节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-05
难易度:Low
关键字:literature, throw out, elderly, reward, community service, rake
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Thanks for joining us today.
Open up your magazine to an article entitled Lessons in Life.
As you know, we enjoy one lesson a month by an exchange student named Alex Hu.
That's right.
He moved to a small town called Mountain Lake, Minnesota, and he's learning a
lot there, and not just in school but in life.
And today we will learn about the kinds of important lessons he is learning
about life.
Of course you're never just learning English here at Studio Classroom.
You're right about that.
There is much in our lessons that teach us about life.
So let's get started with the first reading of the day.
(Music).
Lessons in Life.
There is more to school than schoolwork.
I experienced a lot in Mountain Lake.
Besides the differences in school, I enjoyed a different kind of education.
In Taipei, your school arranges the subjects you study.
But in Mountain Lake, you can choose most of the courses you want to study.
And there are a lot of different kinds to choose from: psychology, literature,
speech, choir, etc.
It made learning interesting because you have more passion about it.
How courses were taught also surprised me.
I was used to just listening to the teacher.
But there, I found that teachers and students interacted.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Now of course your teachers aren't the only ones that give you lessons.
We learn lessons through our experiences in life.
We learn how society works.
We learn what will help us and what will hurt us.
Sometimes we learn by listening to the words of others.
And other times we learn things the hard way.
The hard way. I like that phrase.
Care to explain what it means, Carolyn?
Oh, sure.
If you learn something the hard way, that means you don't listen to other
people's warnings about things that will harm you.
You feel that you must experience things to find out for yourself.
And the result is usually painful.
It could be painful only for you or painful for other people as well.
Now how do people learn things the hard way?
Well, let's say a mother told her little boy Howie not to touch the stove
because it was hot.
But little Howie got curious and touched the stove anyway.
And he burned his little fingers.
Oh, little Howie learned the hard way not to touch a hot stove.
And most of us have to learn some things the hard way, right?
Well, thankfully our lesson is not about Alex learning something the hard way,
though that would be interesting.
We could say that he learned by observing.
He observed how different things are in America from things in Taipei where he's
from.
And he learned that there is more to school than schoolwork.
Hey, I like that phrase, too: there is more to school than schoolwork.
That means school is about important for many more reasons than just that you
need to do schoolwork.
Carolyn, can you use that phrase in other ways?
Sure.
There's more to that comedy than just funny lines.
It also has a touching story.
Or there's more to him than meets the eye.
That means a person is worth more than just what you see on the outside.
And there's more to Studio Classroom than just ways to improve your English.
Our lessons always teach other important values as well.
So there's more to school than schoolwork.
Let's see what Alex means by this.
He says: I experienced a lot in Mountain Lake.
Besides the differences in school, I enjoyed a different kind of education.
And if you remember, last month we learned about some of the differences between
school in America and school in Taiwan.
But now let's look at the phrase: differences in.
Often we use the word "difference" with the word "in" when we are comparing
things.
For example, if you like two items while you are shopping, but you only want to
buy one, you could ask: What's the difference in price?
Or maybe you want to know the difference in taste among snacks.
What do each of the snacks taste like?
And in our lesson, Alex is reminding us of a difference in education systems.
He enjoyed a different kind of education than just what schoolwork could offer.
He continues by saying how it is in Taipei.
In Taipei, your school arranges the subjects that you study.
But in Mountain Lake, you can choose most of the courses that you want to study.
This is quite a big difference.
In Mountain Lake, you have more freedom to choose what you want to study.
And there are a lot of different kinds to choose from.
Now before we look at those different kinds, let's look at those last few words
there: choose from.
You have many things to choose from.
That means there are many choices.
How else could we use that phrase?
At that restaurant, there are several different salad dressings to choose from:
thousand island dressing, ranch dressing, Italian dressing, Caesar dressing and
others.
You get to choose from many different styles of shoes at that shoe store.
Or today we can choose from different methods to get in touch with others, from
mail to email to Facebook to text messages.
You can choose from all of those things.
And Alex gets to choose from a lot of different kinds of classes.
A few are listed here: psychology, literature, speech and choir.
Psychology, of course, is the study of the mind and human behavior.
Literature is where you may learn about famous writings.
Right. And sometimes we call famous or classic pieces of literature great works.
What are some examples of great works?
Well, you might be interested in reading a few in English.
OK, I can think of a couple.
Yeah?
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, Julius Caesar by Shakespeare,
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Ooh, those are classics.
Well, we see the letters E-T-C here.
Let's see what the guys in the Information Cloud have to say about that.
Today let's take a look at a phrase that is often improperly used: et cetera.
Et cetera, usually abbreviated "etc," come from the Latin et, meaning and, and
cetera, meaning the rest, so et cetera literally means and the rest.
Many people find it very convenient to just tag this three-letter abbreviation
onto the end of a list.
However, there are some rules we need to keep in mind when we use et cetera.
OK. First of all, we should not use et cetera after a list that is already
complete.
Right. That would be meaningless.
Next, don't use et cetera in reference to people.
It can only be used with places and things.
And finally, avoid et cetera after a list with insufficient information as to
what else may be included.
In other words, et cetera should only be used with things of the same class.
OK, here's an example.
Please bring a banana, a hammer, a cellphone, etc.
Why does et cetera not work here?
Simple! These are not items of the same class.
Right. A banana, a hammer and a cellphone have nothing in common.
If someone left this note from me, I'd have a hard time figuring out what else
I'd need to bring.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
Well, we're going to learn more about what Alex thinks about school in Mountain
Lake right afterthis.