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, folks.
Here at Studio Classroom, we like to see each other's true colors.
I have the Studio Classroom blues, the Studio Classroom blues.
We're learning about a girl named Amber in the Studio Classroom blues.
She made a poster for Spectrum Energy in the Studio Classroom blues.
But someone spilled paint on that poster.
Let's see what happens next.
And then we'll hear from Michelle in the Language Lab.
Michelle, ma belle.
(Music).
True Colors.
But what about Violet?
She and Amber had never gotten along.
Violet was probably green with envy because Amber's poster looked so much better
than the one Violet had designed.
The more Amber thought about it, the more certain she felt that Violet had done
the damage.
Then Violet arrived.
"What is that?" she giggled. "It's terrible.".
"You! You destroyed my poster!" Amber exclaimed.
(Music).
OK.
(Chinese).
And let's go to our teachers.
Thanks, Michelle.
Well, before the break we read about how Amber works with so many nice people.
Her coworkers are friendly and often eat lunch together.
They're even friends with the janitor who has a pet monkey.
So who would do a mean thing like put paint on her poster?
Well, what about Violet?
Yes, what about Violet?
We read that she and Amber had never gotten along.
And that's a great phrase to know: to get along with someone.
That means you work or play well together.
You like each other.
Do you get along well with people or not?
Who do you get along with?
Well, I get along well with most people.
I'm a pretty easy-going person, and I try to understand others.
Now this makes me think of another phrase which is kind of the opposite of
getting along with someone.
The phrase is to rub someone the wrong way.
Oh, that's a great phrase to know.
If someone rubs you the wrong way, that means they do things or say things that
make you uncomfortable or even upset.
Maybe they didn't even do anything wrong.
It could just be their personality or the way they are, but it rubs you the
wrong way.
Right. So you could say:
I don't know what it is about him, but he just rubs me the wrong way.
So does someone rub you the wrong way? And who do you get along with?
These are great questions.
Talk about them in English.
And we have another great idiom here: green with envy.
If you're green with envy, that means you are really, really jealous of someone.
It could be jealous of their things, their looks, their talents, anything! Green
with envy.
Are you green with envy about something?
We could say Suzanne was green with envy because Cindy was so popular.
Or Frank was green with envy because Milton is a better dancer than he is.
Of course it's best not to be envious of other people and their things.
Instead, we should be content with what we have and with the lives that God has
given us.
Be thankful, not green with envy.
Great point.
Now it seems like Amber thinks Violet is green with envy because Amber's art is
better.
So Amber thinks Violet is the one who ruined her poster.
We read here: The more Amber thought about it, the more certain she felt that
Violet had done the damage.
And that's another great phrase: the more something, the more something else.
Right. You can use it like this.
The more I hear other people talk about their study abroad experiences, the more
I want to study abroad myself.
Or: The more you read in English, the more you will understand.
See if you can try using this phrase today.
Well, there's another word I think that we should talk about here, the noun:
damage.
It's similar to another word we read earlier: ruined.
These words mean similar things.
And often you can use either word when you're talking about something that has
been made worse in some way.
Right. Just add a D to the word "damage," and you get the past tense verb
damaged.
The poster was damaged.
The poster was ruined.
You damaged my poster.
You ruined my poster.
Actually, Amber used yet another verb when she yelled at Violet: You! You
destroyed my poster.
Right! Now these words are common in some phrases.
For example, "It ruined my day" is very common.
So you would not say it damaged my day.
No. You would say it ruined my day.
Well, here in our story, damage is a noun.
A common way we hear the word used in a phrase is the damage is done.
For example, Toby tried to apologize to Frida for all of his mean words. But it
was too late, the damage was done.
That means Frida is probably too hurt to think about trusting Toby again.
Well, these are all great phrases to use.
And I hope you wrote some of them down.
Not all of them are in your magazine.
But let's take a look at another word in your magazine: giggle.
This is a kind of laugh, a foolish or nervous laugh like this.
What's another kind of laugh? A chuckle.
That's a laugh you might try to hold in so that you're not laughing too loud.
All right. And then there's the guffaw.
Our coworker Bill laughs like this all the time.
I hope our soundman Frank is ready.
This might be kind of loud...
Well, it's fun to laugh, and there are many other laughing terms.
But we'll stick with those for now: giggling, chuckling and guffawing.
So what kind of laugh did Violet do?
She giggled and said Amber's poster is terrible.
You! You destroyed my poster!
And with that, it's time for us to visit Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud.
And then we'll join Linda for the Editor's Summary.
You may recall a few months ago we taught you the acrostic Roy G. Biv, a fun and
easy way to remember, in order, the colors of the rainbow.
Right. And since our lesson today is about colors,
we thought we would revisit this made-up name because it's also a good example
of a mnemonic device,
which is any learning technique that helps you remember information.
One very simple mnemonic device is using your knuckles to remember which months
have 31 days.
Here's how.
Put your fists together like this.
Now moving left to right, each projecting knuckle represents a month with 31
days.
The spaces between represents the other months.
After July, move to your right hand with August, September, October.
See? Very easy.
Mnemonic devices are very helpful when studying a foreign language, too.
One device Westerners use to learn Chinese is relating a character shape to its
meaning.
Like the character (Chinese), kind of looks like a person with raised arms
running for help. Fire!
And the character (Chinese), it's a square mouth.
That's easy to remember.
Friends, if you haven't already, think about employing a mnemonic device to help
you remember new or difficult English vocabulary words.
(Chinese).
Today we meet Amber who works for Spectrum Energy.
She has just found her advertisement poster she spent a week creating ruined.
Someone has covered it with orange paint and ruined it.
So then we meet the suspects.
Bruno, the janitor, is too nice.
He even brings his pet monkey sometimes.
And then there is Violet.
Amber has never really gotten along with her very well.
And Amber accuses her of destroying her work.
Thank you, Linda.
Well, we got a good start on our story True Colors.
I would like to know what happens next in the story.
Did Violet really destroy Amber's poster?
Will Amber be able to forgive her?
What's going to happen?
These are great questions, Carolyn.
Only God knows.
And you, of course, if you read ahead in the magazine.
But don't do that yet.
Come back tomorrow and we'll continue this story.
We will see you then right here at Studio Classroom.