Identifying Perspectives in Text and Video
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思考的重要性英语作文The Importance of Thinking。
Thinking is an essential part of human life. It is the process of using one's mind to analyze, evaluate, and make decisions. The ability to think critically and creativelyis crucial for personal and professional development. Inthis article, we will explore the importance of thinkingand how it can benefit us in various aspects of life.Firstly, thinking helps us to solve problems. Every day, we face challenges that require us to think critically and come up with solutions. Whether it is a complex workproject or a personal issue, the ability to think logically and creatively is essential for finding the best possible solution. By analyzing the situation, identifying the problem, and considering different options, we can make informed decisions that lead to positive outcomes.Secondly, thinking helps us to make better decisions.When we are faced with important choices, it is crucial to take the time to think through the options and consider the potential consequences of each. By weighing the pros and cons, we can make informed decisions that align with our values and goals. Moreover, thinking helps us to avoid impulsive decisions that may lead to regret or negative outcomes.Thirdly, thinking helps us to learn and grow. When we engage in critical thinking, we are able to analyze and evaluate information, identify patterns and connections, and draw conclusions. This process of reflection helps us to learn from our experiences and mistakes, and to develop new insights and perspectives. By continually challenging our assumptions and beliefs, we can expand our knowledge and understanding of the world around us.Fourthly, thinking helps us to communicate effectively. When we think critically and creatively, we are better able to articulate our ideas and opinions. By considering different perspectives and anticipating potential objections, we can communicate our thoughts in a clear andpersuasive manner. Moreover, thinking helps us to listen actively and respond thoughtfully, which is essential for building strong relationships and resolving conflicts.In conclusion, thinking is a vital skill that can benefit us in many aspects of life. By developing our ability to think critically and creatively, we can solve problems, make better decisions, learn and grow, and communicate effectively. Therefore, we should make a conscious effort to engage in regular reflection and analysis, and to seek out opportunities for intellectual growth and development.。
你擅长解决什么样的问题英语作文英文回答:Identifying my strengths as a problem solver requires self-reflection, recognizing patterns in my past experiences, and soliciting feedback from others. Through this process, I have discovered that I excel in addressing certain types of problems more effectively than others.Complex, Unstructured Problems: I am drawn to challenges that lack clear solutions or well-defined parameters. My ability to analyze complex systems, identify underlying patterns, and synthesize diverse perspectives enables me to navigate these situations successfully.Interdisciplinary Problems: My interdisciplinary background and strong foundation in multiple fields allow me to approach problems from various angles. This cross-disciplinary perspective helps me generate innovative solutions that integrate insights from different domains.Problems Requiring Collaboration: I thrive in collaborative environments where I can leverage the strengths of others and contribute my expertise. My effective communication skills, empathy, and ability to foster teamwork enable me to navigate group dynamics and drive projects towards successful outcomes.Problems with Ethical Implications: I am deeply committed to ethical principles and believe that problem-solving should always prioritize the well-being of society.I am skilled at identifying ethical considerations, evaluating potential consequences, and developing solutions that balance multiple perspectives.Intractable Problems: While some problems may seem insurmountable, I am driven by a desire to tackle challenges that others may dismiss as impossible. My persistence, resilience, and ability to think outside the box help me find creative approaches to intractable problems.中文回答:我的优势问题类型:复杂且非结构性问题,我对缺乏明确解决方案或明确参数的问题充满兴趣。
对小说的理解英语作文Understanding Novels。
Novels are a rich tapestry of human experience woven with words, offering readers a glimpse into different worlds, perspectives, and emotions. To truly understand a novel, one must delve beyond the surface plot and explore its themes, characters, and literary techniques. In this essay, we will discuss the various aspects of understanding novels.Firstly, themes play a pivotal role in deciphering the underlying message of a novel. Themes can range from love and betrayal to power and identity. By identifying and analyzing the themes present in a novel, readers can uncover the author's commentary on society, human nature, or existential questions. For example, in George Orwell's "1984," the theme of totalitarianism serves as a warning against the dangers of unchecked government power.Secondly, characters breathe life into a novel, serving as conduits for the author to explore complex human emotions and motivations. By closely examining the development of characters throughout the story, readers can gain insights into their desires, fears, and internal conflicts. Moreover, characters often represent archetypes or symbolize broader societal trends. For instance, in F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Great Gatsby," Jay Gatsby symbolizes the American Dream and the illusion of success.Additionally, literary techniques such as symbolism, foreshadowing, and irony enrich the texture of a novel, inviting readers to interpret the text on multiple levels. Symbolism, in particular, imbues objects, actions, or characters with deeper meaning, adding layers of complexity to the narrative. By recognizing and analyzing these techniques, readers can appreciate the author's craftsmanship and narrative choices. For instance, in William Golding's "Lord of the Flies," the conch shell symbolizes order and civilization, while the pig's head represents the inherent savagery within humanity.Furthermore, understanding the historical and cultural context in which a novel was written is essential for fully grasping its significance. Historical events, societal norms, and cultural movements can shape the themes and perspectives presented in a novel. By situating the text within its historical context, readers can better appreciate the author's intentions and the relevance of the novel to its time period. For example, Harper Lee's "ToKill a Mockingbird" explores issues of racial injustice in the American South during the 1930s.In conclusion, understanding a novel requires a multifaceted approach that encompasses themes, characters, literary techniques, and historical context. By engaging with these aspects of the text, readers can unlock its deeper meanings and appreciate the artistry of the author. Novels have the power to transport us to different worlds, challenge our beliefs, and broaden our perspectives, making them an invaluable form of literature.。
