节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-03-05
难易度:Low
关键字:talented, perform, passion, opportunity, go to one's head, Broadway,
Nickelodeon
Hello, everyone.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
Welcome to Studio Classroom.
You're joining us for a great lesson today.
It is the first day of our PROFILE article on Ariana Grande.
She is a sweet young girl with an amazing voice.
I can't wait to learn about this amazing young star.
Well, me either.
So open up your magazine to the article titled Ariana Grande and let's begin.
Ariana Grande.
This sweet young star greets challenges with a smile on her face.
Some compare Ariana Grande to Whitney Houston, while others call her the new
Mariah Carey.
But the talented young artist is not letting all of the praise go to her head.
This happy 20-year-old is too busy singing, acting, writing songs and producing
music.
Music plays a major role.
That's a long list of activities for someone so young.
But Ariana has been performing as long as she can remember.
She grew up in Boca Raton, Florida, and started singing and acting in local
community theaters.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, there are a lot of great words in this section.
And a lot to talk about.
Right at the very beginning of our lesson next to the title, we read: This sweet
young star greets challenges with a smile.
Gabe, what does it mean to greet a challenge?
Great question.
If you greet a challenge, that means that you aren't afraid of it.
You are ready for the challenge.
You could also say that you are ready to face the challenge.
Ah, so you can greet a challenge or face a challenge.
Well, how do you greet challenges?
Do you do it with a smile on your face, or maybe you greet challenges with a
frown?
I always greet challenges with determination and a positive attitude.
Oh, so you can also greet challenges with feelings, not just facial expressions.
Right. And greeting a challenge with determination means that you have decided
to succeed.
No matter how difficult the challenge is, you won't let it stop you from
succeeding.
I think that's a great way to greet a challenge.
And Ariana greets challenges with a smile.
So she's not afraid of a challenge.
And that's a good thing, too, since she is a famous singer.
You know, being famous is very stressful, especially if you are in the music
industry.
What?! I thought being a singer was great.
What do you mean, Gabe?
Well, if you're famous, you have to keep up with all of the latest trends.
You also have to work hard to keep your fans happy, you need to come up with
popular songs.
It's not always an easy life.
I see. I guess I never really thought about it that way.
I thought everyone wanted to be famous, but I guess fame has a price.
It does.
And Ariana sounds very busy.
Not only is she a singer, but she also acts, writes music and produces songs.
I'm sure there are a lot of challenges that she has to face in order to keep up
with all of those different parts of her career.
In one interview, she said that she has TV filming from morning to afternoon,
goes to the studio in the evening to record music and travels on the weekend.
Wow! That really is a very busy schedule.
I'm amazed that she is able to keep up with everything.
OK. Now we've used this phrase several times, so let's take a look at it: keep
up.
What does it mean if you keep up with something?
Well, if you keep up with something, that means that you know about it.
This is especially true for things that change quickly, like technology or
social media.
Or the news. So you could ask someone:
Do you keep up with the news?
Or do you keep up with the latest cellphone apps?
That can be a difficult thing to do since there are so many apps.
You could say: It's hard to keep up with all of the new apps that come out.
Or I'm not very good at keeping up with the news, but I do like to keep up with
the news about my family.
Yes, it's always good to keep up with family and friends, especially if they
live far away.
A lot of people also like to keep up with their favorite stars.
Like Ariana Grande.
And famous people like Ariana have a lot to keep up with.
Let's move along in our lesson to the section titled Music plays a major role.
And we see a sentence at the very beginning of this section that has a great
grammar tip, which Liz would like to tell us more about in the Grammar Gym.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
In today's lesson we see this sentence:
That's a long list of activities for someone so young.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus is on the phrase at the end of the sentence: someone so young.
It's short for someone who is so young.
When native speakers want to talk about how someone with a certain quality is
able to be different or do something special compare to others in that same
category,
they would use this phrase: someone so blah-blah-blah.
In the case of today's sentence, the writer is saying that for someone who is so
young, it is rare to see such a long list of activities.
OK. Here are some example sentences:
We were surprised to hear about the new secretary's huge workload.
That's just too much work for someone so new.
Or: You seem strangely relaxed for someone so busy with deadlines.
So give this phrase a try.
And if you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in
today's Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, Ariana is involved in a lot of activities for someone so young, but she's
been performing as long as she can remember.
That's right. And that's a great phrase: as long as one can remember.
We use this after a verb to express that something has been happening so long
that we can't remember when it started.
For example, I've known my best friend as long as I can remember.
There isn't a time that I can think that we didn't know each other.
Wow! You've known your best friend for a long time.
You could also say: I've lived in this house as long as I can remember.
I've never lived anywhere else, that I can remember.
So maybe you did live somewhere else when you were a baby or very young.
But then you stayed in the same place after the first time you moved.
Right. Or maybe you've had a cellphone or a computer as long as you can
remember.
That could be true for a lot of people.
Well, Ariana has been performing as long as she can remember.
And that doesn't just include singing, she was also acting.
That's right. But this was long before she was famous.
She was performing in local theaters.
And apparently her first role was Annie from the musical Annie when she was
eight years old.
So even from a young age, she was already playing the lead role.
Wow! She is an amazing performer who had an early start.
And she's had some really amazing opportunities to use her talents.
Yes, she has.
And eight years old is a pretty young age to start performing.
It really is, Carolyn.
You performed with a local theater in the United States.
Actually, how old were you when you started doing that?
Uh, actually, I was even younger than Ariana, only seven years old.
And my sister started when she was six.
But starting young doesn't mean you will be a better performer.
I think you need to have natural talent as well.
Yeah, I think that's true.
Well, you are talented, Carolyn.
And Ariana clearly is very talented as well as we can see from her success.
Well, thank you, Gabe.
You're talented, too.
And you're right, Ariana is very talented, which is something we will continue
to learn about as we move along in our lesson.
Now in the next section we see that her passion for music and performing turned
into a career opportunity.
Well, go ahead and look at the next section of your magazine, and let's talk
about the phrase: turn into.
What does that mean?
Well, we use this phrase to show that there is a change in something.
Can you give an example, Gabe?
Sure.
Um, their friendship turned into romance.
So the boy and girl started out as friends, but has they got to know each other
more, they began to love each other.
Oh, that's a beautiful example, Gabe.
Thanks.
You could also use this in other ways.
For example, the classroom turned into a zoo when the teacher left the room.
So the students didn't behave when the teacher was gone.
Well, I hope that doesn't happen in your classroom.
Right. Well, Ariana's passion turned into a job opportunity when she won the
role for a Broadway musical.
And we will continue learning about Ariana right after this.