节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-12-11
难易度:Low
关键字:romance, bond, drift, costume, otter, hormone
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And your English will improve today as we learn about Happy Facts.
All right. We have a lot of facts in today's lesson.
Now facts may not make you happy, the idea of thinking about facts.
But these are happy facts.
These are things that are sure to make you smile.
Well, what kinds of things make you happy?
That's a good thing to think about.
It's a good thing to talk about, too.
What makes you happy? Carolyn?
Well, learning new things does make me happy, so I enjoy articles that are
filled with facts.
But I also feel very happy when I get to spend time with my friends and just sit
down and talk and enjoy time together.
You know, I agree with you.
I love spending time with friends and family.
I also love it when I see a friend I have not seen in a really long time.
That happened recently.
A friend came back to visit Taipei, and I was surprised to see him.
I was really happy to see him and spend time with him.
Of course I... I love playing drums.
That makes me happy, too.
What kinds of things make you happy?
Talk about that.
Well, let's get started learning about some Happy Facts.
Happy Facts.
These fun facts are sure to make you smile.
Here are some things you can be happy about even if you're having a bad day.
Cartoon romance: Wayne Allwine was the voice of Mickey Mouse in many cartoons.
He married Russi Taylor, who supplied Minnie Mouse's voice.
Friendly cows: Cows form close bonds with other cows.
They have best friends and feel stressed if they are separated from their
friends.
Rabbit sports: In a Swedish sport, rabbits hop through courses with jumps of
different heights and lengths.
The sport has spread throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada and even Japan.
Well, these facts are very random, but they do put a smile on my face.
OK, let's go back to the beginning of our lesson here today.
We read: These fun facts are sure to make you smile.
All right. They're sure to do something.
That means it's certain that you will smile just from reading these facts.
That's right.
And so you can use that in several different ways.
If something is sure to do something, then there's no question about it.
You could say this dinner is sure to fill you up.
There's so much food here.
You are sure to be full after you finish.
And you'll probably be very happy as well.
You need to watch this movie.
It's sure to make you laugh.
And you really need to laugh.
OK. Well, let's get started here.
Here are some things you can be happy about even if you're having a bad day.
Are you having a bad day?
Are you having a bad day?
I am not having a bad day, Gabe.
We are here! We're at Studio Classroom, and we are reading a very happy article.
Yep. So if you are having a bad day - and I hope you're not - well, these facts
will make you smile, we hope.
OK. The first one here is cartoon romance.
Romance.
Hey, that's a word from our Word Bank.
What is romance, Carolyn?
Well, romance is that feeling that people have when they love each other, so.
When a man and a woman are in a romantic relationship, they feel romance, or
they have romance.
Is there romance in your life?
Many people like to talk about it, make movies about it, write stories about it.
It's a very common topic.
That's right.
It's a common theme.
Maybe you've read romance novels.
That's right, books that are written with their romantic themes.
Maybe you talk about your friendship with someone that turns into a romance.
You didn't like them before, but now you have romantic feelings for that person.
All right.
Well, here we're talking about cartoon romance.
And we read here: Wayne Allwine was the voice of Mickey Mouse in many cartoons.
And who did he marry, Carolyn?
Well, he married Russi Taylor, who supplied Minnie Mouse's voice.
So Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse were married in real life.
And that is pretty cool.
I didn't know that, but that puts a smile on my face.
Minnie Mouse and Mickey Mouse, of course, are romantic cartoon characters.
And I never knew they were really married in real life - the voice actors were.
All right. Well, what's the next thing that we can be happy about here?
Oh. Well, I really like this one, it's about animals.
Friendly cows.
Cows form close bonds with other cows.
Did you know that, Gabe, that cows form close bonds with other cows?
No, I had no idea.
I mean, I like cows, but I didn't know they liked each other that much.
Carolyn, did you know this fact?
Well, I knew that cows were very close to each other, but I didn't realize that
they had such strong bonds,
which is a word we want to look at from our Word Bank.
And a bond is the relationship, the strong connection that one person has with
another or one cow has with another cow.
That's right. And I'm sure other animals also feel bonds with their friends.
Well, what kinds of bonds do you have?
We talk about the bonds of friendship that are not easily broken.
That's a good thing.
If you have good bonds with somebody, that means something bad could happen but
you will be there for that person.
Maybe they might hurt you, but you still have a good friendship because of that
bond.
That's right.
So many families have strong bonds that keep them together even when times are
hard.
And we learn that cows form strong bonds with other cows.
They have best friends and feel stressed if they are separated from their
friends.
So these cows have friends and best friends.
So it doesn't really... it's very important for them to be with their friend cow
and not another cow.
Yeah. That's a very interesting idea that I never thought about before.
Well, way to go, cows!
OK, let's move on to another animal - rabbits.
OK, rabbit sports.
Rabbit sports?
Well, we read here:
In a Swedish sport, rabbits hop through courses with jumps of different heights
and lengths.
Well, that sounds adorable to see little bunny rabbits hopping around this
course, going over these different gates and hurdles, jumping.
Oh, that sounds very cute, Gabe.
It is! It's quite a cute thing to imagine, actually.
I haven't seen this yet, but I would be interested.
Maybe I can watch this on YouTube.
But right now it's time for us to learn something with Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Hello, friends. Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's article we see this sentence:
In a Swedish sport, rabbits hop through courses with jumps of different heights
and lengths.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the pattern: [something] of different [description 1] and
[description 2].
This is just another way to say different kinds of something.
So today's sentence just means that when these rabbits hop through the courses,
the jumps are all different in heights and in lengths.
OK, let's have a look at some other example sentences with this pattern.
At the hair salon, I saw pictures of models with hairstyles of different colors
and cuts.
Or: It was hard for Sarah to pick out a bike at the bike shop; there were bikes
of all styles and sizes for her to choose from.
Or: When you walk into the candy store, you are surrounded by these delicious
treats in different shapes and flavors.
Now it's your turn.
Think of a situation where you can see a variety of something, and try using
this pattern to describe that situation.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Now continuing to talk about this rabbit sport, we read:
The sport has spread throughout Europe, the U.S., Canada and even Japan.
So it's a worldwide sport.
Mmhm, that's right, it's worldwide.
And we see some countries listed here, some that seem kind of connected because
they're in Europe or maybe they're English-speaking like Europe, the U.S.,
Canada.
And we see the phrase "and even Japan." So it's even reached across to Asia.
Let's take a look at that phrase: and even.
You use this phrase "and even" when you want to talk about something that is
unexpected.
That's right.
So you're emphasizing that this is not really something that belongs with the
rest of the group; it's kind of surprising.
So even Japan has this sport now.
Well, right now it is time for us to join Michelle and learn something with her
in the Language Lab.
(Chinese).