作家的观点英语作文英文回答:In literature, an author's perspective plays a crucial role in shaping the narrative and conveying the intended message. It provides a lens through which the reader interprets events, characters, and themes. The author's perspective can be explicit or implicit, directly stated or subtly interwoven through the language, characters, and plot.An author's perspective can be influenced by various factors, including their personal beliefs, experiences, cultural upbringing, and the historical context in which they write. It can range from objective and impartial to biased and opinionated. Objective perspectives aim to present facts and information without judgment, allowing readers to form their own interpretations. Subjective perspectives, on the other hand, convey the author's personal views or beliefs, shaping the reader'sunderstanding and potentially influencing their opinions.The author's perspective can be evident in the use of language, characters, and plot devices. Diction, tone, and syntax can subtly convey the author's attitude towards the subject matter. The portrayal of characters can reveal the author's values and beliefs. The plot structure and resolution often reflect the author's intended message and perspective on life or society.Identifying an author's perspective is essential for comprehending and interpreting a work of literature. It allows readers to understand the underlying assumptions, biases, and intentions behind the writing. By considering the author's perspective, readers can engage in deeper analysis, appreciate the nuances of the narrative, and connect with the author's intended message.中文回答:作家的观点。
识别与践行主题英语作文800字Identifying and Embracing Identity.Identity is a complex and multifaceted concept that encompasses numerous aspects of an individual's existence. It is influenced by various factors, including our experiences, beliefs, values, culture, and personal relationships. Identifying and fully embracing our unique identity is crucial for personal growth, well-being, and a sense of purpose.Embracing our identity involves acknowledging and accepting all aspects of who we are, both positive and negative. It requires us to recognize and celebrate our strengths, while also acknowledging our limitations. It involves understanding our motivations, fears, and desires, and aligning our actions with them. When we truly embrace our identity, we radiate authenticity and confidence, emanating from a deep sense of self-assurance.However, identifying our identity is not always straightforward. Societal pressures, expectations, and preconceptions can often cloud our perception and make it challenging to discern who we truly are. Additionally, our identity is not static but rather evolves throughout our lives as we gain new experiences and perspectives.Embracing our identity requires courage and resilience. There may be times when we feel misunderstood or judged for not conforming to societal norms, or for possessing unique qualities that differentiate us from others. It requires an unwavering belief in ourselves and a willingness to stand firmly in our truth, regardless of external opinions.Once we have identified and embraced our true selves, we can align our actions with our values and live a life that is authentically fulfilling. This may involve pursuing our passions, setting boundaries, and surrounding ourselves with people who support and uplift us.Furthermore, embracing our identity contributes to the betterment of society as a whole. By embracing our ownunique perspectives and experiences, we bring diversity and richness to the world. It fosters empathy and understanding, opening us up to connect with others on a deeper level.Moreover, embracing our identity is not simply an individualistic pursuit. It has societal implications as well. We can use our own experiences and perspectives to advocate for justice, equity, and inclusion. By challenging societal norms that perpetuate division and discrimination, we create a more just and compassionate world for ourselves and future generations.In conclusion, identifying and embracing our trueidentity is a journey of self-discovery, acceptance, and personal growth. It empowers us to live a life that is authentically aligned with who we are, while also contributing to the fabric of a more inclusive and just society. By recognizing our unique strengths and accepting our perceived limitations, we can unlock our potential and make a meaningful impact on the world around us.。
2011年英语专四听力conversation one第4题解析Here is a 621-word English essay based on the given title:The 2011 CET-4 Listening Comprehension Conversation One, Question 4 AnalysisIn the 2011 College English Test Band 4 (CET-4) listening comprehension section, conversation one contains a series of questions that test students' ability to understand spoken English in a real-life scenario. One of the most challenging questions in this conversation is question 4, which requires test takers to demonstrate their comprehensive listening skills. This essay will provide a detailed analysis of this particular question and discuss strategies for effectively answering similar types of questions in the future.The conversation in question four involves two individuals discussing a potential business deal. One person, who seems to be a salesperson, is trying to convince the other, who appears to be a potential customer, to invest in or purchase a certain product or service. Throughout the dialogue, the salesperson presents variousarguments and highlights the benefits of the offering, while the customer expresses some initial hesitation and raises a number of concerns.To successfully answer the question, test takers must pay close attention to the details provided in the conversation and demonstrate an understanding of the key points being discussed. This includes identifying the main purpose of the interaction, recognizing the roles and perspectives of the two speakers, and comprehending the specific information they exchange regarding the product or service being offered.One of the primary challenges of this question lies in the fact that the conversation contains a significant amount of technical or industry-specific terminology. The speakers use words and phrases that may not be familiar to all test takers, such as "market penetration," "revenue stream," and "projected ROI." Additionally, the conversation involves the discussion of numerical data, such as sales figures and financial projections, which can be difficult to follow and retain in a listening comprehension setting.To overcome these challenges, test takers should develop strategies for actively listening and processing the information presented in the dialogue. This may involve techniques such as taking notes, identifying key words and phrases, and mentally summarizing themain points as the conversation progresses. It is also important to maintain focus and avoid getting distracted by unfamiliar terminology or numerical details, as the overall understanding of the interaction is more important than the mastery of specific vocabulary.Another crucial aspect of this question is the need to demonstrate an understanding of the speakers' perspectives and attitudes. The conversation involves some degree of negotiation and the expression of differing viewpoints, and test takers must be able to discern the underlying motivations and concerns of both the salesperson and the potential customer. This requires a nuanced interpretation of the speakers' tone, body language, and verbal cues, which can be challenging to pick up on in a purely auditory format.To address this challenge, test takers should pay close attention to the emotional and interpersonal dynamics present in the conversation. They should try to identify any instances of agreement, disagreement, or compromise between the speakers, as well as any shifts in their attitudes or negotiating strategies. By understanding the overall context and relationship between the individuals involved, test takers can more accurately interpret the meaning and significance of the information being exchanged.In conclusion, the 2011 CET-4 listening comprehension question 4 from conversation one presents a complex and multifacetedchallenge for test takers. To effectively answer this question, students must develop a range of skills, including the ability to comprehend technical vocabulary, process numerical data, and interpret the underlying dynamics and perspectives of the speakers. By employing active listening strategies, maintaining focus, and demonstrating a nuanced understanding of the conversation, test takers can increase their chances of successfully answering this and similar types of questions in the future.。
