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
Well, have you ever taken the plunge in life?
Have you ever done something uncertain of the future, you weren't sure what was
going to happen in the future but you decided to try anyway?
Well, that's what our author Jo did in today's lesson.
It's called Moving Forward.
And that's what she's doing.
She's moving forward to Taipei.
She's going to try her luck in the job market there.
Let's continue her story right now.
(Music).
Moving Forward.
To save money, I split my time between hostels and Couchsurfing.
In doing so, I got to know Taipei's Couchsurfing community.
They were a hospitable bunch, and I was relieved to meet so many new friends
right away.
Everyone was helpful when they heard I was looking for a job, offering advice
and suggestions.
I always felt encouraged.
Only one man had some negative things to say.
I'll call him George, and we met on one of the Couchsurfing forums.
George was a foreigner like me, and he offered to meet me for coffee.
(Music).
Well, this is a very interesting experience.
Jo went Couchsurfing.
Well, let's get into this section here. We read:
To save money, I split my time between hostels and Couchsurfing.
Now we've learned about hostels before.
They're cheaper than hotels usually, and it's smaller quarters, smaller rooms.
And you pretty much just rent a bed.
But what's Couchsurfing, Gabe?
Do... do I take a couch into the ocean?
No, very uh... that's a good image, though.
I like that picture.
No. Couchsurfing is actually an online website.
It's a... it's a service where you can actually stay at people's houses around
the world,
or in their apartments on their couches or in their spare bedroom for free or
for a really little price.
OK, you are Couchsurfing.
Have you ever been Couchsurfing?
I have not.
But I know several people who have been Couchsurfing.
And most of them had pretty positive experiences.
Yeah. Of course you might need to be careful if you are going Couchsurfing.
You want to make sure that your person... your host has good reviews, OK, before
you decide to stay at that person's house.
OK. But this is a great way to save money because it's free.
And that's what Jo is doing.
She's splitting her time between hostels and Couchsurfing.
Let's take a look at that phrase: to split your time between or to split your
time among something.
How could you use that phrase?
Well, if you split your time, that means you aren't doing one thing, you're
doing a few different things, so.
I might say I split my time between my friends and my family.
Or if I want to have more things than just two, I would say I split my time
among spending time with my family, friends and at church.
Or maybe you're on vacation somewhere.
You can split your time among the beach, shopping and hiking.
OK, there are many different things that you can do.
You split your time doing those things.
Well, how do we continue here, Carolyn?
Well, we learn a little bit more.
In doing so, I got to know Taipei's Couchsurfing community.
So there's a whole community of people involved in Couchsurfing.
All right, all these couchsurfers living right here in Taipei.
And they were a hospitable bunch, Jo writes, and I was relieved to meet so many
new friends right away.
Well, let's take a look at that word right away.
It's the word "hospitable." I like this word.
It's good to be hospitable.
That means you know how to entertain your guests.
You know how to be a good host.
That's right. So you are very generous, very welcoming to your guests or
visitors.
You are hospitable.
And you might say that the owners of the bed-and-breakfast were very hospitable.
They greeted us every morning with a wonderful breakfast.
Something you might say to your guests to show your hospitality, to show that
you're a hospitable person is: Make yourself at home.
That's a phrase I hear quite frequently when I'm visiting someplace.
Make yourself at home.
That means make yourself comfortable, treat this place as if it was your own
home.
And that is a way to show that you are hospitable.
Now these Couchsurfers were a hospitable bunch.
And that word "bunch" is something that Liz would like to tell us more about in
the Grammar Gym.
Hello, friends.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We see this sentence in today's article:
They were a hospitable bunch.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus today is on the word: bunch.
You may already know that "a bunch" is a casual way of saying "a lot," like:
I have a bunch of things to do.
But in today's sentence, bunch is an informal way of saying a group of people.
In other words, the writer is talking about a group of hospitable people.
OK. Here are some more examples of using "bunch" to mean a group of people.
I couldn't sleep on the train because there were other passengers and they were
a noisy bunch.
Or: The teacher was tired at the end of the day; her students were certainly an
energetic bunch to teach.
Now it's your turn to practice.
Think of a group of people and a certain characteristic that they have, and
practice using "bunch" to describe this group of people.
And if you have a copy of this month's magazine with you, be sure to check out
today's Grammar Tip section for more example sentences.
That's it for today.
Thanks again for joining me here.
You're a great bunch.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Bye.
Thank you, Liz.
All right. Well, we've just learned that Jo met some hospitable people, a very
hospitable bunch among those Couchsurfers.
And she continues:
Everyone was helpful when they heard I was looking for a job, offering advice
and suggestions.
Well, of course it's great to be able to offer your suggestions if someone needs
help.
Give them some good advice on what they should do.
That's right. And she continues:
I always felt encouraged.
So she didn't feel like she needed to worry too much.
Maybe this chance that she was taking would be successful.
But we continue:
Only one man had some negative things to say.
Hmm. OK, everything's really... everything seems really positive so far.
But here's a little bit of negativity in her story, this man who has some
negative things to say.
I'll call him George, she wrote, and we met on one of the Couchsurfing forums.
I'll call him George.
Why did she write this, Carolyn?
Well, his name is not actually George.
She is just giving him a name so that she will be able to continue telling her
story without any confusion.
But George is not his real name.
That's right.
And sometimes if you're writing an article or a story and you want to protect
someone's identity, you can use this kind of phrase:
I'll call this person Peter.
Or I'll call her Lisa.
It's not their real name, but you're protecting that person.
Well, we see a word from our Word Bank in this sentence.
It's the word "forum." And what does that mean?
Well, here we're talking about a website forum.
So this is a website where people come together, ask questions and have those
questions answered.
So there are many different kinds of forums because people have all kinds of
questions.
This one is specific to Couchsurfers.
That's right.
But there's another forum I know of, an online forum.
If you're visiting Taiwan especially and you want to get in touch with other
foreigners, or maybe you know someone who's coming to Taiwan,
you can direct them to this site: forumosa.com, f-o-r-u-m-o-s-a.com.
That's right. And we continue reading:
George was a foreigner like me, and he offered to meet me for coffee.
Well, we will continue this story later.
But right now it's time to learn with Michelle in the Language Lab.
All right.
(Chinese).
And now keep watching as our program continues.
Well, today in our lesson we learned about how Jo took the plunge.
She tried her luck at finding a job in Taipei.
Now Gabe, have you ever done anything like this, just taking a chance?
Taking a chance? Honestly?
I wish I took more chances in life.
I usually step out from one secure place to another secure place, but I think
it's good to take the plunge every once in a while.
I think so, too.
You can try your luck at something that you really feel strongly about.
Well, talk about that in English.
And we will continue this story tomorrow on Studio Classroom.
(Music).