节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-30
难易度:Low
关键字:lunge, retreat, exhaust, discovery
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
My name is Carolyn.
And today we are continuing our idioms lesson "Into the Jungle."
Yesterday we ended our lesson with Flora seeing a giant snake.
After all of the running, getting lost and being separated from the rest of the
team, it would seem that Flora and Jared aren't out of the woods yet.
Hmm, let's find out how our story ends.
Open up your magazine and begin with the third part of our lesson "Into the
Jungle."
(Music).
Into the Jungle.
Flora slowly stepped back, but the snake lunged at her.
She jumped into a nearby tree and started climbing.
But the snake climbed up after her!
Jared threw a rock that struck the snake in the head.
It stopped just long enough for Flora to break off a branch.
Every time the snake moved toward her, she hit it with the end of the branch.
Eventually, the snake retreated to look for an easier meal.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
That was scary.
I'm glad Flora was able to escape.
Oh! Me, too.
Now before we talk about how she got away from the snake, let's go back to the
beginning of today's lesson.
Good idea.
In the first sentence, we see the phrase: stepped back.
If you "step back," that means you take a step backwards instead of forwards.
You could also say that Flora "backed away" from the snake.
That means that she was still looking at the snake, but instead of walking
forward, she walked backward.
You could also say that she "took a step back."
There are several ways to express this idea, so here are some examples:
Tony took a step back from his painting to admire the finished picture.
So he was very close to the painting, then moved backward so that he could get a
better look at the entire picture.
Or... Cindy backed away from the barking dog.
So if you want to show that someone is moving away from something, you should
say or use the word "from."
But if you want to show that someone is moving toward something, you should use
the word "to" or "toward."
For example, instead of saying "Cindy backed away from the barking dog," you
could say "Cindy backed away toward her car."
So instead of saying what she is moving away from, you can say where she is
going.
You could also combine these two ideas and say "Cindy backed away from the
barking dog and moved toward her car."
Now you know both what she is moving away from and what she is moving toward.
Try using this sentence pattern with the words "step back," "back away" or "took
a step back," plus the words "from" or "toward."
See how many examples you can make.
And back to our story, Flora was stepping back from a giant snake.
But the snake lunged at her.
Fortunately, Flora seems to be a pretty good climber and was able to climb up a
tree.
Unfortunately, the snake was also a good climber.
How can a snake climb?
Snakes don't have arms or legs.
Well, that's... that's a good point, but many snakes are actually good climbers.
They are able to use their powerful muscles to curl around parts of the tree and
pull themselves along.
There are even snakes called "tree snakes" because they live in trees.
There are a lot of different kinds of snakes out there.
And the one in our story was struck on the head by a rock that Jared threw.
Now the word "struck" is one that we should take a quick look at.
"Struck" is the past tense of "strike."
"Strike" means to hit something very hard or with a lot of force.
For example, "The man struck the tree with an axe to cut it down."
Or... She struck the ball with a baseball bat.
But something that is interesting about the word "strike" when you are talking
about baseball is that it actually has two meanings.
You can strike the ball with the bat.
But you can also use "strike" as a noun.
Right. If someone in baseball "gets a strike," that means that they didn't hit
the ball.
They swung the bat but missed the ball, so they got a strike.
And if you get three strikes, you are out, and you can't try to hit the ball
again.
Now another sport that uses the word "strike" is bowling.
And here, getting a strike is a good thing.
That means that you knock down all the pins on your first try.
So this word "strike" can mean different things.
But in our story, it means to hit something very hard.
So when Jared threw the rock, he was able to hit the snake on the head and make
it stop just long enough for Flora to get a tree branch to defend herself.
Well, you just used a phrase from our lesson, Carolyn, that Liz wants to talk
about in the Grammar Gym.
So let's join her now.
Hi there, friends.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's lesson we see this sentence:
It stopped just long enough for Flora to break off a branch.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
It just means the snake stopped moving for just a short time, but there was
enough time for Flora to break off a branch.
Now friends, please notice this sentence pattern in the original sentence:
[subject] [verbed] just long enough for [something to happen].
This is a great sentence pattern to use to talk about how an activity may be
short, but there was enough time for something to happen.
For example:
The tour group waited just long enough for some people to make a trip to the
restroom.
Or... We parked by the road side just long enough for Bob to take a photo of the
scenery.
So give this pattern a try, and practice saying it with a friend.
Think of an activity that didn't last too long but it was just enough time for
something else to happen.
And if you need to see some more examples, you can take a look at today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today, friends.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
I'm glad that Flora had just long enough to break off a branch that she could
use to defend herself from that snake.
And she certainly did defend herself, which was important because that snake
wasn't just trying to defend itself or its home, it was trying to eat her.
Right. And we know that because we read that the snake retreated to look for an
easier meal.
Well, with all of this talk about snakes, I think we should learn a snake idiom.
All right. Well, I know one: snake in the grass.
If something is described as being "a snake in the grass," that means it is very
sneaky, and it cannot be trusted.
This is because if a snake is hiding in the grass, it can be very difficult to
see, and it suddenly might attack you -- which is what happened to Flora in our
story.
So, one way you could use this phrase is to say:
Be careful about trusting him.
I think he might be a snake in the grass.
That means that you don't think the person is trustworthy.
Well, I hope you don't know anyone like that.
It's important to have people that you can trust.
And I think Flora can trust to Jared to help her out of difficult situations.
I think you're right about that.
Don't go away.
We will be right back to find out the end to this exciting adventure.