节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-12-31
难易度:High
关键字:pessimism, vicious, doom, prediction, head south
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We're continuing to learn with Jo in our lesson called Moving Forward.
And already in yesterday's lesson, we learned about how Jo was welcomed by
hospitable Couchsurfers in Taiwan.
And many of them had great advice and suggestions for her as she was looking for
a job.
But of course it can be difficult to find a job.
What are some common difficulties that you might face when you look for a job?
Carolyn, can you think of any?
Well, each job has different difficulties depending on the field that you are
looking at.
But most of them involve a resume, which is very important,
a cover letter that might need to go with your resume explaining why you want
the job,
and then an interview and being prepared for that.
And then all the other people applying for that same job can make it really
difficult.
All right. Those seem like some challenges you might have to face.
Of course another difficulty might be the fact that there aren't many jobs
available, not the kinds that you want.
Maybe a difficulty is your own pride.
I think that's the case for some people.
They don't want to get a job that is "beneath them," they would say.
Well, what is a difficulty?
What's another kind of difficulty you might face in looking for a job?
Jo had a kind of difficulty.
It was someone who was very negative about the job market in Taipei.
Let's continue learning with her story.
(Music).
Moving Forward.
Our conversation began normally but headed south when we began discussing my job
search.
George's pessimism showed immediately.
He informed me that he didn't think there were many jobs available in Taipei.
I told him I wanted to be a writer.
He told me that the competition would be too vicious for me to succeed;
everybody wanted to write.
According to George, everything was hopeless.
I was doomed.
If I were lucky enough to find a job, it wouldn't be the one I wanted.
(Music).
Well, George doesn't seem like a very happy person.
Anyhow, we do have some good things to learn from this part of our lesson.
So let's go back to the beginning here. We read:
Our conversation began normally but headed south when we began discussing my job
search.
OK, so everything's just kind of normal, just as you would imagine any
conversation.
And then they started talking about her job search.
And then what happened?
It headed south? What does that mean?
Yes, they started to drive to the south.
What?!
No... Gabe, that's not what it means.
It means that their conversation started to become very negative, or that it
just turned into a bad conversation.
It was no longer a good conversation that they were having.
And remember, George is not his real name but he is a foreigner who is part of
this Couchsurfing community.
That's right.
Well, their conversation headed south.
What else could head south in life, it... starts to turn bad?
Maybe a meeting starts out OK, but then it heads south after a while and nothing
gets accomplished.
Maybe you're in a relationship, and it seems OK at first, but then it starts
heading south after a while.
You start not respecting each other.
You start being mean to each other.
It could head south in different ways.
That's right.
But heading north does not mean that it becomes good.
So you don't use the other directions to indicate a change, only heading south.
Mmhm. That's right.
Well, our lesson today is not heading south, of course.
We have a lot more to learn.
George's pessimism showed immediately.
So this is as soon as they began discussing Jo's job search, then his pessimism
came out.
Let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank: pessimism.
Well, we learned a word earlier this month, optimism. That means you're
positive.
Pessimism means that you have a negative outlook about something.
That's right, so.
It means that you just have negative feelings toward everything.
And pessimism is very bad because it kind of turns you into a miserable person.
If you look at everything in a negative way, then you can't be happy.
And it makes the people around you feel unhappy as well.
And so what happens if you have pessimism?
Well, people might start calling you a pessimist, P-E-S-S-I-M-I-S-T.
Are you a pessimist or an optimist?
I hope you're an optimist.
I hope so, too.
But that is not the case for George in our lesson today.
We continue reading:
He informed me that he didn't think there were many jobs available in Taipei.
Hmm. Well, that's OK if it's just being realistic.
But I think George is little more pessimistic than that, OK.
He says... or Jo says: I told him I wanted to be a writer.
But he told me that the competition would be too vicious for me to succeed;
everybody wanted to write.
Well, that is very discouraging, oh, to be told that everyone wants to write and
the competition is too vicious, you cannot succeed.
Now let's... take a look at that word from our Word Bank, the word vicious.
If something is vicious, that means it is very mean and aggressive and angry and
violent.
And it reminds me of some animals.
There are many wild animals you could describe as being vicious animals.
The vicious dog chased after me while I was running.
Or you could talk about someone's comment being very vicious.
That means it was a mean comment.
He gave a vicious remark the other day about my clothes.
Which means he was trying to purposely hurt you.
That's right.
And I'm sorry, Gabe.
Your clothes look fine.
Well, thank you.
Thank you. Your... your words are very kind, not vicious.
Oh, well. Let's continue with our lesson.
According to George, everything was hopeless.
I was doomed.
Oh, and doomed is a word from the Word Bank.
If you are doomed, that means there's no hope.
Doomed.
Doomed.
When do you feel doomed?
Sometimes I hear the phrase "doomed to fail." That means it's going to happen,
there's no question about it, you're going to fail at something.
But of course it's not good to think like this.
Don't think that you are doomed to fail.
That's right.
You are not doomed. You are doing a wonderful job.
Do not listen to people who are pessimists or filled with pessimism.
Don't let that take control of your life.
And we continue reading:
If I were lucky enough to find a job, it wouldn't be the one I wanted.
So George is clearly not very hopeful for Jo's job prospects in Taipei.
That's right.
Of course these are not Jo's own thoughts.
These last couple of sentences are kind of the attitude that George is feeding
Jo.
All right. Well, Jo is very discouraged at this point.
We're going to learn more from the rest of her story.
But first, let's learn something with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).