节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-04-02
难易度:High
关键字:tackle, umpire, squad, scope
(Music).
Hello. My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
Welcome to Studio Classroom.
We're so glad that you could join us.
And your English will improve today.
We're continuing to learn about beep baseball.
We learned some of the basics yesterday.
The beep refers to the sound that the ball makes.
And all players wear blindfolds, so nobody with partial vision has the upper
hand.
And of course, there are some other things that make beep baseball unique.
But how do beep baseball batters score points?
And how do we know when someone is out?
Well, let's find about that and more in the first reading for today.
Competitive Fire - The Game of Beep Baseball.
Once the batter hits the ball, one of the two bases - 1.22-meter-tall padded
cones - begins buzzing, and the batter races toward it.
If they touch the base before a defensive player gains possession of the ball,
the batter scores a run.
Often, players running at full speed end up tackling the base and landing hard
on the ground.
Of course, the six defensive players aren't afraid of pain either!
After a spotter shouts a number to indicate the ball's direction, the fielders
dive to stop the ball with their bodies.
To record an out, they must hold the ball up in the air where an umpire can see
it before a runner tags base.
(Chinese).
Thanks, Michelle.
Well, we can see here that a lot is involved in this sport.
Bases are not just flat pads on the ground.
They're 1.22 meters tall, and they buzz.
Right. And buzz is kind of like the word beep, and that it sounds like what it
means.
(Background Noise).
What kinds of things buzz?
Oh. I can think of something that buzzes.
It's a small insect that nobody likes.
It flies around in your house, especially in the humid summer months, and it
tries to suck your blood.
Do you know what insect I'm talking about?
Yes. I hate mosquitoes.
So do I.
Well, mosquitoes make a buzzing noise next to your ears.
You're right, they do.
Now what else buzzes?
Have you ever been to one of those restaurants that gives you something after
you order?
Yeah, it's called food.
No. No. Before you get your food, they give you something electronic that buzzes
when your food is ready.
Ah, yes. I know what you're talking about.
You know, sometimes when someone's phone vibrates, it makes a buzzing sound,
too.
Well, lots of things buzz.
The word buzz can also be a noun to mean what people are talking about.
Have you ever heard someone ask: What's the buzz?
What's the buzz?
Yes. If someone asks you that, they want to know what the latest news is or what
a lot of people are excited about.
So what's the buzz in your city today?
Anything interesting that everyone is excited about?
Well, back to beep ball, these bases are buzzing quite loudly.
But as Carolyn said, they are not normal baseball bases.
Of course usually you see square pads in baseball.
But what are beep baseball bases like?
These are described as 1.22-meter-tall pad cones.
The batters hit the ball and go running toward one of these cones.
Now as you can see in the picture, these cones are not shaped like cones.
Right. A cone is a shape, and by definition, it's round and wilder at the bottom
but it gradually comes to one point at the top.
Or you could turn it over, and it looks like an ice cream cone.
So the cones in beep ball actually look more like cylinders.
Cylinders are also round, but both ends are the same size.
Many things are shaped like cylinders; water pipes, Coke cans and rolls of paper
towels, to name a few.
But we use cones in different sports, so I think it's OK to describe these bases
as cones.
Now how do batters in beep ball score a run?
We read next: If they touch the base before a defensive player gains possession
of the ball, they score a point.
So if you're batting, you're on the offence trying to score the point.
And the other team is on the defense trying to stop you from scoring a point.
Right. So you are either being offensive or defensive while playing team sports.
In sports games, you can say "Good offense!" or "Good defense!" if you think a
team performed well in either of those areas.
Remember those phrases next time you're at a team game: good offense and good
defense.
And if a batter touches the base before a fielder catches the ball, that is good
offense.
Touch the base...
Hey, isn't there an idiom about touching bases?
Oh, yeah, there is.
It's an idiom that came from baseball: to touch base with someone.
That means to get in contact with someone.
I like to touch base with my family every once in a while to see how they're
doing.
Maybe you're traveling somewhere but you need to talk with someone about
something important, you could say:
Let's touch base when I return, or we'll touch base once I can access the
Internet.
Well, baseball is a very popular sport; it's no wonder a few idioms have to do
with this sport.
Now we read something here about the batters in beep baseball.
If they run at full speed, or as fast as they can, they end up tackling the base
and landing hard on the ground.
Oh, sounds painful.
Sounds kind of fun, too.
Well, right now let's join Liz in the Grammar Gym as she talks about this
sentence.
Hi there, friends.
My name is Liz.
And thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
In today's lesson we see this sentence:
Often, players running at full speed end up tackling the base and landing hard
on the ground.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the sentence pattern: Often, [subject] [verb 1+ing] end up
[verb 2+ing].
This is a great sentence pattern to use when you want to talk about how a
certain result can be expected for a subject in the middle of doing something.
And in the case of today's sentence,
the writer is saying that the result of tackling the base and landing hard on
the ground is often the case for these players who are running so fast in beep
baseball.
OK, let's have a look at some example sentences.
Often, women going on diets to lose weight end up missing the point of being
healthy.
Or: Often, shoppers buying a large amount of things at this store end up signing
up for the store's credit card in order to enjoy the discounts.
If you want to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
We just learned about how scores are made in beep baseball.
And we continue now learning about the defensive players.
The six defensive players aren't afraid of pain either.
Hey, Carolyn, are you afraid of pain?
Yeah, a little. Why?
OK. Then I won't hit you.
What!?
Well, of course I wouldn't hit you even if you weren't afraid of pain.
Now most of us are afraid of some kind of pain.
Nobody likes being hurt by those that we trust.
But most of the time when we talk about being afraid of pain, it's talking about
physical pain.
Well, what about you?
Are you afraid of pain?
If you are not, then falling on the ground or getting scratched doesn't bother
you at all.
And if you want to play a sport like beep baseball, you need to not fear pain if
you want to win.
And we read here that fielders dive to stop the ball with their bodies.
That could be a little bit painful.
Right.
And to record an out, they must hold up the ball in the air where an umpire can
see it before a runner tags base.
The umpire, like the one on your left in this picture, is in charge of calling
out the moves in baseball like strike, out or safe.
And of course we have more to learn about beep baseball right after this.
Is it spreading like fire around the world?
Well, let's find out. Don't goaway.