt complex from which he is suffering. We know that Ballantyne experienced a traumatic event, this triggered repression of memory, bringing conscious truth to the unconscious to protect the mind from the trauma; this caused his amnesia. Dr. Constance Peterson believes that by using psychoanalysis she can tap into Ballantyne’s mnemic trace, or unconscious memory, and uncover the Primal scene. The primal scene being the trauma that Ballantyne suffered. Dr. Peterson and Ballantyne embark on a journey, evading the authorities, to answer the question of what happened to the real Dr. Edwards. Dr. Constance Peterson, portraying the process of psychoanalysis, is of course mentored by Dr. Burlov who is a representation of Freud; both aesthetically and conceptually. Dr. Peterson brings Ballantyne to Dr. Burlov to help uncover the aforementioned primal scene. This portion of the film encompasses all aspects of Psychoanalysis. Ballantyne, suffering from amnesia due to his guilt complex and repression, is analyzed by Burlov in a few ways. First Burlov uses transference, saying, â€Å"I’m going to be your father image†, then he uses free association, asking Ballantyne, â€Å"Whatever comes into your head just say what it is†. When Ballantyne has no response Burlov turns to dream work saying, â€Å"maybe you dreamt something? † This analysis of Ballantyne’s dream, or dream work, is an integral scene of the film. The dream sequence, designed by Salvador Dali, contains several symbols; these symbols allude to the truth which is buried in Ballantyne’s unconscious. Freud believed that dreams were the connection to the unconscious, and tapping into it could relieve someone of their psychological sufferings. The most important symbols are the bearded man, the proprietor, the sloping roof, the wings, and the wheel. The bearded man is Dr. Edwards. The sloping roof symbolizes a mountain. Dr. Peterson and Burlov deduce that the trauma occurred at a ski resort. The symbolism of the wings and sloping roof gives them the name of the resort, Gabriel Valley. Constance, Ballantyne, and Burlov go to Gabriel Valley to trigger memory. Ballantyne suddenly remembers that at the bottom of the hill there is a cliff, over which Dr. Edwards fell. It is also revealed that Ballantyne’s true primal scene is not the trauma of Dr. Edwards’ death. His true primal scene is the recollected memory of sliding down a rail and accidentally killing his brother, this is the initial trauma that causes his guilt complex, which is why he was a patient of Dr. Edwards. When Dr. Edwards’ body is uncovered it is discovered that he did not die from the fall, but from a gunshot. Ballantyne is sentenced and incarcerated. This does not sit well with Constance. She looks over her notes on Ballantyne’s dream and realizes that the proprietor is Dr. Murchison, the chimney he hid behind was a tree, and the wheel is a revolver which he used to kill Dr. Edwards. Dr. Murchison is clearly an example of psychopathology. In conclusion, Hitchcock’s â€Å"Spellbound† is a cinematic representation of many Freudian concepts such as psychoanalysis, dream work, and guilt complex. The characters embody these concepts. The pursuit of â€Å"truth† is a major element of the film; this is also the case in psychoanalysis, which is used to uncover repressed memories; or the â€Å"truth†. How to cite â€Å"Spellbound† a Cinematic Representation of Psychoanalysis, Essay examples

Huntintons Disease A brief overview of current fin Essay Example For Students

Huntintons Disease A brief overview of current fin Essay dings and theories of the biochemical and molecular biological characteristics of polyQ triple repeat mutenagized coding region of the Huntingtin geneHuntington’s disease is an inherited neurodegenerative disorder. It is passed on to children from one or both parents (though two parents with Huntington’s is extraordinarily rare) in an autosomal dominant manner. This is different from autosomal recessive disorder, which requires two altered genes (one from each parent) to inherit the disorder. So if one parent has it, and passes the gene on to a child, that child will develop Huntington’s disease if they live long enough and each of that child’s’ children will have a 50% chance of inheriting the gene, and so on and so forth. If you do not have the HD gene you can’t pass it on to your children and if your mate doesn’t have it then there is no way your child will develop the disease (spontaneous cases of HD are less than 0.1%). There are no â€Å"carriers† for Huntington’s. HD is present in all areas of the world but is dominant in western Europeans and their descendants. In the United States every 1 in 10,000 people have developed HD, that’s 300,000 people with another 150,000 at risk (all of those with children have a 50% chance of passing it on). The HD gene is present at birth, but doesn’t usually develop until a persons thirties or forties. Though this is the most common time for symptoms to develop, there have been cases were symptoms developed as young as 2 and as old as 80. Symptoms begin gradually and increase over time. Huntington’s disease affects three main areas of function: motor (physical), mood (emotional), and cognition (psychological). Motor function disturbances can fall into too much movement and too little movement. Chorea, involuntary dance-like movements, can affect any part of the body. It looks like restlessness, wriggling, movement of the fingers or toes in early stages of development. These movements become larger and more sporadic over time and can involve the face, arms, legs, and trunk. It tends to lessen in the later stages. When the disease occurs in childhood (less than 10% of cases) Chorea is more severe and may coincide with rigidity or muscle stiffness and movement restriction. B oth chorea and rigidity interfere with coordination and mobility. Changes in mood are not readily noticeable as they are slow to manifest and can be interpreted as something else (i.e. HD causes depression but so does our society so this symptom often gets overlooked) Anxiety, irritability, rage, mania, and psychosis are also common symptoms. Cognition (the mental process characterized by thinking, learning, and judging) is affected early in the disease and gets