节目资讯
刊物:名人特写
日期:2009-07-10
难易度:High
关键字:nominate, in one’s blood, alongside, adolescent, s
Welcome back, everybody. We are talking about the young actress Emma Roberts.
So we learned before the break that Emma is the niece of actress, Julia Roberts.
Julia Roberts is, of course, a superstar.
She’s been nominated for numerous acting awards and has won many, including an
Oscar for Best Actress.
But getting back to Emma,
Emma is young, has a winning smile and is proving that she’s a great actress in
her own right.
Right now let’s look at two more words that you need to know for this section of
the lesson.
The first is the preposition:
alongside.
Nancy landed a newspaper job alongside some of the best reporters in the state.
And the adjective:
adolescent,
as in:
Thousands of excited adolescent girls showed up for the Jonas Brothers concert.
Now let’s find out how Emma got her big break in acting.
This reading begins at the top of the left-hand column on page twenty six.
Emma Roberts.
After several small movie roles, including ones alongside Johnny Depp, Bruce
Willis and her aunt Julia,
Emma’s big break came in 2004.
That year, she began starring in Unfabulous,
a hit series on kids’ network Nickelodeon.
She played the lead role of Addie Singer,
an unpopular junior high schooler who wrote her own songs.
While filming the show,
she became one of the first adolescent actors to keep an ongoing blog about
working on a TV show.
Emma used it to let fans in on behind-the-scenes action as well as introduce
them to Hollywood lingo.
Welcome back.
We’ve been talking about Emma Roberts,
who has a famous name because... primarily because of her aunt, Julia Roberts.
And she’s been proofing that she doesn’t just have a famous name but she also,
apparently, has some real talent in her acting abilities.
And even at the young age of eighteen, she’s been given the chance to star or to
work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood.
We see here in our lesson on page twenty-six that after a few small movie roles,
including ones alongside Johnny Depp, Bruce Willis and her aunt Juliet,
Emma’s big break came in two thousand and four.
Now let’s back up a little bit and first look at that word:
alongside.
She starred or she had a role alongside Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis.
OK. And that word means...
Uh, actually you could maybe... maybe guess what that preposition means.
It’s a combination of the word ”along” or ”along with” and ”beside”.
So it’s communicating the idea that she is right up there uh, beside these big
names and big actors Johnny Depp and Bruce Willis.
Sometimes we even call them A-listers.
And they’re... they are the big movie stars.
If you haven’t heard of Johnny Depp,
I usually say, well, if you’ve seen Pirates of the Caribbean,
then you’ve watched him or he was in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
So these are big names.
But her big break didn’t come until two thousand and four.
A big break means when it’s your chance to shine.
It’s kind of like the thing that sets your career in motion.
And what happened that year?
Well, she broke in to the acting world in 2004 when she began starring in
Unfabulous,
which is a hit series on Nickelodeon, the kids’ network.
Now let’s talk about that word:
unfabulous.
Um... it... is it a word, actually?
I don’t think it is.
I think it’s just kind of a made-up word for the show.
We know ”fabulous” is a word.
If something’s fabulous, it’s great.
But if it’s unfabulous, so then it’s so great.
So the point is her role is as the role of Addie Singer, the lead role,
who was an unpopular junior high schooler,
who wrote her own songs.
So I’m guessing that this Addie Singer often felt unfabulous.
Right.
And if she’s the lead role, if... if Emma is playing the lead role,
that means that this Addie, her character is the main character of the story.
And yet she’s unpopular.
She’s an unpopular junior high schooler who wrote her own songs.
So she... Sounds like she’s a creative character on the show.
Yeah, I agree.
I haven’t actually seen this show,
but I know it’s been a big hit with young adolescent fans, which we’ll talk
about in a minute.
But before we do, we have some really interesting fun facts about Emma Roberts.
Last year, Vanity Fair magazine added Emma to its elite ”Bright Young Hollywood”
list.
Emma is extremely close to her aunt, Julia Roberts.
Many claim that the two are look-alikes.
Emma loves to read and play volleyball.