摘要访谈类文本是对言语交际的书面记录,译文对语篇连贯的构建是读者阅读连贯的关键。
本文以米兰·昆德拉和萨莉·鲁尼两位作家的访谈文章的汉译项目为例,从语法和语用两个层面指出识别源语文本连贯机制的主要难点,并采用对比分析法,就如何在译文中还原和构建语篇连贯提出相应的翻译策略。
本文通过分析作家访谈源语文本,发现其作为访谈文本具有互动性强、即时性强、语境依赖性强的特征,同时还有一定的文学价值。
从语法层面上看,原文的语篇连贯主要体现在指称的大量使用以及时态网络的构建上;从语用层面看,语言语境中的词汇复现和同现,文化语境中的文化缺省又构成了原文的隐性连贯。
在识别原文语篇连贯机制后,本文主要对比初译和改译译文,总结了初译失误并归纳出在译文中建构语篇连贯的策略:在语法层面,避虚就实,显化指称、还原时态信息;在语用层面,保留词汇复现形式、联系语境确定词义、文内补偿文化缺省。
笔者通过对源语语篇连贯的“解码”和在译入语中“重新编码”这一过程的阐释,以期从语篇连贯的视角为译者在翻译实践中提供新的思路。
关键词:语篇连贯;英汉翻译;翻译策略;案例分析ABSTRACTAn interview article is an edited piece of writing of conversations between an interviewer and an interviewee,and in translation,discourse coherence of the target text is essential for readers to reconstruct coherence in reading.Based on a case analysis of the E-C translation project of interviews with Milan Kundera and Sally Rooney,the thesis addresses main problems in identifying the coherence mechanism of the source text from the grammatical and pragmatic perspectives,proposing effective translation strategies on producing discourse coherence in the target text.As interview articles,the case text is of literary value and records the immediate interactions between the speakers,making it highly context-dependent.Grammatically speaking,discourse coherence of the source text is organized mainly through an extensive use of reference and frequent tense changes.From the pragmatic perspective,the lexical cohesion relations of reiteration and collocation and cultural default develop an implicit discourse coherence of the paring the original translation and the modified version,the thesis offers specific solutions to constructing discourse coherence in the target text.At the grammatical level,the method of explicate the reference and restoring the tense information is adopted;at the pragmatic level,it is effective to retain the form of reiteration,determine the accurate meaning of a word according to the context,and compensate for the cultural default within the text.The thesis emphasizes the process of"decoding"the discourse coherence of the source text and"recoding"it in the target text,in the hope of bring an different perspective in translation practice.Keywords:discourse coherence;E-C translation;translation strategy;case study目录致谢 (I)摘要 (II)ABSTRACT (III)引言 (1)第一章作家访谈项目概述及文本特点 (2)一、作家访谈翻译项目介绍 (2)二、作家访谈文本特点 (2)第二章语篇连贯及其重要性 (4)一、语篇连贯的概念 (4)二、语篇连贯中的语法连贯和语用连贯 (4)二、语篇连贯对访谈类文本翻译的重要性 (5)第三章作家访谈原文语篇连贯的体现 (7)一、语法层面的语篇连贯 (7)(一)指称衔接的应用 (7)(二)时态网络的构建 (8)二、语用层面的语篇连贯 (8)(一)词汇复现和词汇同现 (9)(二)提高交际效率的文化缺省 (10)第四章作家访谈译文语篇连贯的建构策略 (12)一、语法层面 (12)(一)避虚就实,显化指称 (12)(二)还原时态信息 (13)二、语用层面 (15)(一)保留词汇复现形式 (15)(二)联系语境确定词义 (17)(三)文内补偿文化缺省 (18)结语 (21)参考文献 (22)附录 (24)引言随着自媒体时代的到来,文化产业打开了全新的局面。
英语作文论说文的写作结构The Essentials of Writing an English Argumentative Essay.Writing an argumentative essay in English requires a clear and coherent structure that enables the reader to follow the logic of the argument and understand thewriter's position. The essay should begin with a strong introduction that sets the stage for the discussion, followed by a well-organized body that builds and supports the argument, and conclude with a conclusion that summarizes the main points and leaves a lasting impression.1. Introduction.The introduction is the first and most crucial part of an argumentative essay. It should capture the reader's attention and provide a clear overview of the topic and the position the writer intends to take. The introduction should also include a strong thesis statement that outlinesthe main argument and sets the direction for the rest of the essay.To write an effective introduction, begin by identifying the key ideas and perspectives related to the topic. Then, craft a hook sentence that grabs the reader's interest, such as a startling fact, a relevant quote, or a thought-provoking question. Following the hook, provide a brief background on the topic, discussing any relevant historical or contextual information. Conclude the introduction with the thesis statement, which should be specific, debatable, and focused on a single argument.2. Body Paragraphs.The body paragraphs are where the main arguments and supporting evidence are presented. Each paragraph should focus on a specific aspect of the argument and use logical reasoning, facts, and examples to support the writer's position.To structure each body paragraph effectively, followthe "topic sentence evidence/examples analysis/explanation conclusion" model. Begin with a topic sentence that introduces the main idea of the paragraph. Then, provide evidence or examples that support the topic sentence, such as quotes, statistics, or personal anecdotes. Following the evidence, analyze and explain how the evidence supports the argument, connecting it back to the thesis statement. Conclude the paragraph with a sentence that summarizes the main point and transitions smoothly to the next paragraph.It's important to ensure that the body paragraphs are organized in a logical flow, building up to a strong conclusion. This may involve arranging the paragraphs in order of importance, from most significant to least significant, or in chronological order if the argument benefits from a historical or sequential approach.3. Conclusion.The conclusion is the final paragraph of the essay, and it serves to summarize the main points and restate the writer's position. The conclusion should be concise andimpactful, leaving a lasting impression on the reader.To write a strong conclusion, begin by restating the thesis statement in a slightly different way to emphasize the main argument. Then, briefly summarize the key points and arguments presented in the body paragraphs, focusing on their relevance to the overall argument. Finally, close the essay with a final thought or call to action that leaves the reader with a strong impression and perhaps encourages them to consider the topic further.In summary, writing an argumentative essay in English requires a clear and coherent structure that guides the reader through the argument. With a strong introduction, well-organized body paragraphs, and a conclusive ending, you can present your argument effectively and persuade your reader to adopt your perspective.。
