节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-07
难易度:Low
关键字:splendid, dynasty, surroundings, eye-opening, Ming
Hello, friend.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And you're watching Studio Classroom.
Thanks for joining us here today.
Now when you think about the country of China, what places come to your mind?
Carolyn, what do you think of?
Well, I think of cities like Beijing and Shanghai, and of course famous
landmarks like the Great Wall of China and the Forbidden City.
Right. Me, too, and maybe the Yellow River in Sichuan, which is famous for its
food.
But you know, I don't know much about other places in China.
Well, Gabe, that problem will be solved today.
Open your magazine and let's learn about some of the villages of old China
together now.
(Music).
The Villages of Old China.
Travel beyond China's cities and into its past.
Perhaps you've visited the great, splendid locations of modern China - Beijing,
Shanghai, Chongqing.
But the country also has smaller, older corners that show the beauty of China's
past.
Cuandixia.
About two hours outside of one of the world's largest cities, Beijing, lies a
tiny mountain village.
The many original buildings make it seem like a place forgotten by time.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Now just next to our title, we see the sentence: Travel beyond China's cities
and into its past.
So we're going into the past today.
What does this mean?
Is the author telling us that we can travel into history?
No, no, no. What he's saying is that when we visit China, we shouldn't just
stick with the big cities,
but we should go to some smaller, older towns for a different taste of China.
So in our lesson we will be taking a trip into China's past.
But before we start traveling, let's look more closely at the phrase: into the
past.
Of course if we can talk about something into the past, then we can use the
phrase "into the future" as well.
For example, some people think they can see into the future.
Only God knows what will really happen, but others like to predict what will
happen.
And there have been many movies about traveling into the future.
Probably the most famous is the Back to the Future trilogy.
Not only did they travel into the future, but they traveled into the past as
well.
And as you said earlier, we will not actually be going back in time, but we will
be learning about more than the world-renowned places in China.
And we read here:
Perhaps you've visited the great, splendid locations of modern China - Beijing,
Shanghai and Chongqing.
And I have.
You've visited all of those places?
Oh... no, but I've visited one -- Beijing.
I was there for a really short time, but I got to visit the Summer Palace, which
was beautiful.
Did you see the Forbidden City?
It's funny you should ask that.
My friend and I were on our way to the Forbidden City when a guy came and told
us about an art exhibit close by.
He said we must go there to support students' artwork and that it was the last
day of the exhibit.
So you went to the Forbidden City afterward, right?
Well, that was our plan.
We had no idea that the Forbidden City ticket booth closed at 4 p.m.
When we get... went to get the tickets, they would not let us in.
I looked at my watch, and it was 4:04.
Oh, no. Gabe, you missed the Forbidden City.
Oh... the city was really forbidden to you.
Yeah. Yeah, that's funny, Carolyn.
Well, I had a chance to see the Forbidden City.
All of the ancient buildings and sites inside were truly splendid.
Oh, Gabe, tell me you got to see the Great Wall of China.
Mmhm.
Good. I think that's probably more famous than the Forbidden City.
Did you get to see that?
Oh, yeah! Thankfully we did see the Great Wall.
I'm happy about that.
That truly is a splendid piece of work.
The Wall was beautiful, and the views, of course, were amazing.
I'm glad you at least got to see that.
I feel the same way.
Those views are splendid.
Another place I visited while in China was Shanghai.
Ooh, I've never been there before.
Is there anything worth visiting?
Yes. Actually, I recommend the Yuyuan Garden.
The whole place is simply beautiful.
I think I'll check that out sometime.
Well, as you can see, we have been to some of these splendid locations in major
cities,
but we have not yet visited the smaller, older corners that show the beauty of
China's past.
And I like the way that word is used here.
Which word?
Corner.
If we are talking about shapes like squares or triangles, the corner is where
two lines meet and form an angle.
And we use this word to describe more than the 2-D corners of squares and
triangles.
If you're in a room, the walls probably form several corners.
You know, in the U.S., a classic punishment for naughty kids was to make them
stand in the corner.
I know what you are talking about.
Kids would have to stand facing the corner of the room and couldn't play with
the other kids.
But is that what corner means here, Gabe?
Hmm... no, not really.
The corner, our author Nathanael uses, is referring to parts of the world that
may be secluded, less visited or even secret.
Have you ever heard the phrase "the four corners of the Earth"?
Yes. That phrase simply means all parts of the Earth, especially the parts that
may not be as populated.
And that's what corner implies, too, in our lesson: places that are not visited
quite as much as other locations.
But Nathanael writes: Older corners show the beauty of China's past.
And before we get into our first city, let's look at the phrase: the beauty of
something.
Cities from China's past possess a lot of beauty.
But we could replace the word "beauty" with other words, right?
Oh, for sure.
We could warn someone of the dangers of running on wet ground, for example.
Or we could tell someone of the splendor of the mountains around us.
And splendor is the noun form of the key word "splendid" we read earlier.
Anyway, we use this phrase in your own... try to use this phrase in your own way
sometime today.
But for now, let's learn more about the first of these villages of old China.
And it's called Cuandixia.
Now have you seen that character, Carolyn?
Which one? Cuan?
Yes. It's crazy.
It looks like a super complicated character.
In fact, I asked a couple of Chinese friends about it, and they didn't even know
what it meant.
I can't imagine learning how to write this character.
Hmm, I think Steve and Ken have something to say about this.
Let's join them in the Information Cloud.
I recently read a report which said there's a crisis in China.
Well, it seems people are forgetting or aren't properly learning how to write
Chinese characters.
Now I could understand if someone forgot a rare 29-stroke character like
(Chinese), a character in the name of today's travel destination.
Right, very forgivable.
But as the report stated, Chinese, old and young alike, are finding it
increasingly difficult to write common everyday words like sneeze or chin.
And it's getting embarrassing.
Speaking of embarrassing, that's another word Chinese people are having trouble
writing: (Chinese).
So, what lies behind this writing dilemma?
What's causing this cultural crisis or - as one Chinese journalist wrote - this
social disease?
Of course, it's technology.
Years ago students spent hours upon hours writing out, by hand, Chinese
characters until the characters stroke orders and meanings were seared into
their memories.
Today there's little need for this kind of dedication as students can simply
type on a keyboard to get the character they need.
In response to this problem, the Chinese government has started pushing for more
calligraphy classes in schools and less English in media and government reports.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
Well, Cuandixia seems like a place forgotten by time.
And we have more to learn about this old village right afterthis.