节目资讯
刊物:娱乐时尚
日期:2009-01-19
难易度:Medium
关键字:assault, distinctive, characteristic, spectrum, co
(Music).
Hello, friends.
I hope you had a great weekend.
Thanks for taking the time to join us here at Studio Classroom Worldwide.
My name is Steve.
And for the next few lessons here, we will be looking at Amazing Anime.
Japanese anime and Japanese-made comics have been around for a long time,
even in Western countries.
But it hasn’t been until recently that they have really taken off and found
popularity all over the world.
Maybe you’re a fan of Japanese animation.
If you are, you’ll definitely enjoy this lesson.
And if you’re not, maybe you will be a fan after this lesson is over.
OK, let’s briefly glance at some words found in this section of the article.
The first word is assault.
assult,
as in:
The man assaulted his coworker so the police arrested him.
The second word is distinctive.
The famous singer is known for his very distinctive voice.
And the third word is characteristic.
The company boss only hires people with strong work skills and other positive
characteristics.
All right, friends.
Now if you would open your magazines to page thirty-two,
we’ll begin the reading.
Amazing Anime.
Japanese cartoons and comics have found a worldwide audience.
Everywhere you look, visual entertainment assaults your senses - books,
television and movies vie for your attention.
Now a distinctive form is taking center stage.
The name of this visual art form, anime, is a contraction of the English word
”animation”.
It refers to animated features (or cartoons) from Japan.
However, specific characteristics set anime apart from other cartoons.
Anime characters have large eyes, small mouths, slightly oversized heads and
exaggerated expressions.
Anime shares these traits with manga, a popular Japanese comic book style,
making the two closely connected.
In fact, anime is actually animated manga.
Hello, friends.
I’m Rachel.
I’m Esther.
And I’m Chip.
And we’re so glad you joined us for today’s lesson Amazing Anime.
Now do you enjoy watching animated cartoons?
I know a lot of you do.
And maybe you especially enjoy the Japanese animated cartoons.
Well, today we’re going to learn something about the history of anime.
That’s right.
People around the world are enjoying Japanese cartoons and comic books.
And these are becoming more and more popular.
Well, we see here in our lesson that everywhere we go, everywhere we look,
visual entertainment is assaulting us.
And it’s trying to vie for our attention.
And this is true, isn’t it, Chip?
It seems wherever we go, books and television and movies and all sorts of things
are competing for our attention.
That’s right.
And so the author uses the word assault there which is one of our Word Bank
words.
And it says that we are assaulted by entertainment,
which means we are almost attacked by entertainment.
If we assault someone, that means we are attacking them.
If we’re assaulted by, that means we’re being attacked by.
And some people might actually feel this way that they are being attacked by
entertainment.
Well, there’s a unique and special kind of entertainment we’re going to talk
with you... talk to you about today,
and that is the form of anime.
It’s a distinctive form of entertainment.
That’s right.
It’s a distinctive form.
It is very distinct or very special and unique.
And this is taking center stage or it is gaining popularity.
And this kind of visual art form is called anime, anime.
Anime.
That’s right.
And something unique about the word ”anime” is that it’s a contraction.
Now if you’ve been studying English for a while, you’ve probably learned that
English is full of contractions.
In fact, let’s get a few examples here.
Chip, can you first tell us what a contraction is and then give us an example of
one?
Well, a contraction is a shortened form of a longer word.
So for example, we don’t usually say it is cold.
We might say it’s cold.
Or it apostrophe s cold.
It’s cold.
Right.
It’s cold.
Or another example is when we say ”won’t”.
That’s a contraction of will not.
So the word ”anime” is a contraction of the word animation, right, Esther?
That’s right.
So the word animation is a long word.
A-N-I-M-A-T-I-O-N.
But the word anime, A-N-I-M-E, is much shorter.
So we’ve taken a few letters from the word animation to make this word anime.
Right.
And I kind of like the shortened word.
It’s easier to say.
And it definitely tells us a little bit about this particular kind of
entertainment.
We see here in our lesson that anime refers to animated features or cartoons
from Japan.
So Japan is the place that is producing a lot of anime.
That’s right.
And there are some specific characteristics that set anime apart from other
forms of animation or other cartoons.
And that word characteristics is another one of our Word Bank words.
And it means um...
Characteristics refer to habits or qualities that a character has that set it
apart or make it distinct from other characters in the story.
So for instance, Rachel has...
One... one of your characteristics, Rachel, is that you have blond hair.
That’s right.
That’s one of my physical characteristics.
Good example, Chip.
And you just use that word distinctive again.
So that word can be used when describing somebody’s characteristics.
It’s a distinctive quality or feature.
So that means there are certain special things about anime that make it unique,
that made it different from other cartoons.
That’s right.
So the characters and anime or the people and animals who make up the story, and
even robots,
they have some distinct characteristics.
And one of them is that they have very large eyes.
Yes, very large eyes as you’ll see from some of the pictures.
And they also have small mouths.
Now I’m not sure why this is so attractive,
but they love the big eyes, the small mouth, and the very, very big head, don’t
they?
That’s right.
The text uses the word oversized head,
which means larger than normal.
oversized.
oversized.
That’s a good word to learn.
If you’re traveling and you’re in the airport and you have your luggage, you’re
hoping that it’s not oversized,
because if it is, you’re going to have to pay a lot more money.
So if something is oversized, it is much bigger than the norm or bigger than
other things.
Right.
And they also have exaggerated expressions.
So the face... the expressions on their faces are overacted.
For example, one of the characters who is scared might look like this.
Yes. Esther just showed us a very exaggerated look of being scared.
So they like... the exaggeration.
And these... these are the particular characteristics.
And before we go to a break, we’re also going to learn that anime... anime
shares these traits with manga.
And Chip, can you briefly tell us what manga is?
Well, manga is a comic book style that comes from Japan.
So anime is simply animated manga.
That it is.
Well, we’re going to learn about this appeal of anime after we take a short
break.
But first let’s visit Ken and Linda in the Chat Room.
Hi, everyone.
Welcome to the Chat Room.
And Linda is with us today.
Hi, Linda.
Hi, Ken.
Hi, everybody.
Hey, Ken.
Before we start, I just want to say that I hope you’re setting aside time to
spend with your baby.
Well, I do spend time with him.
But what do you mean by setting aside time?
Oh, set time aside means to make or take time to be with him.
So you are reserving that time for him.
Then I’m glad to hear that you are.
Well, our article today use ”set apart”.
Can you use that with time, too?
Can I say ”set apart time”?
You certainly can.
You can set apart time to spend with your family,
which means that you reserve that time for a specific use.
But in our article, it says:
Some specific characteristics set anime apart from other cartoons.
Here set apart means to make something noticeable.
So those characteristics they discussed made anime noticeable.
Oh.
(Chinese).
Anything else with ”set”?
Well, there are many phrasal verbs and idioms that you set.
For example, I can set my mind to accomplish something.
How can you set your mind?
It just means to decide and be determined to do it.
Hmm, interesting.
I’ve also heard someone say that his teacher wanted to set the world on fire.
I thought that was kind of dangerous.
Well, one would think so, yes.
But here it means to cause the world to be excited and to make change.
The teacher probably set his class on fire,
wanting them to become excited about learning.
And sometimes it means you want to be noticed, so you do something to achieve
that attention.
(Chinese).
And now you can set your mind at ease aswe go for a break. Studio Classroom will
be right back.