节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-28
难易度:Low
关键字:breathe, lab (laboratory), research, pour, field work
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
I'm Carolyn.
And today you are joining us for our first day of the lesson "Into the Jungle."
We have all sorts of plant-themed idioms scattered throughout our lessons for
the next three days.
There is a lot to learn, so open up your magazine and let's begin our adventure
"Into the Jungle."
(Music).
Into the Jungle.
Studying jungle plants is no bed of roses!
Flora smiled as she breathed in the humid air.
Her dream had come true.
She was finally in the jungle!
Flora was a scientist who studied plants in a lab, examining them one by one.
Sometimes she felt like she couldn't see the forest for the trees.
But here in the jungle, she could see the plants all living together.
Flora's boss, Dr. Greenleaf, had warned her that field work wasn't easy.
"The grass is always greener on the other side," he had said.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, our main character, Flora, is in the jungle.
But before we talk about her, let's look at the sentence next to our title:
Studying jungle plants is no bed of roses.
Gabe, what are "jungle plants"?
Well, they're plants found in the jungle.
But jungles and forests do have different types of plants.
Jungles are generally wetter, so the number of plants growing there could be
greater.
Right.
Another name for the jungle is a "tropical forest."
And if it receives more than two-and-a-half meters of rainfall each year, it
could be called a "tropical rainforest."
Common plants that are found in the jungle are flowers like orchids, trees like
banana or banyan trees and many types of vines that you wouldn't see in a
non-tropical forest.
Well, now that we know a little bit about the setting of our story, let's talk
about our main character Flora.
"Flora" is a girl's name, but it also has another meaning.
Yes, it does.
Flora actually means the plants that grow in a certain area.
So you could ask "What flora grows in Taiwan?"
"Is the flora here tropical?"
And much of the flora in Taiwan is tropical, especially in the southern part of
the island.
Now if there is a special word for the plants in a certain area, is there a word
for the animals that live there, too?
And the answer to that is "yes."
If you want to talk about the animals, you can call them "fauna."
Fauna. So what is the fauna like in your area?
Are there a lot of animals?
Usually we see the words "flora" and "fauna" used together.
So you might read something about the flora and fauna of an area.
And that means the plants and animals of an area.
So our main character today is named Flora, and she is a scientist who loves
plants.
We read that she breathed in the humid air.
And we should look at the phrase: breathe in.
If you breathe in, that means that you draw air into your lungs through your
nose or mouth.
But you can also say that you "breathe in something" or "breathe something in."
For example, if you go outside on a beautiful spring day, you can breathe in the
fresh air.
And that's a great thing to do if you are inside for most of the day.
It certainly is.
You could also breathe in smoke.
If there is a fire, you should be careful not to breathe in too much smoke.
Otherwise, you could damage your lungs.
Well, Flora was very happy to breathe in the humid air.
Usually I like to avoid breathing in humid air because it is very thick and wet.
But Flora was excited to be in the jungle.
And of course, jungle air is humid because it rains a lot in the jungle.
But now that she was finally in the jungle, her dream had come true.
And that's another great phrase to look at: dream come true.
This means that something that was once just a dream has become a reality.
Now this phrase can be used in several different ways.
Right.
It can be used as we see it in the lesson: Her dream had come true.
But it can also be used as an idiom.
An example of using this as an idiom would be "Living in Taipei is a dream come
true."
You've always wanted to live in Taipei, and now you are.
Well, maybe that's not your dream.
Maybe your dream is to learn English or travel the world.
You could say "Being able to travel for a living is a dream come true."
Instead of spending your own money to travel, traveling is part of your job.
That would be a dream come true.
I love to travel.
So, what are your dreams?
Talk about them in English, and I hope that they come true.
For Flora, her dream came true when she was finally able to go out and work in
the jungle.
Yes. Her usual job was to study plants in a lab one by one.
If something is done one by one, that means that each thing is done "separately"
or "individually."
You do things one at a time.
For example, you could say "The little girl picked wild flowers one by one."
That means that she picked each flower one at a time.
She didn't just grab several flowers at the same time.
You could also say "The student practiced his English vocabulary words one by
one."
That means he practiced each word until he knew it very well.
Then he moved on to practice the next word.
Is there anything that you do one by one or one at a time?
Try to think of some examples.
Well, Flora is no longer looking at the plants one by one.
She is looking at the whole jungle.
And that sounds really exciting, especially for someone who enjoys nature so
much.
And here we see a very fun idiom: "can't see the forest for the trees," which
simply means that you're so focused on the small parts of something that you
cannot see the entire situation.
Right.
So if you are looking at each tree one by one, you might not have a very good
idea of the forest that you are in.
You can't see the forest because of all the trees.
They are blocking your view of the forest.
Well, that's right.
And those trees always get in the way of seeing the forest.
Now if you wanted to use this idiom, you could say:
The artist was good at drawing details, but he couldn't see the forest for the
trees.
And that means that there was probably a lot of great detail in his paintings
when you looked at them closely.
But if you looked at them from far away, it might be difficult to tell what he
was trying to paint.
Right. And in our story, we are introduced to another character, Dr. Greenleaf.
This is a very good name for someone who is in charge of studying plants.
It is also an actual last name.
While it's not a very common name, there are people who have the last name
Greenleaf.
Now we've mentioned several times that jungles get a lot of rain.
If you look at your list of key words, you'll see the word "pour."
Steve and Ken want to tell us more about different ways to describe heavy rain.
Let's join them now.
(Music).
Hi, friends.
We've just learned the word "pour," which can be used to describe a very heavy
rain.
Notice we do not say a "big" rain, but a "heavy" rain.
So how else can we describe a heavy rain besides the word "pour"?
Here are a few more suggestions.
Related to pour is the word "downpour," which is a noun that describes a heavy,
drenching rain.
The downpour this afternoon caused flooding in some areas.
"Bucket" is another word we can use to describe a heavy rain.
Sometimes when it's raining hard, it feels as if buckets of water are being
poured down from the sky.
When it rains like that, we can say "it's coming down in buckets" or "pouring
buckets."
Now if there's a lot of wind that carries the rain making it move sideways like
waves, we can say "it's coming down in sheets," just like the way bed sheets on
a clothesline flap in the wind.
Finally, there's the idiom "raining cats and dogs," which we all know and needs
no explanation.
(Chinese).