新闻英语知识点总结In this article, we will cover various key points related to news English, including vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, and listening skills. By understanding and practicing these essential aspects, English learners can enhance their ability to comprehend and communicate effectively in an English news context.VocabularyVocabulary is a fundamental component of news English, as it enables learners to grasp the meanings of news articles and reports. Building a robust news English vocabulary involves acquiring words and phrases related to current events, politics, economics, social issues, and more. Here are some key vocabulary points to focus on:1. News categories: Familiarize yourself with vocabulary related to different types of news, such as politics, business, technology, health, sports, and entertainment.2. Current events: Learn words and phrases associated with ongoing events, including terms like "crisis," "pandemic," "protest," "election," "trade agreement," "climate change," and "diplomatic relations."3. Journalism terms: Understand the vocabulary commonly used in news reporting and journalism, such as "headline," "source," "correspondent," "coverage," "interview," "analysis," and "editorial."4. Verbs for reporting: Practice using verbs that are frequently used in news reporting, such as "announce," "confirm," "reveal," "emerge," "arrest," "accuse," "criticize," "negotiate," and "demand."5. Media language: Learn vocabulary related to different forms of media, including "newspaper," "magazine," "website," "broadcast," "headline," "column," "editor," "journalist," and "reporter."By expanding your news English vocabulary, you can effectively understand and discuss current events and news reports with greater fluency and accuracy.GrammarGrammar is another crucial aspect of news English, as it helps learners construct clear and coherent sentences and comprehend news articles effectively. Here are some essential grammar points to consider:1. Tense usage: Pay attention to the use of tenses in news articles, as news reports often rely on the present simple and present perfect tenses to convey current events and recent developments. Additionally, past tenses are used to recount previous events or actions.2. Passive voice: Understand how the passive voice is commonly used in news English to emphasize the action or the recipient of the action. Practice recognizing and using passive constructions in news articles and reports.3. Reported speech: Learn how to report statements, questions, and commands in news English, as this is a common feature in news reporting. Understand the use of reporting verbs and changes in verb tense and pronouns when converting direct speech to reported speech.4. Conjunctions and linking words: Familiarize yourself with the use of conjunctions and linking words, such as "however," "furthermore," "meanwhile," "thus," "in addition," and "conversely," which are frequently used to connect ideas and present contrasting viewpoints in news articles.5. Sentence structure: Pay attention to the structure of sentences in news articles, including the use of relative clauses, subordinating conjunctions, and complex sentence patterns to convey information and provide context.By mastering these essential grammar points, English learners can improve their ability to construct coherent sentences, comprehend news articles, and express themselves effectively when discussing current events and news reports.Reading ComprehensionReading comprehension is a critical skill for understanding news English, as it enables learners to extract information, analyze content, and critically evaluate news articles and reports. Here are some key points to consider for improving reading comprehension in news English:1. Skimming and scanning: Practice skimming (quickly reading for the main ideas) and scanning (rapidly searching for specific details) to efficiently navigate and extract information from news articles.2. Context clues: Use context clues and prior knowledge to infer the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases encountered in news articles. Pay attention to the context in which these words are used and deduce their meanings based on the surrounding information.3. Identifying main ideas: Develop the ability to identify the main ideas, key points, and central arguments presented in news articles. Look for topic sentences, headings, and subheadings to understand the overarching themes and focus of the content.4. Recognizing bias and perspective: Be mindful of the potential bias and perspective present in news articles, and critically evaluate the author's viewpoint, underlying assumptions, and potential sources of bias. Consider alternative perspectives and sources of information to gain a comprehensive understanding of the topic.5. Summarizing and synthesizing: Practice summarizing the main points of news articles and synthesizing information from multiple sources to develop a well-rounded understanding of complex topics and current events.By honing their reading comprehension skills, English learners can effectively navigate news articles, extract essential information, and critically evaluate the content presented in news reports.Listening SkillsListening skills are essential for comprehending news reports, interviews, and broadcasts in news English. Being able to understand spoken English in a news context is crucial for staying informed about current events and developments. Here are some key points to focus on for improving listening skills in news English:1. Active listening: Practice active listening by focusing on the main ideas, key points, and supporting details presented in news broadcasts and interviews. Pay attention to the speaker's tone, emphasis, and intonation to glean additional information and implications.2. Note-taking: Develop the habit of taking notes while listening to news reports and broadcasts, jotting down key points, names, dates, and significant details to aid in comprehension and retention.3. Recognizing verbal cues: Pay attention to verbal cues, such as transitional phrases, signal words, and rhetorical devices used in news broadcasts to signal changes in topic, emphasize key points, and guide the listener through the content.4. Understanding accents and dialects: Familiarize yourself with different accents and dialects commonly encountered in news English, as news reports and broadcasts may feature a variety of speakers from diverse linguistic backgrounds.5. Repeated practice: Engage in regular practice by listening to news broadcasts, podcasts, interviews, and other news-related content in English to hone your listening skills and develop familiarity with the language used in a news context.By improving their listening skills in news English, learners can effectively comprehend spoken news reports and broadcasts, stay informed about current events, and engage with news content in English more effectively.In conclusion, mastering news English is essential for English learners who seek to stay informed about global affairs, improve their language proficiency, and effectively communicate in a news context. By focusing on vocabulary, grammar, reading comprehension, and listening skills, learners can develop the necessary language abilities to comprehend and discuss news articles, reports, interviews, and broadcasts with confidence and competence. Through consistent practice and engagement with news content in English, learners can enhance their news English skills and stay informed about the latest developments in the world around them.。
英语语言文学基础知识English Response:1. What are the key characteristics of English literature?Richness and diversity: English literature boasts a vast and diverse body of works, spanning various genres, periods, and cultures.Cultural influence: English literature has had a profound impact on global culture, shaping ideas, values, and artistic expression.Emphasis on language: Language plays a central role in English literature, with authors using it creatively to evoke emotions, explore themes, and create memorable characters.Evolutionary nature: English literature has evolvedover time, reflecting changing societal values, technological advancements, and cultural influences.Accessibility: English literature is widely accessible, with works translated into numerous languages and adapted for various media.2. What are the major genres of English literature?Poetry: Explores emotions, ideas, and experiences through verse.Drama: Presents stories through dialogue and action, often for theatrical performance.Fiction: Includes novels, short stories, and novellas that tell imaginative narratives.Non-fiction: Presents factual information in various forms, such as essays, biographies, and scientific writing.3. What are some of the most influential works ofEnglish literature?Beowulf (Epic poem)。
