节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-07
难易度:High
关键字:renowned, sprawl, Carnival, mascot, snowshoe, Lent
Are you an artist?
Do you like to sculpt things?
Have you ever tried sculpting snow into different shapes and sizes?
Maybe you could try entering the snow-sculpting contest at the Sapporo Snow
Festival sometime.
Or are you interested in trying on snowshoes and going on a snowshoe trip?
You can do that, too, at the snow festival.
In our lesson about The World's Best Winter Festivals, we have gone from China
to Japan.
And now it's time for us to travel halfway around the world to Quebec, Canada.
Then we'll join Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
The World's Best Winter Festivals.
Carnaval de Quebec.
You've probably heard of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, or possibly Mardi
Gras in the U.S.
But in Canada, Quebec locals and visitors alike celebrate this festival before
Lent Canadian-style - with lots of ice and snow!
Everyone is greeted by the festival's mascot, Bonhomme Carnaval, a cheerful
snowman.
Festival-goers can enjoy exciting canoe races down the St. Lawrence River, a
1000-square-meter ice palace, sleigh rides and snow baths to name a few.
And after all of that icy fun, everyone can warm up at one of the Carnival's
three spas!
(Music).
All right.
(Chinese).
And now let's go to our lesson.
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, let's learn all about this carnaval in Quebec.
The first thing that you notice, if you have your magazine, is that "carnaval"
seems to be spelled in different ways.
That's right.
C-A-R-N-A-V-A-L, and C-A-R-N-I-V-A-L.
And that's, well, just because they're different languages.
Quebec has a huge French-speaking population.
Actually, while most of Canada has two official languages, the City of Quebec's
official language is just French.
So carnaval with an A is French.
And actually Spanish and Portuguese speakers also spell it with an A.
So why is it spelled with an "I" in our lesson?
Well, of course we're teaching English here at Studio Classroom, and that is a
key word, so we've spelled it the English way.
So have you heard of Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or Mardi Gras?
I have, but I haven't actually celebrated it, either.
But all of these festivals are centered around the same idea: feast day and
having a lot of fun for the few weeks before Lent.
Now what is Lent?
And why do people feel they need to eat a lot and have some parties before Lent?
That is a great question.
And you'll need to look up Lent online for a really satisfying answer.
But basically it's a period of time before Easter where many Catholics and
Christians remember Jesus Christ fasting for 40 days.
Many people also stop eating certain foods or doing certain things for 40 days.
Ah! So people like to celebrate a lot and do those things they enjoy before Lent
because that's 40 days of not doing certain things or eating certain foods.
And we read here: Locals and visitors alike celebrate this festival before Lent.
Let's take a look at that phrase: locals and visitors alike.
That means both locals and visitors are similar in some way.
They both like to celebrate with ice and snow.
So how else can we use that phrase?
For one thing, teachers and students alike learn new things from Studio
Classroom.
It's not just students; I learned all about the Sapporo Snow Festival, something
I've never heard of before.
Right.
Or: God loves the rich and poor alike.
He doesn't have favorites.
Rich and poor alike can choose to respond to His love.
And during the winter in Quebec, locals and visitors alike celebrate Carnaval de
Quebec.
And we learn here about a mascot.
But what's a mascot?
That's a person or animal meant to bring good luck.
Often a sports team will have a mascot.
My high school's mascot was a kind of horse called a mustang.
I actually wore the mascot outfit a few times at basketball games to cheer on
the basketball players.
Do you have a school mascot?
Actually, Gabe, my junior high school, high school and college all had the same
mascot.
They were all bobcats.
Well, that's fun.
You had the same mascot for that many years of schooling.
It was fun. I... I was able to wear the same colored clothes for everything.
I didn't need to buy lots of new ones.
And well, we see here it's not just sports teams at schools that have mascots.
This carnival has a famous one, Bonhomme Carnaval, a cheerful snowman.
Well, he certainly looks cheerful.
Is he always smiling?
Um, I guess so.
I mean, he is a happy snowman.
Anyway, you might run into this snowman a few times if you go to this festival.
But festival-goers don't just go to festivals to see big, happy snowman.
And let's look at that... that word festival-goer for a minute.
That's simply someone who goes to a festival.
But if you can attach the word "goer" on the end of other words, too, well, then
you should give it a try.
That's right, especially for events or places that people go regularly, like
people who go to movies are moviegoers.
If you go to church, you are a churchgoer.
If you like going to see plays at the theater often, you can call yourself a
theatergoer.
So what can a festival-goer do at this festival?
Well, you can enjoy canoe races down the St. Lawrence River, a 1000-square-meter
ice palace, sleigh rides and snow baths to name a few.
And that's a great way to end a sentence of examples: ... to name a few.
You haven't named everything there is to do, just a few things.
Carolyn, what are some things I could do if I'd visited you in Virginia?
Well, in West Virginia, you could go hiking, uh swimming or mountain climbing to
name a few.
Very nice.
Well, now I think Ken and Steve are waiting in the Information Cloud to talk
about sleigh rides.
And then we'll join Linda for the Editor's Summary.
One of the winter activities our lesson mentions today is sleigh rides.
Now if you live in a warm climate that doesn't get any snow, you may want to
know the difference between a sleigh and a sled.
Right. Sleigh and sled are two different things.
They're both used on the snow.
They both have runners or skis underneath.
But the biggest difference between them is that a sleigh, S-L-E-I-G-H, is a
vehicle with seats and is pulled by horses.
And a sled, S-L-E-D, is just a small, light wooden frame with runners.
Also, sleighs are used mainly for transportation, and sleds are more for fun.
Before there were cars, families rode in sleighs in the winter through the snow.
The sleighs were pulled by horses, or in Santa Claus's case, by reindeer.
As Steve mentioned, people ride sleds for fun.
But a different sled, the bobsled, is a serious sport.
You will see bobsled in the Winter Olympics where teams of two or four push it
and ride it down a narrow, twisting track trying to finish the run in the
shortest time.
And then there's a dogsled, which, as the name suggests, is pulled by dogs.
You may have heard of the Iditarod, the most famous long-distance dogsled race,
that takes place every March in Alaska.
(Chinese).
We looked at two festivals today in very different parts of the world - Japan
and Canada.
In Sapporo, Hokkaido, one can see sprawling sculptures made of snow and see
competitors compete in a snow-sculpting contest.
If the visitors want physical activity themselves, they can go on a snowshoe
trip or take ice skating lessons,
while in Quebec, people attending Carnaval de Quebec can watch canoe races and
participate in sleigh rides and snow baths as well as explore in ice castle.
Thank you, Linda.
And thank you for joining us today on Studio Classroom.
We have a lot more to learn next time about winter festivals.
We'll see you then.