节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-28
难易度:Medium
关键字:gasp, stomp, shrug, creak
Welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And we're so glad that you could join us because we are continuing a mystery
here at Studio Classroom.
A mystery, eh?
Well, yeah. We started a story yesterday called True Colors about a girl named
Amber whose poster was ruined by orange paint.
Who did it?
It's a mystery.
I guess you're right.
Well, let's read the next part of the story.
And then spend some time with Michelle in the Language Lab.
Open up your magazines.
Let's begin.
(Music).
True Colors.
"What do you mean?" Violet gasped.
Now Amber was seeing red.
"You were jealous of my amazing poster, so you ruined it!".
"You're crazy. You can keep blaming me until you're blue in the face, but I had
nothing to do with it," Violet replied and stomped out.
Bruno walked over, "I don't think Violet did it.".
"You look at everyone through rose-colored glasses," Amber insisted.
"I see Violet's true colors.".
"I don't think things are so black and white.
Violet isn't as bad as you think," replied Bruno.
(Music).
(Chinese).
Thanks, Michelle.
Now we're in the middle of a mystery, and it involves two girls who don't really
get along that well.
They rub each other the wrong way.
But this is also a story that includes many colorful idioms.
That's right.
And we have some to talk about here in this first section.
But we also have some other fun words, too, like that first word from the Word
Bank: gasp.
If you remember, yesterday Amber accused Violet of destroying her poster.
You! You destroyed my poster.
Uh, yes, yes, Gabe. We remember.
Now the first line here is, "What do you mean?" Violet gasped.
When you gasp, you breathe in air suddenly, usually because you are shocked or
surprised about something.
So I imagine Violet... gasping like this.
Ooh, that was a good gasp. I like that.
Now when do you gasp?
Sometimes I gasp when I'm watching movies.
Maybe it's a scary movie with lots of scenes that surprise you suddenly.
They make you gasp.
Actually, if you're in a theater watching a scary movie, then you can hear when
lots of people gasp around you.
Or sometimes people gasp for air.
Maybe they were under water for a long time and need to breathe, so they come up
and gasp for air.
We gasp for different reasons.
Well, I kind of like the way our author writes here.
She could have just written "Violet said," but it's more creative to use other
verbs in the place of said.
What if you are writing a story, and your character is studying abroad and
really misses her boyfriend back home.
You could write: "I really miss my boyfriend," she sighed.
Ah, that's great.
And see if you can think of other words, too.
"You need to be quiet in here," he whispered.
Or "I don't want to eat my spinach," she complained.
Be creative when you write.
Well, now it's time to talk about our first color idiom here: seeing red.
We read Amber was seeing red.
This idiom simply means that someone is angry or annoyed.
Are you ever seeing red?
For example, the sports fans were seeing red after their team lost the big game.
Or she was seeing red when she saw her boyfriend with another girl.
Oh! And Amber from our story was seeing red because she thought Violet was
jealous of her poster and ruined it.
But Violet said: You're crazy.
You keep blaming me until you are blue in the face, but I had nothing to do with
it.
Now let's take a look at that idiom: blue in the face.
Yes. If you are blue in the face, you should probably calm down.
It means you have gotten yourself so upset that your face actually heats up or
changes colors.
Some people get so upset that their face actually turns blue.
Right. So you should probably find a way to calm down if you're blue in the
face.
You need to breathe some more.
Have you ever been blue in the face?
What made you go blue in the face?
Often heated arguments will make people get blue in the face.
Well, I like another phrase that Violet says here.
She says: I had nothing to do with it.
She means she was not a part of the process of that poster being destroyed.
But you could use this phrase in other ways, right?
Right.
For instance, George said he had nothing to do with starting the fire at his
school. But others think he started it.
Hey! Who got into my Facebook account and wrote a status as me?
It looks like I wrote "I love dressing like a monkey" on my Facebook wall.
But I didn't write it.
Carolyn!
Don't look at me.
I had nothing to do with it.
I think you should talk to Campbell.
He's always doing things like that.
Hmm, yes, maybe I will.
Well, back to the story.
Violet said she had nothing to do with the poster being destroyed.
And then she stomped out.
Stomping is kind of fun.
When you stomp, you walk around really loudly like this.
Come on, Carolyn.
It's time for us to stomp around in a circle.
All right, one more time.
Here we go.
Did you hear that?
Well, all right. Well, I'm glad we're finished stomping, Gabe.
If someone is stomping, it usually means they are not in a normal mood.
Maybe they're upset about something like Violet.
And Bruno the janitor doesn't think that Violet got paint on Amber's poster,
though.
But Amber responds: You look at everyone through rose-colored glasses.
What does that mean?
Well, imagine looking through a pair of glasses with colored lenses.
Your vision changes, right?
If someone looks at something through rose-colored glasses, then they think
something is more pleasant than it actually is.
Perhaps Amber thinks Bruno overlooks people's faults too much.
That's right.
Sometimes we talk about people as looking at the world through rose-colored
glasses.
A situation could be horrible to you, but that person thinks things are just
fine.
Are you someone who looks at the world through rose-colored glasses?
Or do you know anyone who does?
Well, Bruno replies that things are not so black and white and that Violet isn't
as bad as Amber thinks.
And there's another color idiom.
If you see things as black and white, then most things are either right or
wrong.
And that's different from people who think there are grey areas in life.
That means things are not just right and some other things are not completely
wrong.
Now there are some things in life that I believe are black and white issues, and
others are grey issues.
For example, murder is black and white.
It's never OK.
But many things are grey areas.
They're OK to do as long as they don't become bad habits.
Well, there is more to the story today, so we will continue right afterthis.