Identifying Perspectives in Text and VideoThesis ProposalWei-Hao LinLanguage Technologies InstituteSchool of Computer ScienceCarnegie Mellon UniversityDecember24,2006Committee:Alexander G.Hauptmann(chair)William W.CohenEric XingJanyce Wiebe(University of Pittsburgh)AbstractPolarizing discussions about social controversies(e.g.,abortion)and regional conflicts(e.g.,the Palestinian-Israeli conflict)take place commonly in broadcast news,newspapers,and blogs.To facilitate mutual understanding between people holding different beliefs,everyone needs to become more aware of different viewpoints toward an issue.Can computers learn the elusive concept of”perspective”to highlight the different perspectives in everyday communication?We propose to study how different perspectives are reflected in text and video.First,given two document collections,how do computers determine if they are written from different perspectives?Sec-ond,how do computers identify the perspective from which an individual document is written?Third, can computers highlight key paragraphs and sentences that reflect strongly a particular perspective so that computer prediction about a document perspective can be justified?Finally,can computers go be-yond text?Can computers learn to identify the perspective from which broadcast news programs are produced?We approach the above research questions in a statistical learning framework.Experimental results show that by comparing the divergence between the statistical distributions of two document collection, we can successfully determine whether two document collections are written from different perspectives (e.g.,Democratic and Republican candidates in presidential debates).We show that statistical learning methods can identify the perspective from which a document is written with high accuracy.Based on these results we propose to test if the statistical regularities hold for a variety of document collections. We propose to develop a joint model of topic and perspective to automatically uncover the latent structure of contrasting perspectives on a topic.Finally,we plan to conduct annotation study on sentence-level perspectives so that the predictions from our model can be directly evaluated.iiContents1Introduction11.1Outline of Thesis Proposal (6)2Literature Review62.1Perspectives in Text (6)2.1.1Computer Simulation of Belief Systems (6)2.1.2Subjectivity,Sentiment,and Discourse Analysis (7)2.1.3Text Categorization and Topic Models (8)2.2Perspectives in Video (8)3Experimental Data93.1Text Data (9)3.2Video Data (10)4Regularities of Different Perspectives in Text124.1Identifying Text Collections of Different Perspectives (13)4.2Quality of Monte Carlo Estimates (14)4.3Test of Different Perspectives (14)4.4Personal Writing Styles or Perspectives? (15)4.5Origins of the Differences (16)5Regularities of Individual Perspectives in Text185.1Modeling Perspectives at the Document Level (19)5.2Identifying Perspectives at the Document Level (19)5.3Latent Sentence Perspective Models (21)5.4Identifying Perspectives at the Sentence Level (23)6Regularities of Different Perspectives in Video23 7Proposed Work247.1Explore Problem Space (25)7.2Evaluation of Sentence-Level Perspectives (26)7.3Joint Model of Topic and Perspective (26)8Schedule27 A Gibbs Samplers for Modeling Individual Perspectives27iii1IntroductionWe propose to investigate how different perspectives are reflected in text and video.By perspective we mean a point of view,for example,from the perspective of Democrats or Republicans.Specifically,we define“perspective”in this proposal as follows,Definition1.Perspectives manifest themselves when two or more parties attach importance differently to aspects of a topic.A document in this proposal is defined in its broadest sense,including text and video stories.Political conflicts and social controversies involve two or more parties holding different beliefs.A conflict will not exist if two groups agree with each other.An issue will not be controversial if there are no two different views.For example,two presidential candidates,John Kerry and George W.Bush,gave the following answers to a question on abortion during the third presidential debate in2004:(1)Kerry:What is an article of faith for me is not something that I can legislate on somebody who doesn’tshare that article of faith.I believe that choice is a woman’s choice.It’s between a woman,God and her doctor.And that’s why I support that.(2)Bush:I believe the ideal world is one in which every child is protected in law and welcomed to life.I understand there’s great differences on this issue of abortion,but I believe reasonable people cancome together and put good law in place that will help reduce the number of abortions.The above examples show that two candidates expressed two very different perspectives on abortion.One candidate takes a so-called“pro-choice”position that values a woman’s choice,while the other takes a “pro-life”position that values life of a unborn child.Perspectives do not automatically manifest themselves when any two documents are contrasted.Take the following sentences from Reuters newswire as examples.(3)Gold output in the northeast China province of Heilongjiang rose22.7pct in1986from1985’s level,the New China News Agency said.(4)Exco Chairman Richard Lacy told Reuters the acquisition was being made from Bank of New YorkCo Inc,which currently holds a50.1pct,and from RMJ partners who hold the remainder.The above sentence pair does not exhibit as strongly opposing“perspectives”as those in the Kerry-Bush answers cited earlier.Rather,as the Reuters indexers did,people would label Example3as“GOLD”and Example4as“ACQuisition”,namely,as two topics,not two perspectives.Why do people perceive different perspectives in the pair of Example1and Example2,but perceive no perspectives in the pair of Example3and Example4?We propose to investigate the following question:Research Question1.Can computer programs automatically determine if two document collections are written from two perspectives?There are four key elements in our definition of a perspective:topic,aspects,two or more parties, and importance.The GOLD-ACQ example does not exhibit perspective because,by out definition,two sentences are on two different topics,while the Kerry-Bush examples focus on the same topic.We illustrate how the Kerry-Bush examples(Example1and Example2)fit our definition in Table1.Answers to Research Question1is not only of great scientific interest to computational linguistics,but also will enable automatic discovery of contrasting perspectives.Political analysts regularly monitor the1ElementTopic AbortionAspects A woman’s choice vs.the life of a unborn childTwo or more parties Kerry and BushImportance Response to the questionTable1:How the Kerry-Bush examplesfits our definition of a perspectivepositions that foreign countries take on international and domestic issues.Media analysts frequently survey broadcast news,newspapers,and blogs for differing viewpoints.Contrary to costly human monitoring,com-puter programs can decide the existence of contrasting perspectives among huge collections of documents.In addition to discover document collections that contain opposing perspectives,analysts are interested in identifying documents that are written from a particular perspective.For example,in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict:(5)The inadvertent killing by Israeli forces of Palestinian civilians–usually in the course of shootingat Palestinian terrorists–is considered no different at the moral and ethical level than the deliberate targeting of Israeli civilians by Palestinian suicide bombers.