节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-27
难易度:Medium
关键字:creation, janitor, get along, giggle
Hello, everyone.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And welcome to Studio Classroom.
Today's lesson we're going to be talking about a very colorful lesson.
Well, yes, it certainly is a colorful lesson.
Actually, it is in the form of a story.
Everyone likes stories.
And we're going to see many different English idioms and phrases that have to do
with color in the lesson.
And not just today but over the next few days, so.
Open up your magazine and let's read the first section of True Colors.
And then we'll visit Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
True Colors.
Some English idioms are really... colorful.
Amber had the blues.
She had spent all week perfecting a poster advertising a "green" air
conditioner.
But that morning, out of the blue, Amber had discovered orange paint covering
her poster.
Her beautiful creation was ruined!
Spectrum Energy, the company Amber worked for, was in the red.
But Amber had hoped that this air conditioner - and her advertisements - would
put it back in the black.
What had happened?
Clearly, the paint didn't put itself there.
Someone had done this on purpose!
She could hardly believe it.
Most of her coworkers were really friendly.
They often ate lunch together.
Bruno, the janitor who lived upstairs from the office, sometimes even brought in
his pet monkey.
(Music).
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, as we said before, today's lesson is full of idioms and phrases that have
to do with color.
And you may not know it, but our title is also one of those phrases: true
colors.
We use this phrase to describe how someone really is.
Yes. If someone shows their true colors, then they are showing what they're
really like.
Often we hide a part of ourselves from others or sometimes we're just too
comfortable.
But sometimes, if things get really challenging in life, then our true colors
will come through.
And that reminds me of that song by Cindy Lauper - True colors...
Look it up. It's a classic.
But for now, let's use that phrase.
You could say Mandy showed her true colors by getting a second job after her
husband lost his job.
Ah, so she's a hard worker.
Or the singer showed his true colors when the media kept criticizing him.
You saw how he really reacted.
And your true colors is how you react under pressure or when things get hard.
So our title gives us a hint of something in our lesson.
Perhaps someone will show their true colors?
Well, we see a phrase here at the top that some English idioms are really...
colorful.
But wait, I thought that colorful just meant that something has a lot of color,
uh, like a drawing or a painting or a nice colorful shirt.
Well, it does, but it can also describe something that has a lot of variety or
something that is interesting.
For example, I think Taiwanese is a colorful language.
A colorful language.
Or perhaps you find a certain period of history very interesting.
The Victorian era was a very colorful period of history.
So back to our lesson, English idioms can be quite colorful.
They can convey interesting meanings.
Well, let's go through and look at these idioms, shall we?
Amber had the blues.
What does that mean to have the blues?
Well, that means to be sad about something or maybe you're depressed.
The color blue is used in English to depict sadness.
You could even say "I'm feeling blue" if you're kind of sad about something.
I'm feeling blue, or I have the blues.
Have you ever heard of blues music?
Many of the themes of blues songs have to do with sadness over certain issues.
Because when blues music was being developed, there were many sad issues that
people wrote about in their songs.
Ah. Well, in today's story, Amber had the blues.
She had spent all week perfecting a poster advertising an air conditioner.
What's a "green" air conditioner?
Well, yeah, it's a green air conditioner she was advertising.
That's another way of saying environmentally friendly.
And it's a perfect word to use for today's lesson about colors.
Well, I like another word in that sentence: perfecting.
"Perfect" as a verb, what does that mean?
Well, it means making something perfect.
Of course we all know that nothing is absolutely perfect.
But you can still improve something as best you can, and that is called
perfecting it.
Is there anything you are trying to perfect?
Uh... yes. I'm trying to perfect my moose call.
You can do a moose call?
Yeah, I think so.
It's pretty good.
Here I go.
All right.
Here, moose... Come here, moose.
Uh...
How was that?
I... I don't think that will work for a moose.
You might need to continue to perfect it some more.
Yeah. Yeah, you're right.
Well, but for now let's look at this next idiom: out of the blue.
If something happens out of the blue, that means you couldn't expect it or plan
for it to happen.
For example, I was just thinking about some memories from university when out of
the blue, a friend called from university.
I haven't heard from him in years.
It happened out of the blue.
Or it was a perfectly nice day as I was taking a walk when it started raining
out of the blue.
And Amber from our story had discovered orange paint covering her poster.
Her beautiful creation was ruined.
Well, don't worry, Amber from our story.
Your story is giving us many idioms to talk about.
So, you should be happy.
The next idiom we see here is "in the red." And the one following is "in the
black." What do these phrases mean?
Well, they're actually financial or business terms.
If you are in the red, that's not a good thing.
You're not doing very well financially, and perhaps you are losing money or
you're in debt.
In the black, on the other hand, means you're doing great.
Your company is making money.
So if you have a business, are you in the red or in the black?
I hope you're in the black.
Me, too.
Well, Liz wants to share some more information with us about the dashes in this
sentence.
Let's go to the Grammar Gym now.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's lesson we see this sentence:
But Amber had hoped that this air conditioner - and her advertisements - would
put it back in the black.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Now on paper or in print, we see there are two lines in the sentence right
before and after the phrase: and her advertisements.
These are called em dashes.
And in the case of today's sentence, they're there to mean that there is extra
information.
In other words, they're there to mean plus.
So today's sentence just means: But Amber had hoped that this air conditioner
plus the advertisements would put it back into the black.
Use em dashes when you want your readers to know that there's something extra in
addition to whatever is just mentioned.
For example: Katie had just enough time to grab her wallet, her cellphone - and
her cellphone charger - and ran out the door.
Or: When you're packing for this trip, make sure you have some extra clothes,
your passport - and some cash - in your backpack.
If you have a copy of this month's magazine with you, be sure to check out
today's Grammar Tip section for more example sentences.
That's all the time we have for today.
Thanks again for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
This is Liz.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, in our story today, Amber is wondering who put orange paint on her amazing
poster.
We see a sentence here: Clearly, the paint didn't put itself there.
I like the word "clearly." It means it doesn't take much thought to understand
something.
It's clear.
Of course paint can't just appear out of the blue.
It was put there on purpose.
Or so Amber thinks.
Well, what will happen next?
We will have to wait and seeafter this.