节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-03-10
难易度:Low
关键字:staff, hesitate, take off, hopefully
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And you're probably wondering why we are surrounded by animals.
Well, yes! What a zoo!
In our lesson we'll come across many idioms that have to do with animals.
And of course, our lesson is also in the form of a story.
So what are we waiting for?
Open your magazine to the page titled "What a Zoo!" and let's get started.
What a Zoo!
When you live at a zoo, life can get a bit wild.
Robin thought her parents had the best job in the world.
They ran a zoo.
Robin and her little brother, Jay, loved the animals - especially Gwen the
parrot.
Sometimes the zoo staff let them play with Gwen, but only when an adult was
around.
It was more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
One day the zoo was closed, and the entire staff was gone including their
parents.
Jay wanted to take Gwen out to play.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thanks, Michelle.
Well, let's go right back to the beginning, shall we?
Our lesson is called What a Zoo!
When do you say "What a zoo," Gabe?
Well, if a place is really noisy or wild, that's when I might say: What a zoo!
And that's because zoos can be wild and noisy.
If you walk into a room full of noisy kids running around all over the place,
that's the perfect time to say "What a zoo!" or "It's a zoo in here.".
Now sometimes we use the phrase "what a..." in other ways.
For example, let's say lots of things happened today that you didn't expect, and
you don't know how to react, you can say: Wow! What a day.
What a day, or maybe what a night!
The dogs were barking, and I didn't get any sleep.
What a night!
And what a phrase we're using!
It's an exclamation about something.
What a wonderful lesson we have today called What a Zoo!
And we read here: When you live at a zoo, life can get a bit wild.
So again we see the definition of the phrase "What a zoo" here.
Things can get wild.
Hey, I like that phrase: Life can get wild.
Yeah. It means life can become crazy.
We use "can get" in other ways, too, right?
For example, be careful around that dog; he can get pretty angry if you upset
him.
Or go to the night market early; it can get really crowded if you go later.
Think of another way to use this phrase today.
So, now let's get into the story.
We meet our main characters here: Robin and her little brother, Jay.
And I like Robin and Jay.
In fact, I have something in common with them.
Oh, you do? What's that, Carolyn?
I, too, love animals.
That's true.
You know, I like animals, too, but I'm always impressed with Carolyn's knowledge
about different animals.
Well, they're fun to learn about.
And I agree with Robin here, I think her parents have a pretty cool job.
Robin thought her parents had the best job in the world - running a zoo.
Hmm. Do you feel that way about anything?
Is something the best to you?
If you think it's so good, you could describe it as the best in the world.
Like maybe you think you've found the best coffee you've ever tasted: It's the
best coffee in the world!
Or you don't have to say it's the best in the world but maybe just your city.
The view of Taipei from that building is the best view in the city.
Well, Robin certainly thought her parents had the best job in the world because
they ran a zoo.
They got to be around animals all day long.
When you run something, you cause it to work properly.
Often you run something, that also means you're the one in charge.
Right. So if you say you are running a company or organization, then I will
probably think you are the president or CEO of that company.
Often a group of people run businesses not just one person.
Do you run a business, or do you hope to run a business one day?
Talk with someone about that in English.
Well, in our lesson, Robin and Jay's parents run a zoo.
Robin and Jay love all the animals, especially Gwen the parrot.
Now when I think of parrots, I think of very colorful birds like the one in this
picture here that have the ability to imitate sounds.
You're right.
Now African gray parrots are supposed by many people to be the smartest parrots,
so different from the ones in the picture.
Now I'm not sure, but I think Gwen might be a white parrot.
Hmm. Why do you say that, Carolyn?
Because the name Gwen can mean white.
And our author is very careful about the names she chooses for the characters in
our stories.
Most of them have a meaning that is related to the theme of the story.
You know, I think you're right about that.
If you remember, January's story was about colors.
And the main characters were named Amber and Violet, which are two colors.
Hey, the main characters in today's story are names of animals.
And not just any animal. Robins and jays are types of birds.
So friends, when we come to our LANGUAGE lesson each month, see if you can
figure out how the names of the people in the stories are related to the theme.
Well, we read on in our story:
Sometimes the zoo staff let Robin and Jay play with Gwen but only when an adult
was around.
Now do you see the key word "staff"?
It's important to remember that this word never has an S on the end of it.
Right. If you just want to say one person on the staff, you would say the staff
member.
Yes.
Well, this sentence starts with the word sometimes.
And later on in our lesson we will see the phrase: she has to stop sometime.
One has an S and one doesn't.
Hmm. I think Steve and Ken want to explain this difference in the Information
Cloud.
Let's go there now.
As an English teacher, I often notice pronunciation mistakes students make.
And one of the most common mistakes I hear is a failure to pronounce the final S
of certain words.
And that can be a problem as a word may take on a different meaning if you leave
out the S.
Take the word "sometimes," for example.
If you leave out the final S, it becomes sometime, which has a different
definition.
Sometimes, with an S at the end, is in adverb meaning occasionally or every once
in a while.
Here's an example.
Most of the time I take a bus to work, but sometimes I walk to the office.
Be sure to pronounce that final S.
If you take away the S, "sometime" refers to any unspecified time in the future
or the past.
For example, I will clean up my room sometime.
One way to remember the difference is sometimes, with an S, is used with
something that occurs many times, hence the S.
And sometime, without the S at the end, is used for a one-time event.
And then there's "some time," two words.
And that means a period of time as in: Paul has been working here for quite some
time.
Some time, two words.
OK. Another example: For some time, I have been thinking about getting a dog.
This means I've been thinking about getting a dog for a while.
Some time, two words, describe something that's been ongoing.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
Well, since our theme is animals today, let's look at our first animal idiom:
more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
Now this means that something is really fun and enjoyable.
Playing with Gwen the parrot was more fun than a barrel of monkeys.
And it sounds like Robin and Jay certainly have a lot of fun at the zoo.
But it seems like Jay might be getting into some trouble here.
Well, come back, continue ourstory after this.