英語(yǔ)播客 A Cup of English Ten, ten, ten.

I realized today, that yesterday's date was special: 10/10/10. It was October 10th, 2010. I had been too busy over the weekend to stop and realize the curious and interesting date. While I was chatting to my sister-in-law today, she mentioned that she had measured the height of her three boys, as a way of commemorating the day. It could be what we call an 'auspicious' date, a day of significance and importance. My children told me that a popular kids' program called 'Ben 10' had been on the cartoon channel all day. Now that sort of thing is important to children. The date 10,10,10 however, is very important to some adults. Apparently, many people who have been planning on getting married this year, decided to do it on that day. It will be impossible to forget an anniversary! Also, it seems that the number 10 gives us a sense of security, or familiarity. 'The top 10' is common in our world. We hear about 'the top 10 pieces of music', 'the top ten reasons for ....whatever', 'the top ten keys to success in business', and other top ten lists. As far as the date is concerned, though, it depends on which calendar you use. The Chinese calendar is based on astronomical observations of the sun and the phases of the moon. Numbers are considered lucky if they sound like words that are positive. The numbers 6, 8, and 9, are considered lucky because they sound like other words that are positive or fortunate. Some people will pay large sums of money to have these numbers as their home numbers. The Gregorian calendar is the internationally accepted civil calendar. Because it is number based, rather than meaning or sound based, a date like 10,10,10 does draw attention to itself. Mathematicians might have something to say about it. One website that had various people send in their ideas, had this comment from a man who took the date very seriously: " I was explaining yesterday how 42 is the answer to the meaning of life, the universe, and everything to my girlfriend, when one of my employees brought up that it's going to be 10-10-10 this year. I realized that 10-10-10 in binary equals 42." Perhaps that man will be lucky enough to get all of his questions answered this year!

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary: auspicious, anniversary, phase, observations:

1. The December 12th, 2012 might be a special day, an auspicious day.

2. It's my parents' anniversary tomorrow.

3. He's going through a shy phase. I'm sure he will grow out of it.

4. In science class today, we had to make observations about the growth of the plants.