节目资讯
刊物:旅游精选
日期:2009-07-04
难易度:High
关键字:nestle, sensational, marvel, destination, TRAVEL
(Music).
Hi, friends.
Welcome to Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
Thanks for taking the time out of your day to study English with us.
We are on our third day of talking about the Iberian Peninsula.
And actually if we had the time, we could spend three more days talking about
this beautiful part of Europe.
That’s because Iberia has so many special and diverse places,
like the tiny country of Andorra.
Now before we go to Andorra, let’s look at a key word that I think you’ve all
seen before.
It’s a great word to use when talking about Andorra’s geography.
It’s the verb:
nestle.
Nestled under a warm blanket, the kitten fell sound asleep.
OK. Now let’s get into the text nestled there on the right side of page
seventeen under the title:
Good things come in small sizes.
The Iberian Peninsula.
Good things come in small sizes.
One of the oldest nations in Europe is the tiny country of Andorra,
with an area of only four hundred sixty-eight square kilometers.
Nestled in a basin ringed by majestic mountain peaks, Andorra displays an almost
fairy-tale quality.
Great skiing, beautiful scenery and duty-free shopping attract more than ten
million visitors annually to this tiny country in the northeast corner of the
Iberian Peninsula.
Discover Portugal.
During the sixteenth century, Portuguese explorers sailed around the world,
looking for new lands to conquer.
Today, visitors flock to what used to be called ”the Iberian Peninsula’s
best-kept secret” - sunny Portugal.
Hello, friends.
I’m Esther.
And I’m Chip.
And you’ve joined us today for our third day in our TRAVEL article this month.
We’re talking or we’ve been talking about the Iberian Peninsula uh, in um...
Western Europe.
And this Iberian Peninsula has several different areas coming together in one
area.
And we’ve already looked at Spain, specifically Barcelona.
And we’ve also looked at Gibraltar, which is a British territory.
And today we’re going to look at something else, aren’t we, Esther?
Yes, we’re going to look at areas in two countries.
One, a very small country called Andorra.
And another one, we’ll be looking at the country of Portugal.
First let’s talk about Andorra.
Our text uses this to describe it:
Good things come in small sizes.
Why?
Well, Andorra is one of the oldest countries in Europe.
And it’s also a very tiny country covering only four hundred and sixty-eight
square kilometers.
Yeah, that is not a very big area.
That is not a very big country.
Our article says that it’s nestled in a basin.
Now that word ”nestled” is a verb; it’s one of our More Information words.
To nestle into something means that you are fititng yourself into usually a
comfortable place, a safe place, usually a warm place.
So when I think of something nestling into something,
usually I think of maybe a puppy or a kitten or a child um, nestling into maybe
a mother’s arms or a blanket or something soft.
Right.
So we’re using this word ”nestled” here to describe the country of Andorra,
because it’s nestled in a basin ringed by... majestic mountain peaks.
Now a basin is an area of land that is lower than the surrounding areas.
And it is ringed or it’s surrounded like a circle by majestic mountain peaks.
So very high mountain surrounding Andorra and it’s in... in a basin.
A very small country.
And it sounds like Andorra, as our article says, it displays an almost
fairy-tale quality.
So I think if you were to go there, you would feel like you were almost in a
fairy tale from uh, from a very uh, from a long time ago.
And a fairy tale is a story usually involving princes and princesses, maybe even
magic.
That is not real.
It’s make-believe.
And there’s also often magic that happens in fairy tales.
So this special country, if you go there, you seem like... you feel like you are
in a story.
And it sounds like this Andorra has not only beautiful scenery, but it also has
great skiing which I would be pretty interested in.
I love skiing.
And it also has duty-free shopping.
Now um... Esther, what does it mean if shopping is duty-free?
Well, it means that there are no extra taxes added to what you purchase.
So many airports, they have duty-free shops where you can buy perfume and
alcohol and other goods,
where you don’t have to add this extra tax.
And that’s why people like to... one of the reasons people like to go to
Andorra.
In fact, our article says:
Duty-free shopping attacts more than ten million visitors annually to this
country.
So I’m sure they go there, they go skiing and they walk in a row and see the
beautiful scenery,
and they also buy lots of things.
Yeah, ten million visitors to this country.
That’s... that’s a lot of visitors to a very small area only four hundred and
sixty-eight kilometers... square kilometers large.
Ten million visitors every year.
That’s.. that’s a lot.
Right.
And again this country of Andorra is located on the Iberian Peninsula,
and it is on the northeast corner of the region.
So if you go to the Iberian Peninsula or go around the area,
there are many, many different cultures and many different languages that are
spoken.
But you can go here and you can go to Andorra and shop and just walk around this
fairy-tale-like land.
That sounds very interesting.
We have a short Did You Know section which will talk a little bit more about
this interesting place.
The people of Andorra can expect to live a long time.
With an average of eighty-three years, it has one of the highest life expectancy
rates in the world.
Compare that rate to one of the lowest in the world:
the average person in Swaziland can expect to live a mere thirty-two years.
Some reasons for the longevity of the Andorrans is the pleasant mountain
climate, prosperous economy and good health care.
Now let’s discover or find out more about the country of Portugal.
Now during the sixteen century, Portuguese explorers sailed around the world,
looking for new lands to conquer.
So they traveled around the world because they wanted these countries to be
owned by them, by Portugal.
And so today, visitors flock, like uh, in big groups,
they travel to what used to be called the Iberian Peninsula’s best-kept secret.
So this is a very uh, maybe not so well-known place uh, in sunny Portugal.
We’re gonna take a break.
And we’ll be right back to talk more about Portugal. Stay tuned.