worse over time. Individuals will have problems with math, memory, judgment and verbal fluency. It is very difficult for someone with HD to learn a new task, especially in the later stages of development. There currently is neither a cure nor FDA approved medical treatment for Huntington’s disease. The life expectancy is 15 – 20 years after development begins, and though Huntington’s itself doesn’t directly kill the individual, it causes so many functional breakdowns in the body that the person can no longer perform basic physical operations such as swallowing and as such a common cause of death is choking or respitory infection. Huntington disease is caused by the expansion of a polymorphic trinucleotide repeat (CAG)n located in the coding region of the Huntingtin gene. The range of these repeats in normal individuals is 9 to 37, but in HD patients it ranges from 37 to 86 and cases up 150. The human HD gene was cloned to 4p16.3 on chromosome 4 in 1993 by the HD Collaborative Research Group. The gene named IT15( important transcript 15) includes 180-200kb and consists of 67 exons. The HD mutation occurs in the first exon of this gene, which codes for a large 348kd protein named huntingtin (htt). The mutant HD gene directs the synthesis of RNA with an expanded CAG segment and consequently a protein with a lengthened stretch of consecutive glutamine residues. The HD mRNA consists of two alternatively polyadenylated species of 13.5 and 10.5 kb with the CAG repeat located near the 5end 17 codons down from the initiator AUG. The huntingtin protein has no similarity with any other reported sequences except in the low-sequence complexity polyglutamine-polyproline region (encoded by the CAG and an adjacent degenerate CCG repeat) near the NH2-terminus and a motif implicated in cellular protein transport HEAT'(a protein motif found in Huntington ,elongation factor 3 (EP3) regulatory A subunit of protein phosphatase 2A,and TORI) found in a variety of unrelated proteins. HEAT repeats are found in several cytoplasmic regulatory proteins with known roles in transport processes. The first 17 amino acids of huntingtin and the rest of the protein downstream of the polyglutamine-polyproline segment is highly conserved in evolution, the polyglutamine-polyproline segment is not, and it may be required for Huntington’s unknown function. The CAG repeat expansion is the sole mutation responsible for all inherited and sporadic cases of HD. The number of CAG repeats influences the age of onset and disease progression. Identity crisis (joy luck club EssaySo, what does all that mean (I researched this for a week and most of what I wrote still confuses me). But basically it’s this. We have a gene, Huntingtin, of whose function we don’t yet know. But we do know were it is and what it normally looks like. When it is mutagenized to extended it’s triple repeat chain of CAG it causes a change in the shape of the protein which binds to an essential enzyme for DNA function, which changes certain processes in the cell, which leads to cell apoptosis (pre-programmed, self-induced death of the cell). This happens in the brain and affects the nervous system leading to degradation of physical and mental functions and indirectly leads to death. It must be noted that over the past 10 years causes and possible cures or treatments have changed many times and this report only summarizes recent findings and understandings or theories from 1994-2001. Other interesting aspects of this topic include the first cases of genetic discrimination. Currently in the UK there is legislation allowing insurance companies to test applicants for the HD gene and if results are positive the can deny insurance to that person, or allow insurance if backed by a mortgage and $100,000 life insurance premium. While no such legislation yet exists in the U.S. we face a dilemma of our own:Huntington’s disease genomic research represents a classical ethical dilemma created by the human genome project, i.e., that of the widened gap between what we know how to diagnose and what we know how to cure. This has been referred to as a Tiresias complex. The blind seer Tiresias confronted Oedipus with the dilemma : ‘It is but sorrow to be wise when wisdom profits not’ (from Oedipus the King by Sophocles). N.S. Wexler re-stated the question as follows: â€Å"Do you want to know how and when you are going to die if you have no power to change the outcome? Should such knowledge be made freely available?†. Maybe, maybe not. But the pursuit of how and why diseases such as Huntington’s or cystic fibrosis or down syndrome or the many other genetic disorders happen will eventually lead in the knowledge of how to prevent them all together. Just give it time. Bates,G.Eberwine, J. (2001)Hunting in the Calm Before the Storm. Nature Genetics: volume 25 no.4. The Huntingtons Disease Collaborative Research Group. (1993) A novel gene containing a trinucleotide repeat that is expanded and unstable on Huntingtons disease chromosomes. Cell 72:971-983. Housman, D. (1995) Gain of glutamines, gain of function? Nature Genetics 10:3-4. Ashley, C.T. and Warren, S.T. Trincleotide repeat expansion and human disease. (1995) Annual Reviews of Genetics 29:703-728. Bates, G. Expanded glutamines and neurodegeneration a gain of insight. (1996) Kansas university Medical Center: Huntington Disease Clinic web page. Nasir, J. Goldberg, Y.P. and Hayden, M.R. (1996) Huntington disease: new insights into the relationship between CAG expansion and disease. Human Mitas, M. Trinucleotide repeats associated with human disease. (1997) Nucleic Gusella, J.F., Persichetti, F. and MacDonald, M.E. (1997) The genetic defect causing Huntingtons Disease: repeated in other contexts? Molecular Medicine Wellington, C.L. and Hayden, M.R. (1997) Of molecular interactions, mice and mechanisms: new insights into Huntingtons disease. Current Opinion in Neurology Chastain, P.D. and Sinden, R.R. (1998) CTG repeats associated with human genetic disease are inherently flexible. Journal of Molecular Biology 275:405-411. A brief overview of current findings and theories of the Biochemical and Molecular Biological characteristics of polyQ triple repeat mutagenized coding region of the Huntingtin geneBibliography:Attatched to paper