大象传媒

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Last updated at 15:35 GMT, Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Two-handed writer

Video

Report and vocabulary

Transcript

It's a talent that very few possess.

Most who try writing with both hands simultaneously end up with an illegible scrawl.

Not so for 24-year-old Chen Siyuan, an ambidextrous translator from northern China.

Chen's gift is the ability to focus on two separate things at the same time.

She discovered it while struggling to cope with large quantities of English language homework.

simultaneously

at the same time

illegible scrawl

unreadable writing

ambidextrous

of the ability to use both hands with equal skill

gift

unusual natural talent

to cope with

to be able to manage a difficult situation

Exercise

Use one of the words or phrases below to complete each of these sentences from news reports.

Note that you may have to change the form of a word to complete the sentence correctly.

simultaneously/illegible scrawl/ambidextrous/gift/to cope with

1. Easy to read at the start, the handwriting gets worse and worse as the clock ticks down. By the time we get to the last minute, it's an almost ____________.

2. Around one in every 100 people is __________, or mixed-handed.

3. "Sometimes parents, already struggling _________ their child's diagnosis, have to fight to get the help their child needs - and they can feel really let down by the system."

4. In the deadliest attack, at least three bombs went off ___________ in Kirkuk, killing at least five people.

5. "Many young people will say that they don't have a _______ for languages but they are being very creative when it comes to language used in contexts such as text messages."

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To take away:

Exercise

Answers

How did you do?

1

illegible scrawl

2

ambidextrous

3

to cope with

4

simultaneously

5

gift

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