节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-08
难易度:High
关键字:enthusiastic, federation, Arctic Circle, chapel, igloo
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We're continuing our lesson called The World's Best Winter Festivals.
And today we move into Europe.
That's right.
We'll learn about two festivals, one in Norway and one in Finland.
So let's get started with the first reading today.
And then we'll join Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
The World's Best Winter Festivals.
Holmenkollen Ski Festival.
Skiing rules at the annual Holmenkollen Ski Festival in Oslo, Norway.
The main attraction?
Holmenkollbakken, a huge ski jumping hill with room for 30,000 enthusiastic
spectators and a handful of valiant skiers.
The ski jump itself is around 60 meters high.
Every year Holmenkollen hosts the International Ski Federation Nordic Skiing
World Cup, a competition among the world's best in skiing.
Ski fans can also check out the oldest ski museum in the world, located right
under the ski jump.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, this whole first section is about a big ski festival in Oslo, Norway.
Skiing looks like a lot of fun.
It does. Carolyn, are you a skier?
Well, I'm not a professional one, Gabe.
I've been skiing once.
Um, do you know how to ski?
Well, I've learned... um... over and over again, but I'm still a beginner.
I kind of am scared of skiing down really steep slopes like the black-diamond
slopes.
I kind of stick to the bunny slopes.
Still I agree with you, skiing always looks like fun, especially when someone
else does it really well.
Well, even if you're a beginner, or if you've never skied before, I think the
Holmenkollen Ski Festival is something that would be great to visit.
You may find other things to do, but really skiing rules here at this festival.
And I know Steve and Ken are waiting for us in the Information Cloud to talk
about that word: rule.
Let's take a look at a very simple word today, the word "rule." Rule is what a
ruler does, being in charge and exercising control.
A king rules his kingdom.
Great teaching point, Steve.
You rule!
Thanks, Ken.
You've got some pretty amazing teaching points yourself.
You rock.
OK, friends, before we confuse you further, let's talk about a different usage
of the word rule.
Like Steve said, to rule is to exercise control.
But rule can also be used as a slang word.
If something rules, it is excellent or superior to others.
When the ruler of a country rules, everyone else is below the ruler.
That's the feeling you get from the informal usage.
It refers to something that's superior or better than all the others.
That new video game rules.
It's better than all the other video games.
Yes, it is awesome; it rocks.
That's also a slang usage of rock, which has the same meaning as rule.
If you go to a rock concert, you might see fans holding up signs that say THIS
BAND RULES! or YOU ROCK!
Both of these words are commonly used by Americans, especially kids and
teenagers.
Some older people use them, too, but generally they don't say them as frequently
as kids do.
So keep in mind these words are slang.
Use them only in informal settings.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
You rock!
And you know who else rocks?
Liz! She's waiting for us in the Grammar Gym to explain that next sentence: The
main attraction?
Let's go to the Grammar Gym now.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
And I'm so glad you can join me here.
In today's lesson we see this question:
The main attraction?
It's kind of a funny question, right?
We see the subject, which is the main attraction, but we don't see a verb.
Normally if we want to have a nice, complete sentence, there needs to be a
subject and a verb.
So what is going on here?
Actually, this is more of a style that is used in creative writing.
Basically, the writer is asking: What is the main attraction?
She writes like she's speaking and the verb is assumed.
Instead of asking the whole question, she just gives the main phrase: The main
attraction.
This shorter way of asking questions can be found in many real-life situations.
For example, on long airplane flights the flight attendants may just ask "Tea of
coffee?" instead of "Would you like tea or coffee?".
This saves time and energy for the flight attendant.
Or maybe at a company where co-workers would be to go out for lunch, someone
might ask "Lunch, anyone?" instead of "Does anyone want to have lunch
together?".
Again, this saves time and energy for the speaker.
So in everyday life, native speakers do ask questions without using a complete
sentence format.
In the same way, if you're doing creative writing and you want to create a
conversational feel for your readers, you can ask your questions like this.
And that's it for today.
If you'd like to see some more information, please check out today's Grammar Tip
section in your magazine.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Liz, you rule!
That was great.
Now back to the article.
Yes, skiing does rule at this festival; it even rocks.
And the main attraction, of course, is a huge ski jumping hill.
There's room here for 30,000 enthusiastic spectators and a handful of valiant
skiers.
Now there's quite a bit to talk about from this sentence.
First let's take a look at the phrases: room for.
What does it mean if there's room for something?
Well, that's a great question.
If there's room for something, that means there is space for something.
There is space for 30,000 people to watch from the sides of this big ski jumping
hill, and there's space for a handful of valiant skiers to ski on it.
But I like the phrase: there's room for something.
For example, I could say I'm almost full, but I think I still have room for
dessert.
Ah, yes. You do always have room for dessert.
Yes.
Or my car is full already.
I don't have room for anybody else to ride with me.
Try using this phrase today.
Well, the ski jumping hill has room for lots of enthusiastic spectators.
If you're enthusiastic, you're excited about something.
We hope you are enthusiastic about learning English.
And if you are, you have a lot of enthusiasm. OK.
It's good to have enthusiasm for whatever you do.
Find a job you are enthusiastic about, or at least find ways to get enthusiastic
about your job.
Here we're talking about enthusiastic spectators, people observing from the side
of this big ski jumping hill.
And of course, there are a handful of valiant or courageous skiers skiing on
that big hill.
Hmm, a handful. What does that mean?
Well, a handful is another way of saying several or a few; it's not a lot of
people.
That's right. And you don't use this word just when you're talking about having
your hands full of something.
Although you could; I could say I ate a handful of peanuts earlier.
But I could also say, for example, a handful of my classmates went shopping
together last night.
That means several of them went out.
Well, let's get back to this huge ski jumping hill.
We read: The ski jump itself is around 60 meters high.
Why is the word "itself" here?
Well, the ski jump is the main subject of this paragraph.
In the last sentence we learned about spectators and skiers.
Here we finally read about the main subject.
That's right.
So you can use the word "itself" to turn the focus to the main subject.
For example, if we're talking about a movie, we could say things like:
Oh, these actors are in it and... and lots of people went to see it.
And then I might say but the movie itself was too long and boring.
Well, we have more to learn about another fun winter festivallater.