(6)In thefirst weeks of the Intifada,for example,Palestinian public protests and civilian demonstrationswere answered brutally by Israel,which killed tens of unarmed protesters.Example5is written from the Israeli perspective;Example6is written from the Palestinian perspective. Analysts who follow the development of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict want not only to know that Exam-ple5and Example6are written from opposing perspectives,but also to look for more documents that are written from a particular perspective of interest.Peoples knowledgeable about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can easily identify the perspective from which a document was written,but human reviewing,again,is costly when there are huge numbers of puter programs that can automatically identify the perspective from which a document is written will be a valuable tool for people analyzing text from different perspectives.We propose to study the following research question:Research Question2.Can computers learn to identify the perspective from which a document is written?We can evaluate the effectiveness of such computer programs in the task of predicting the perspective of a document.The more effective computer programs,the higher classification accuracy they will achieve.When an issue is discussed from different perspectives,not every sentence strongly reflects the overall perspective an author holds.For example,the following sentences are written by one Palestinian and one Israeli,respectively:(7)The Rhodes agreements of1949set them as the ceasefire lines between Israel and the Arab states.(8)The green line was drawn up at the Rhodes Armistice talks in1948-49.Example7and Example8introduce the background of the ceasefire line drawn in1949,and no explicit perspectives are expressed.Analysts who sift through huge large collections of documents are interested in2not only quickly retrieving documents of a particular perspective of interest(i.e.,Research Question1),but also identifying which part of a document reflects strongly a perspective.We propose to study the following research question:Research Question3.Can computers discriminate between sentences that strongly express a perspective and sentences that do not?Perspectives,however,are notfixed.Beliefs that were not widely held before may become popular later.Similarly,common consensus in political and social issues may break,resulting two new,opposing perspectives.We propose to study the following question:Research Question4.Can computers detect the emergence and split of perspectives?So far we make an assumption about learning different perspectives:annotated data are available.By assuming each training document is labeled with a topic and a perspective,we can“train”our statistical models to distinguish different perspectives on a topic.Annotated data,however,are prohibitively expensive to obtain.We are thus interested in proceeding the previous research questions in a unsupervised fashion, and propose to study the following question:Research Question5.Can computers automatically identify topics and their differing perspectives at the same time?We plan to develop a joint model of topic and perspective to uncover the latent structure of different perspectives on a topic simultaneously.Text is not the only medium that perspectives are regularly expressed.Video has been a popular medium of conveying subjective beliefs and values.For example,two news clips in Figure1from different countries portray the same news story about“Arafat’s funeral”from different perspectives.(a)From a Arabic news channel(LBC)(b)From a American news channel(NBC) Figure1:News clips from different countries on the same story,“Arafat’s funeral”(from TRECVID’05,see Section3.2).Not every two news clips sharing similar characteristics will exhibit different perspectives.For example, two news clips in Figure2are both broadcast in Chinese,but viewers will not perceive different perspectives as strongly as those in Figure1.To identify perspectives expressed in video,we propose to address the following research question:3(a)From a Chinese news channel(NTDTV)(b)From a Chinese news channel(CCTV)Figure2:News clips in the same language,Chinese(from TRECVID’05,see Section3.2). Research Question6.Can computers determine if two sets of broadcast news clips are produced fromdifferent perspectives?We focus on broadcast news video in this proposal.Broadcast television news has been the predominant way of understanding the world nowadays.News networks set their own agenda and can greatly shape how people perceive economical,political,and social issues.A recent poll conducted by University of Maryland and Knowledge Networks(Kull,2003)shows that the number of misconceptions about the Iraq War respondents have vary significantly according to their main news source.80%of respondents whose primary news source is FOX have one or more misconceptions,while among people whose primary source is CNN,50%have misconceptions.Computer programs that can automatically identify the perspective from which broadcast news video is produced will facilitate mutual understanding between people of different cultures and beliefs.Such computer programs can highlight which part of news video reflecting strongly a perspective,and help news viewers become more aware of the bias of individual news networks.Furthermore,computer programs can point viewers to the news stories of opposing perspectives on the same issue from other news networks. News viewers are thus encouraged to consider controversial issues from broader and multiple viewpoints.Automatically identifying perspective in broadcast news video enables allow analysts to monitor broad-cast news on a larger scale.Political analysts constantly watch broadcast TV news from multiple news networks to detect any policy shift and opinion change.Counter-terrorism agencies continuously monitor domestic and foreign broadcast news to identify possible terrorist activities(Popp et al.,2004).Automatic systems can alert analysts to perspective change and provide the evidence of from multiple modalities of video.One key question in identifying perspectives in video is how to represent video.Unlike text,there are no clear choices of discrete units in video.We adopt a bag of“concepts”in this proposal.Similar to a bag-of-words representation,a video frame is represented as a bag of high-level visual concepts.For example, the video frame in Figure4is represented as a bag of concepts from LSCOM Annotations(see Section3.24for more details).The human annotations on video,however,are prohibitively expensive to obtain.Machine learning algorithms such as Support Vector Machine(SVM)have been shown to be effective in classifying many concepts(Naphade&Smith,2004).Instead of relying on human annotations,we can develop video concept classifiers based on labels and video data(e.g.,from TREC Video Track2005(Over et al.,2005)),and apply the classifiers to automatically generate a bag-of-concepts representation of a video shot.We propose to assess to what degree computers can identify different perspectives from automatically detected concepts instead of manual annotations.Research Question7.Can computers still effectively identify different perspectives with machine