Her favorite actors are Matt Damon and Johnny Depp.
Her favorite actresses are Reese Witherspoon and Cameron Diaz.
Emma has a cat named Coco Chanel.
OK.
So our article refers to Emma Roberts as an adolescent actor.
Now that word adolescent is a good one for our students to know, our... our
friends to know.
Uh, adolescent means it’s a person between childhood and adulthood.
So we might think of an adolescent as a... uh... as a teenager or anyone before
uh... he or she becomes an adult.
Right.
And while she was this adolescent actor, she... she became quite popular,
and she was one of the first teenage actors to keep an ongoing blog about
working on a TV show.
Now we know what blogs are. It’s on the Internet and she would journal her
thoughts and her feelings and her... and things that happen.
And she used her blog to let fans in on behind-the-scenes action as well as
introduce them to Hollywood lingo.
So she gave her fans a chance to almost feel like they were there with her.
Right.
And that word lingo is a word that maybe you’ve heard before.
It’s referring to vocabulary or language that’s used in a specific field.
So I think every field, every subject, uh, everything that you might learn about
has some lingo in it.
Like you have Hollywood lingo.
You have medical lingo.
Business lingo. Educational lingo.
Well, the neat thing about Emma Roberts is she reached out to her fans and
taught them the Hollywood lingo.
Well, we need to visit the Chat Room right now.
But join us next time as we continue learning about Emma Roberts.
Hello, friends.
I’m Ken.
And I’m Beth.
Today’s lesson is about a talented young actress named Emma Roberts.
Beth, I’m a little bit confused about the usage of the words ”actor” and
”actress” in this article.
The first paragraph says Emma wanted to be an actress when she grew up.
But later it says:
She became one of the first adolescent actors to keep an ongoing blog about
working on a TV show.
So is Emma an actress or an actor?
Great question, Ken.
The suffix ”-ess” is one that means female.
You’ll see this suffix in words like actress, waitress and stewardess.
Since there has been some controversy over using terms that are specifically
male and female,
more and more people prefer to use terms that are gender-neutral.
So words that are gender-neutral can be used with both males and females.
Right.
For example, the words policeman and policewoman have been replaced with the
gender-neutral term:
police officer.
What about waitress and stewardess?
What are the gender-neutral terms for those words?
The word waitress has largely been replaced with server.
And stewardess has mostly been replaced with the term:
flight attendant.
But you may still hear some people say waitress and stewardess.
The terms aren’t incorrect.
They’re just being replaced with new words.
OK. But what about actress?
Well, nowadays people generally use the word ”actor” when referring to male and
female performers collectively.
But actress remains common when referring specifically to female actors.
This is especially seen in the major acting awards that have specific categories
for females.
Oh, like the Oscars.
Right.
The Oscars are the Academy Awards.
And they are the most prestigious awards an actor can win.
These words give trophies to the best actor and the best actress.
So since these major acting awards still use the term ”actress”,
it’s still fairly common when referring specifically to females like in our
article.
When referring specifically to Emma, we can use the word actress since she’s a
female.
But in the broader usage referring to adolescent actors, both male and female,
we can use the gender-neutral word:
actor.
(Chinese).
Thanks for joining us, friends.
Now it’s time to go see Michelle.
Hi, everyone.
I’m Michelle.
(Chinese).
And I guess that’s all the time for today. I’ll see you next time.
Bye-bye.
Thank you for that, Michelle.
OK.
Speaking of Hollywood lingo, here are two examples of lingo you might hear on a
Hollywood movie set.
The first is banana,
which is used as a verb.
That’s when an actor is requested to walk along a curved path to or from the
camera to avoid blocking whatever is behind him.
A film director might say:
Can you banana right as you walk away?
Another example of Hollywood lingo is buff and puff.
That’s when an actor is said to the hair and makeup department.
Well, there it is.
Friends, we’re out of time.
Let’s continue talking about the actress Emma Roberts tomorrow.
Until then, Studio Classroom wishes you a great day.
Bye-bye, everyone.
(Music).