大驚小怪集 3

rip off

'Smart' Meters Draw Complaints of Inaccuracy

By TOM ZELLER Jr.

Whether smart electric meters are ripping off consumers by overstating electricity use is now a matter of debate.

rip off
1. Steal, as in They fired him when they caught him ripping off some of the merchandise.
2. Cheat, defraud, as in These advertising claims have ripped off a great many consumers.
3. Copy, plagiarize, as in He was sued for ripping off someone else's thesis. All three usages are slang from the second half of the 1900s.

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送 Peter

轉危為安 第二章 第11點 (a) 竟然是 customer service之例的論述

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While Warning About Fat, U.S. Pushes Sales of Cheese

By MICHAEL MOSS 8:09 PM ET

When sales of Domino’s Pizza were lagging, a government agency stepped in with advice: more cheese. This is the same government that, for health reasons, is advising less cheese.

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qualify the definition of '4G'

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美國教育改教師品質為"教師效能"

IES SETS EDUCATION RESEARCH PRIORITIES
The Institute for Education Sciences this week officially set a new research agenda for the U.S. Department of Education, as its advisory board approved the first revised priorities in five years.The institute’s topics of study won’t change much under the new priorities. They include educational processes, instructional innovations, and teacher recruiting, retention, training, and effectiveness. The latter is in line with the federal economic-stimulus law’s focus on “teacher effectiveness” over the older “teacher quality.” But the new priorities put greater emphasis on putting federally supported education research findings into context “to identify education policies, programs, and practices that improve education outcomes, and to determine how, why, for whom, and under what conditions they are effective.” The document is intended to guide for the foreseeable future the discretionary grants made through the institute’s $660 million research budget. It’s also likely to change the shape of the regional education laboratory system, which provides technical assistance and research services in 10 regions across the country. The article is in Education Week.