learned concept detectors?We are interested in how the accuracy of video classifiers affects the performance of identifying per-spectives in video.Finally,a multimedia document(e.g.,broadcast news video)consists of multiple modalities,which can both contribute to expressing different perspectives.Figure3shows a broadcast news video that consists of both text and video.The textual modality includes closed captions,ASR transcripts(in Arabic),and the English translations of the transcripts.We propose to study the following question:Research Question8.Will computers perform better in identifying perspectives of multimedia documents by jointly modeling textual and visual modalities?The text-based model captures topics and perspectives based on a bag-of-words representation,and the image-based model uses a bag-of-concepts representation.There are one perspective and one topic variable for each video shot,but there will be two different Multinomial distributions to generate text words and video concepts.Figure3:A broadcast news clip(from an Arabic channel in TRECVID’05,see Section3.2)consists of text and video modalities.51.1Outline of Thesis ProposalThe rest of the proposal is organized as follows.Wefirst review relevant literature on identifying perspectives in Section2,including perspectives reflected in text and video.Experimental data are described in Section3. We then present three pieces of supporting evidence to show why it is feasible to study perspectives in a statistical learning framework in Section4,Section5,and Section6.Finally we present proposed work in Section7.In Section4wefirst show that documents of different perspectives can be reliably distinguished from other kinds of text collections.To address Research Question1,we develop statistical models for docu-ment collections,and measure the“distance”between the models of two document collections.We measure how well the model-based approach can distinguish document collections that are written from contrast-ing perspectives(e.g.,Palestinian vs.Israeli)and document collections that are not written from different perspectives(e.g.,different news topics).The preliminary results show that the model-based approach can successfully separate document collections of different perspectives from document collections under other conditions.In Section5we show individual perspectives also exhibit strong statistical regularities.We approach the task of identifying the perspective of a document develop(i.e,Research Question2)as a classification problem.We evaluate how well statistical learning algorithms can learn a perspective reflected in word usage.The experimental results show that machine learning algorithms perform very well,and can predict the perspective from which a document is written with high accuracy.We show in Section6that video documents,which are represented as a bag of concepts,also ex-hibit statistical regularities similar to text documents of different perspectives.The regularities based on Kullback-Leibler divergence consistently are shown in text and video,and pave the way for proposed work in Section7.2Literature Review2.1Perspectives in Text2.1.1Computer Simulation of Belief SystemsPerspectives are manifested when authors hold different beliefs,and research on modeling belief systems is highly relevant to our work.Abelson and Carroll pioneered simulating the beliefs system of individu-als in computers(Abelson&Carroll,1965).The simulation system,as known as the Goldwater machine, represented the beliefs of a right-wing politician on foreign policies in the Cold War as a set of English sentences consisting subject followed by verb and object,for example,“Cuba subverts Latin America.”Abelson(1973)later extended the simple sentence-based representation to a hierarchical representation. The extended representation,closely following the Schank and Abelson(1977)’s framework of knowledge presentation,distinguished between actions and purposes of an actor,captured a sequence of actions for a purpose,and modeled interactions between multiple actors.Carbonell(1978)proposed POLITICS,a sim-ulation system that can interpret a political event in text from two conflicting ideologies,e.g.,conservative and liberal(Carbonell,1979).POLITICS focused on understanding the goals of actors,and a new structure, goal trees,was developed to perform“counter-planning”,that is,to thwart other actors in achieving their goals.Research questions raised in Section1,however,have not been fully addressed in previous -puter simulation in previous work was not an end,but a means of making assumptions about human belief6systems explicit.Therefore,early computer simulation programs could neither determine if two text docu-ments expressed conflicting views nor predict the belief that the author of a document holds.Beliefs in previous work were manually collected and translated into computer-readable forms,which is very different from our goal of automatically learning perspectives from a collection of documents.Previous work takes a top-down approach to modeling beliefs,while our approach in this proposal is bottom-up. Manually-constructed knowledge base has been known to suffer from“acquisition bottleneck”(Buchanan et al.,1983),and is difficult to transfer to new domains.Learning one’s attitude toward an issue directly from written or spoken documents was considered to be impossible in previous work.Abelson and Carroll expressed a very pessimistic view on the possibility of learning beliefs from text without putting into any prior knowledge:The simulation of the belief systems of other individuals[other than Goldwater]with verydifferent views is also being contemplated,but this step cannot be undertaken lightly sincethe paraphrasing procedure[one method of manually representing beliefs in computers(seeAbelson&Carroll,1965,pg.29)]extremely difficult.One might suppose that fully automaticcontent analysis methods could be applied to the writings and speeches of publicfigures,butthere is an annoying technical problem which renders this possibility a vain hope.We do not subscribe to this view.Instead,we believe that statistical modeling allows perspectives to be learned from training documents without human supervision.Part of our goal in this proposal is to show to what degree can statistical learning learn perspectives automatically.2.1.2Subjectivity,Sentiment,and Discourse AnalysisRecently there has been increasing interest in subjectivity and sentiment analysis.Subjective language is used to express opinions,emotions,and sentiments.There has been studies on learning subjective language (Wiebe et al.,2004;Riloff et al.,2003;Riloff&Wiebe,2003),identifying opinionated documents(Yu& Hatzivassiloglou,2003)and sentences(Yu&Hatzivassiloglou,2003;Riloff et al.,2003;Riloff&Wiebe, 2003),and discriminating between positive and negative language(Yu&Hatzivassiloglou,2003;Turney& Littman,2003;Pang et al.,2002;Dave et al.,2003;Nasukawa&Yi,2003;Morinaga et al.,2002).By its very nature we expect much of the language for presenting a perspective or point-of-view to be subjective and beling a document or a sentence as subjective,however,does not solve all the problem of identifying perspectives.Given two document collections,we can apply subjectivity classifiers to obtain how many subjective sentences and documents are there.The proportion of subjective sentences or documents,however,does not help answer if A and B contain opposing perspectives(i.e.,Research Question1).As we will show later in Section3.1,there are a large proportion of subjective sentences in documents of contrasting perspectives,but the proportionality by itself is not indicative if