节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-12-30
难易度:High
关键字:commence, take the plunge, hospitable, forum, Couchsurfing







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Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
Our lesson is called Moving Forward.
And this is a great thing to think about in life.
Are you just thinking about your past?
Are you just thinking about your present?
Or are you moving forward?
Are you looking to the future?
It's good to move forward.
Well, our author Jo is going to share some experiences about how she moved
forward in life and how she chased her dreams.
Well, what kind of dreams do you have?
Are you chasing those dreams?
Carolyn, do you have any dreams that you're chasing?
Well, I really like helping people in need.
And so I'm... very involved with my church and assisting people there, helping
the volunteer for different activities.
But, you know, I also have a dream of having a beautiful family and... just
being able to fulfill my life the way that my dreams have... I've set my dreams,
so.
We'll... we'll see if that becomes fulfilled or not, but I will be chasing it.
All right.
Well, I think I see a beautiful family in the future for you, Carolyn.
Well, what about you?
Are you chasing your dreams?
Let's learn with Jo today as she moves forward.
Moving Forward.
I chased my dreams east, to Taipei.
My present life in Taipei commenced with a bit of a gamble.
After Nepal, I knew I wanted to write, and I wanted to live in East Asia.
I searched for jobs throughout the region and found a few promising options in
Taipei.
I had just enough money saved for a month-long trip.
If I couldn't find work, I'd have to return home broke.
Then I'd live with my parents awhile until I could save up enough money to try
again.
So I took the plunge and bought a plane ticket to try my luck in the job market
in Taipei.
(Music).
Well, Jo is very brave as she continues her adventures. And we read here:
I chased my dreams east, to Taipei.
So she is moving east.
Before she was in Nepal.
And now she is moving forward.
How do we begin, Gabe?
My present life in Taipei commenced with a bit of a gamble.
All right. So she's talking about her present life.
That means how things are right now currently.
And this commenced with a bit of a gamble.
Let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank: to commence.
That's a fancy way of saying something began or it officially began.
That's right.
So you might say the meeting commenced when the chairman sat down and began to
speak.
That was the official start or beginning of the meeting.
Or maybe the ceremony commenced.
Or maybe you're in school and the semester officially commenced last week, or it
will commence next week.
You could talk about the commencement, the official beginning of something.
Well, her present life in Taipei commenced with a bit of a gamble.
I thought gambling was bad, Carolyn.
Well, generally yes, Gabe, because you can lose a lot of money.
But here she's not talking about money, she's talking about taking a chance.
So she's not quite sure what will happen in the end, so she describes it as a
gamble.
All right. And of course you can use this word as a noun or a verb.
We see it's a noun here.
It's a bit of a gamble.
After Nepal, I knew I wanted to write, and I wanted to live in East Asia.
All right. So she did not want to leave this part of the world and go back to
the United States.
She wanted to continue traveling.
That's right.
And we learn she says: I searched for jobs throughout the region and found a few
promising options in Taipei.
So she found a few promising options.
Now if something is promising, that means that it has potential to be good but
you're still not sure what will happen.
That's right.
Maybe someone talks about a promising career that is in their future.
OK, so she has a few promising options in Taipei.
A few or few?
Well, let's take a look at what Steve and Ken have to share about this word
"few" in the Information Cloud.
Hello, friends.
If you're looking for a job and you found a few promising options, should you be
happy or not?
I would be happy since there are a few, maybe three, four or five promising
options.
But what if you found few promising options?
Then I would not be very happy.
Friends, did you hear the difference?
I first said "a few" options.
And then the second time I said "few" options.
Yep. That one letter "A" made a big difference.
The phrase "a few" has a positive connotation while "few" has a negative
connotation.
The difference is pretty subtle.
When we say a few, we're talking about a handful.
It's not an overwhelmingly large number, but it's not an insignificant small
number, either.
Now "few," on the other hand, means there are barely any.
That's right.
Few means almost zero.
If I say few people in history were as evil as Hitler, I'm saying there's almost
no one who was as evil as Hitler.
He was likely the most evil.
Now here's another example.
If you say I have a few friends, it's positive.
It implies you are happy about the number of friends you have.
But if you say I have few friends, that's negative.
It implies you would like to have more friends.
(Chinese).
Thank you, gentlemen.
Well, she had a few promising options, not few.
And we read: I had just saved enough money... I had just enough money saved for
a month-long trip.
So she had enough money only to last her for one month for her trip to Taipei.
OK. And she says: If I couldn't find work, I'd have to return home broke.
What does that mean, broke?
I know you can break your arm.
Here she's talking about having no money.
There's no money in your bank account; you are broke.
And we see what happens if she were to be broke, if she returned home broke.
Then I'd have... then I'd live with my parents awhile until I could save up
enough money to try again.
So she wouldn't give up.
She wouldn't just go to Taipei, live there for a month, and then go back to the
U.S. if she didn't find anything and stay there.
But she would get another job, save up some more money and try again.
I like that! I like her spirit here.
She really wants to do this.
OK, so she's going to keep trying.
So she says: So I took the plunge and bought a plane ticket to try my luck in
the job market in Taipei.
All right. She took the plunge, she tried her luck.
Let's take a look at some of these phrases.
The first one is from our Word Bank: to take the plunge.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that you've thought about something very seriously probably for a
long time,
and you have decided to take a chance to try, to just see what happens.
You take the plunge.
And it could be a little bit risky.
Maybe you really like someone, and you've been thinking about asking them out on
a date.
You take the plunge and ask them out.
You don't know what their answer will be, but you want to try.
All right. And I think it is usually good to try and take the plunge and be
daring, do something exciting.
Now just picture you're on a cliff, and you're going to jump into water, you're
taking the plunge.
That means there's no way back up or it won't be the same when you go back up,
OK.
So this is a big gamble.
Jo took the plunge and bought a plane ticket to try her luck.
Let's take a look at that phrase: to try your luck.
That means you're not sure what will happen - there's a chance you will succeed;
there's a chance you won't succeed.
You're going to try your luck.
That's right.
So maybe you will be lucky and you will be successful.
You might try your luck at a career.
Maybe you want to be an artist, a performer, a musician, some... something in
the fine arts field.
You can try your luck.
But it's a very competitive field, and it's difficult to get into.
Well, where else can you try your luck?
Maybe you're looking for some chips, your favorite kind of chips, but they're
not at 7-Eleven.
Well, maybe you can try your luck at another convenience store.
You can try your luck in many different ways.
Yes, you can.
Well, we don't have to worry about trying our luck when it comes to learning
English because we have a great team here.
And it's time for us to learn with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).