节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-15
难易度:Medium
关键字:apparently, in common, embarrassment, pirate, helium, random, comfort zone

Hello, everyone.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And welcome to Studio Classroom.
Thank you.
Uh, not you, Gabe. Them, but uh...
Today we are continuing our lesson called Anything but Normal, all about an
international scavenger hunt organized by actor Misha Collins.
Yesterday we learned about how GISHWHES, or the Greatest International Scavenger
Hunt the World Has Ever Seen, has broken world records.
In 2012 there were 14,580 participants.
To date, people from over 94 countries have participated.
Maybe now it is your turn.
Maybe.
Well, today we will take a closer look at GISHWHES and the things you may need
to do if you take part, things that are just plain weird.
So open your magazine to "Anything but Normal!" and let's get started.
Then we'll join Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
Anything but Normal!
Up, up and away!
Some tasks are like silly science experiments.
Participants in 2011 were challenged to tie helium balloons to a Christmas tree
and make it float.
One team's tree flew so high that it made the nightly news report!
Apparently, the tree was never seen again.
Spreading kindness.
Kindness is a theme that gets repeated a lot during the event.
In fact, kindness is something that GISHWHES has in common with Collins' charity
- Random Acts.
The goal of that charity is to change the world, one random act of kindness at a
time.
Last year, GISHWHES and Random Acts worked together to improve the life of a
wounded U.S. veteran and his family.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle. OK.
Well, in yesterday's and today's lesson we can see some of the examples of tasks
you might need to do if you participate in GISHWHES.
You might need to make clothes out of cheese.
You might need to take a photo with an Oscar-winning actor.
And today we see that some tasks are kind of like science experiments.
That sounds cool.
I think it'd be fun to do this one - Tie helium balloons to a Christmas tree and
make it float.
Up, up and away it goes.
That's right, up, up and away.
And that's a phrase we don't use all the time, but it's fun to use when we're
describing things that float or fly upwards and then go out of sight.
What are some things that go up, up and away?
Hmm... hot air balloons.
Good, or a rocket ship that goes into space.
Helicopters?
Sure.
Uh, do fireworks count?
Well, they go up, up and pop.
Yeah, I guess you're right.
Oh, hey, what about the house in the movie Up?
That goes up, up and away, right?
Yeah, it does.
Actually, maybe that house is what inspired this task of tying helium balloons
to a Christmas tree and making it float.
Float. What does it mean to float?
Good question.
Well, that means it is carried by the wind, like a hot air balloon or like
feathers in the wind.
But you could also use it to talk about things carried away on the water, like a
boat floating across the lake or down the river.
And for this scavenger hunt, many teams made Christmas trees float.
One team's tree flew so high that it made the nightly news report.
That's true.
In Calgary, Canada, the team's tree flew toward the airport.
You can imagine that might cause some people to worry.
Well, our article says: Apparently, the tree was never seen again.
Hmm, apparently.
Well, that's a good word to know.
If it is apparent, what does that mean, Carolyn?
Well, it appears to be a certain way, but we're not actually sure of the facts.
Apparently, nobody saw this tree again, but we don't really know.
Now we could use this word in other ways.
You could say: I didn't know we had a meeting today.
And your boss says: Well, apparently, you didn't read the email that I sent.
Uh-oh, apparently not.
Well, it's apparent that you didn't read your boss' email.
Well, back to... GISHWHES, we see another section here entitled Spreading
kindness.
That's a wonderful thing to spread.
I usually hear this word when talking about negative things like spreading a
cold.
Oh, that's right.
If you have a cold, please don't spread it to me or to others.
But what other things can we spread?
Maybe a fire can spread quickly in dry places.
Almost every year there's news of wildfires in California and Colorado that
spread extremely quickly.
It's interesting you should mention fire because there's a phrase in English: to
spread like wildfire.
We use this when talking about news or rumors.
For example, celebrities should be careful about what they do in public because
gossip spreads like wildfire.
That is true.
Well, we don't want to spread gossip or rumors about people.
We want to spread the love, and we want to spread kindness.
And that's what Misha Collins has in mind, too.
That's what his charity Random Acts is all about.
Random Acts is short for random acts of kindness, a phrase many people believe
in.
If something is random, it is unplanned or unexpected.
A random act of kindness is something kind you do for someone else that they
didn't expect.
It's just something to make other people's lives better.
Hmm. You know, Carolyn, when I was preparing these lessons, our friend Joe knew
I was busy and called me up and offered to bring me lunch.
Talk about a random act of kindness!
I didn't expect that at all.
That was really nice.
Well, I agree. Joe is a really nice guy.
Friends, check out the website therandomact.org for more about Misha Collin's
charity.
And we will be back with GISHWHES verysoon.