two document collections are written from the same or different perspectives.Research on the automatic classification of movie or product reviews as positive or negative(Turney& Littman,2003;Nasukawa&Yi,2003;Mullen&Collier,2004;Beineke et al.,2004;Pang&Lee,2004; Morinaga et al.,2002;Hu&Liu,2004)is similar to identifying individual perspectives(i.e.,Research Question2).By our definition of a perspective,sentiment expressed in movie or product reviews is one kind of perspectives.Reviews use sentimental language to assign subjective importance on various aspects of a movie(e.g.,actors,plots,lighting,etc)or a product.In the domains other than movie or products reviews, importance of different aspects is,however,assigned in a manner more complex than plain sentiments.It is not clear if how importance is assigned when people express perspectives in social and political issues can be as clear as sentiments in movie or product reviews.7How different perspectives are expressed in political discourse has been studied in thefield of discourse analysis(van Dijk,1988;Pan et al.,1999;Fang,2001;Geis,1987;Wilson,1990).Although their research have goals similar to ours,they do not take a computational approach to analyze large collections of the documents.To the best of our knowledge,our approach to automatically identify perspectives in discourse is unique.2.1.3Text Categorization and Topic ModelsFrom comprehensive comparison between competing classifiers(Yang&Liu,1999),to feature selection (Yang&Pedersen,1997),to new algorithms(Joachims,1998;McCallum&Nigam,1998),to utilization of unlabeled data(Nigam et al.,2000),to new kinds of text documents(Klimt&Yang,2004;Lewis et al., 2004),the problem of text categorization has been extensively studied(also see a survey paper(Sebastiani, 2002))and has shown that text documents can be classified into pre-defined categories with high accuracy.We borrow many techniques and methodology from text categorization.The most popular and suc-cessful choice of representation of text is a bag-of-words representation.Each document is represented as a vector with each coordinate being the count of a term within the document,i.e.,term frequency(TF), and the inverted count of a term appearing in multiple documents,i.e.,inverted document frequency(IDF). The bag-of-words representation ignores word order and does not utilize rich information in syntax and semantics,and makes strong assumptions that words are independent from each other,which is not true in natural languages.However,the bag-of-words representation has been shown very effective in many natural language process tasks,including text categorization(Sebastiani,2002)and information retrieval(Lewis, 1998).One can regard two contrasting perspectives as two categories,and approach the task of identifying the perspective from which a text document was written(i.e.,Research Question2)as text categorization. However,so far text categorization focus on“topical”documents(e.g.,news topics in the Reuters corpus), and it is not clear how successful this approach will be for“perspective”documents.Research on topics models(Blei et al.,2003;Griffiths&Steyvers,2004;Rosen-Zvi et al.,2004;Mc-Callum et al.,2004)(also see a survey paper(Steyvers&Griffiths,In Press))show promising results on recovering the latent structure in topical documents.They provide solid foundation for us to further in-vestigate the interaction between topics and perspectives.Recent work in evolution of topics(Xing,2005; Blei&Lafferty,2006)is of particular interest,and we plan to extend them to model the temporal aspect of perspectives(i.e.,Research Question4).2.2Perspectives in VideoVideo has been a popular medium of expressing social and political perspectives.There have been works in multimedia that make viewers more aware of the perspectives in video.Minions(Ireson,2004)is an interactive art installation that confronts visitors with video from two religious perspectives,Christianity and Islam.VOX POPULI(Bocconi&Nack,2004)is a computer system that can make a documentary from a pool of interview clips based on viewer’s position on a issue,e.g.,“Iraq War.”Besides the art installation and video generation work,very few work in thefield of multimedia studies the problem of identifying different perspectives in video.The perspective of a video in previous works is either assumed to be known or manually labeled.Manual annotation makes it almost impossible to analyze large number of videos.Instead we are interested in developing automatic methods of identifying the perspectives of videos.8Miyamori et al.(2005)present a system that can summarize TV sports programs based on the“perspec-tive”of a viewer expressed in on-line chat rooms.On the surface(Miyamori et al.,2005)is very similar to VOX POPULI,and the only difference are types of videos.However,there is a major difference between two video summarization works.We contrast two studies with our proposal in Table2.Miyamori et al.(2005)Bocconi and Nack(2004)Our Proposal Topic Sports War?Data Fixed TV programs Interview Clips?Aspects Video shots-?Importance Inferred from chat-room logs-?Output Video summaries Video summaries Video segments Table2:Comparison between(Miyamori et al.,2005;Bocconi&Nack,2004)and our proposal Under our definition of perspective,because the perspectives of interview clips are already labeled,VOX POPULI need not infer the perspective of a video.On the contrary,(Miyamori et al.,2005)need to infer the perspectives of users and generate summaries accordingly.Miyamori et al.(2005)infers how users attach importance on video shots of TV sports program from chat-room logs.In this proposal we are interested in a more challenging problem.Given two sets of video segments,how do we know if they contain different perspectives?We neither know what they talk about(i.e.,topic)nor have access to complete raw footage they are chosen from.Furthermore,how importance are attached are hidden and need to be inferred from produced videos.There have been works linking stories on the same topic across news sources(Zhang et al.,2004;Zhai& Shah,2005),and this will a necessary component in our system.Visual similarity between two news stories are shown to be of moderate help,and text similarity(from closed captions or ASR transcripts)contribute much more to the success of linking stories in broadcast news(Zhai&Shah,2005).3Experimental Data3.1Text DataWe prepared two corpora consisting of documents that were written or spoken from contrasting perspectives. Thefirst corpus,bitterlemons,contains written documents that were written from an Israeli or a Palestinian perspective.The second corpus,2004Presidential Debates,consists of spoken documents that were spoken by Kerry or Bush in the2004Presidential Debates.To test how well our proposed methods can distinguish document collections of contrasting perspectives from documents of no perspectives,we need to a corpus that is commonly regarded as different in any way but“perspective.”We focus on a particular difference,topicality,and choose a corpus,Reuters-21578,that contains news stories in different topics.The bitterlemons corpus consists of the articles published on the website http://bitterlemons. org/.The website is set up to“contribute to mutual understanding[between Palestinians and Israelis] through the open exchange of ideas.”1Every week an issue about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is selected for discussion(e.g.,“Disengagement:unilateral or coordinated?”),and a Palestinian editor and an Israeli editor each contribute one article addressing the issue.In addition,the Israeli and Palestinian editors invite 1/about/about.html9。