节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-01
难易度:Medium
关键字:enormous, rascal, spectator, farewell
Hello, everyone. And welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And we want to wish you a...
Happy New Year!
It is the very first day of the New Year, and we're excited to be spending it
with you.
The New Year is a great time to think about what happened over the past year and
what you hope to have happened over the coming year.
And so it's been a great year at Studio Classroom.
And I'm looking forward to an even better year of teaching and learning English
and many other things through our magazine articles.
Me, too.
And today we will... be discussing art, big art.
Hmm, big art?
That sounds like fun.
If you have your magazine ready, open it up to our first article for the year:
Big Art Makes a Big Impression.
Let's start our lesson by reading the first section of the article.
Then we'll learn some important words with Michelle in the Language Lab.
So what are we waiting for?
Let's get started.
(Music).
Big Art Makes a Big Impression.
Art in the form of a huge duck, a colorful monkey and a brave bear.
Dutch artist Florentijn Hofman creates public art pieces that look like enormous
toys.
His most well-known piece, Rubber Duck, stands more than 10 meters tall and has
appeared in cities around the world.
When imagining the super-sized, inflatable duck, Hofman had a vision of a giant
child throwing his toys around the world.
After Rubber Duck started touring the world, Hofman admitted that he is - in
fact - that rascal.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Artists have such an interesting view of the world.
And they take that unique view and turn it into art.
That's right.
Today we are reading about art in the form of a huge duck.
That's a good phrase to know: something that is in the form of something else.
The article says art in the form of a huge duck, but this can be used for just
about anything.
His birthday cake was in the form of a red dragon.
Great. Or you could talk about technology.
Do you remember learning about Google Glass?
It's a small computer in the form of a pair of glasses.
You're right.
So you can use this phrase to describe the shape or appearance of something that
might usually look a different way.
And our artist likes to create big art.
But not only is this art big, it is also public art.
Carolyn, can you tell us what is special about public art?
Sure, Gabe.
Public art is art that everyone can enjoy.
You don't need to pay money to go see it.
In fact, public art is usually placed in a public space like a park where people
can walk by and see easily.
Can you think of any examples of public art?
Hmm, examples... yes!
Actually, near Taipei 101, there is a large piece of public art that has the
letters "L O V E" for LOVE.
Lots of people take pictures in front of it, especially young couples.
That is a great piece of public art, and it is a special piece that actually
appears in cities all over the world.
That sounds similar to the art we are talking about today:
a giant duck that has been seen in cities all over the world, though the duck
does not remain in those cities for long.
Right.
As we find out in the article, Florentijn Hofman's most famous piece of public
art is Rubber Duck.
And it's more than 10 meters tall.
And that is certainly a giant duck.
You could even say that it is super-sized, which means that it is larger than
normal.
Lots of things can be super-sized.
Usually I hear this term used to talk about food, especially fast food.
You can get a super-sized meal, meaning that you want the largest available
size.
And that is a lot of food.
If you like art, you might have a small picture sitting on a table somewhere.
But you could get a super-sized picture or painting that takes up the whole
wall.
Another special thing about this super-sized duck is that it is inflatable.
So it's not a solid piece of plastic or rubber but actually filled with air.
So this is a very unique duck.
And Hofman had a very interesting thought when he came up with the idea for this
duck.
He had a vision of a giant child throwing his toys around the world.
That's a very funny picture to imagine.
And I really like that phrase: had a vision.
This means to clearly imagine something happening.
But in this case, it doesn't mean that you can predict the future.
That's right.
People can have a vision for many different things.
You could say: I have a vision for my future.
Or I have a vision of a new business idea.
Or she had a vision of stopping world hunger.
Ask yourself, do you have a vision of or for something?
Well, actually I do have a vision for something.
I have a vision for a great video.
Oh. What is your video about?
About a giant rubber duck, Carolyn.
Uh, Gabe, I think that video has already been made.
In fact, we can watch it now.