节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-12-12
难易度:Medium
关键字:hit the road, commute, sturdy, gear, shock
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We have a new lesson for you: All About Bikes.
Yes, we're going to be learning all about the different kinds of bikes.
Hey, do you like to ride bikes?
Do you have a bicycle?
And how often do you get out to ride it?
Carolyn, do you like to ride bicycles?
Well, I do, Gabe, although recently I haven't been able to ride my bike very
much because I live so close to work.
But before I moved, I rode my bike every day when I was attending class at
(Chinese).
Oh, you did!
So you rode your bike through the city.
Do you like riding the bike through the city?
It's actually a little bit scary, Gabe.
I don't really like using my bike to go to and from places in the city.
I would prefer to go out on a trail or in a park and just ride.
Yeah, I think that's a little more enjoyable.
But I do enjoy riding bikes as well.
And I think there are many different kinds of bikes.
I enjoy riding on level ground.
But of course sometimes it's great exercise to go riding up a hill or a mountain
of some kind.
Well, what about you?
Do you ride a bike?
And where do you ride your bike?
Let's get started with our lesson All About Bikes.
(Music).
All About Bikes.
Grab your bike and hit the road!
When did you first learn to ride a bike?
Even if it was long ago, chances are you still remember how.
With bikes available for many different styles of riding, there's no excuse not
to get out and ride!
Bikes for commuting.
For getting to work, you'll want a bike that's comfortable and sturdy.
Choose one that can handle going across holes in the road.
Well, I am very familiar with commuting using a bicycle.
Let's go back to the beginning of the article.
Grab your bike and hit the road!
Well, that is a great phrase right off the bat.
To hit the road means to get started.
To get started, OK. Hit the road.
Maybe you and your friends are planning a trip somewhere, and you've done all
your preparations.
You're ready to go.
So now what can you say?
Let's hit the road!
Let's get in the car and get going.
Let's hit the road.
All right. Or maybe you have a project and you need to get started.
Well, you'd better hit the road and get started right away.
That's right. So it just means to begin something.
And it's a great way to encourage your friends to hurry up.
Let's hit the road! We're going to be late.
Well, we continue reading here.
When did you first learn to ride a bike?
An excellent question.
Even if it was long ago, chances are you still remember how.
Now Gabe, how is that possible?
Well, you might remember how to ride a bike even if you first learned a long
time ago because of muscle memory.
And we want to talk about this.
Muscle memory.
This is when you do an activity over and over again, and eventually your body
knows how to do it without much thought.
That's muscle memory.
That's right.
So many people who are athletes, they play sports.
They practice so often that their body just knows how to react when they're in
certain situations.
And the same for musicians.
They practice their scales.
They practice how to play their instrument so much that they no longer really
need to think.
They can play without really thinking.
And even if you don't play that instrument or play that sport for many years,
you can go back to it and pick it up right away.
That's right, because you have muscle memory. OK.
So think about what other things in life involve muscle memory.
Well, bike riding is one of those things.
Hey, let's spend some time with Liz in the Grammar Gym right now.
She wants to talk about that word: chance.
Hello, friends.
How are you doing today?
My name is Liz.
And thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
In today's article we see this sentence:
Even if it was long ago, chances are you still remember how.
Notice the phrase in the middle of the sentence: chances are.
It's another way to say "probably." In other words, the writer is saying "Even
if it was long ago, you probably still remember how." OK.
Let's have a look at some more examples.
If the weather looks like it's probably going to rain, you can say:
Chances are it's going to rain.
Or if you're waiting for your friend at the movie theater, and you think he's
probably still on his way, you can say:
Chances are he's still on his way.
Or if you hesitate to call your friend at night because he's probably already in
bed, you can say:
I don't think I should call my friend; chances are he's in bed already.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, then check out today's Grammar
Tip section for more example sentences.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
OK, we have a lot more to talk about here.
We read: With bikes available for many different styles of riding, there's no
excuse not to get out and ride!
OK, especially because you have muscle memory, you already know how to ride your
bike.
So get out and ride.
There's no excuse for not doing this.
Well, how else could you use that phrase: there's no excuse for something?
Maybe you have a bad attitude.
Well, someone might tell you: There's no excuse for your bad attitude.
There's no excuse for you being rude.
You should be polite.
That's right. You should be polite.
And there's no excuse not to get out and ride.
So we have that double negative which we've learned about before, which means
you should be out riding your bike!
And here we learn about bikes for commuting.
And that is a word we want to talk about: commute.
Now commute is how you get to and from work or to and from school.
That is your commute.
That's right, your travel from one place to another.
All right.
So this word can be a noun or a verb.
Here we're talking about bikes for commuting.
You're commuting from one place to another.
Or you can talk about maybe a long commute.
It was a long ride from (Chinese) to (Chinese).
That is a long commute.
Well, I hope that your commute is not that long.
And if it is, I hope you are not commuting by bicycle.
That is a very far distance to be traveling on a bike every day.
It's true, but it does sound like good exercise.
Well, we read something here:
For getting to work, you'll want a bike that's comfortable and sturdy.
OK, so now your goal is to get to work, to get to the office, and comfort is
your main goal. OK.
Let's take a look at our word from the Word Bank: sturdy.
What does this mean, and how can you use it?
Well, if something is sturdy, that means it is strong.
It's not going to break easily and you can rely on it to work.
So you might want to have a sturdy table in your dining room.
You don't want one that shakes and is uneven.
When you put your dishes down, it might collapse and break.
So you want something that is sturdy.
OK, what else should be sturdy?
Well, of course, your desk.
You're working on a desk and you want it to be a sturdy desk.
Maybe you need to use a ladder to get up high to fix something.
Of course the ladder should be sturdy.
Or maybe you're walking up some stairs and... and they're not sturdy.
You want to make sure that those steps are sturdy.
You don't want to hurt yourself.
That's right.
So it's important when you are commuting to work every day, to and from, or if
you're commuting to school on a regular basis.
Then you want a bike that is both comfortable and sturdy.
And we read here that you should choose one that can handle going across holes
in the ground.
It's true, so many roads have holes in the ground.
Sometimes we call these potholes.
That's right.
So you want a bike that can handle going across holes in the road.
And there are a lot of holes that you need to be careful of.
It would also be helpful for the bike to be able to handle going across rocks or
other things that might be in the street.
That's right.
Well, there is something we want to talk about.
Earlier in today's lesson, there's this question:
When did you first learn to ride a bike?
You can use that phrase in other ways.
When did you first learn to play the piano?
When did you first learn to speak English?
Think about other ways you can use this question.
It is a great question.
And if you have questions, don't worry.
It is time for us to continue learning with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).