节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-01-29
难易度:Medium
关键字:flick, dart, touch up, apologize
(Music).
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And I'm glad you are back with us today for our last lesson on True Colors.
True Colors is a short story about Amber and her ruined poster.
We spent all day yesterday trying to find out who ruined this poster.
And I think we're going to find out in today's lesson.
Well, what are we waiting for?
Let's read the first section and find out the answer to this mystery.
And then we'll visit Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
True Colors.
"Caught you red-handed!" Amber shouted, flicking on the lights.
But it wasn't Violet.
It was Cinnamon, Bruno's pet monkey!
Amber ran to grab Cinnamon, but he was not ready to show the white flag.
Clutching an open paint can, he jumped onto Amber's desk and darted across the
poster.
But then Cinnamon stopped.
His tail was stuck to the wet paint.
Amber grabbed Cinnamon and pulled his tail off her poster.
She held the struggling monkey and called for help until Bruno came and took
Cinnamon home.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you so much, Michelle.
So there you have it, Carolyn.
Now we know who got orange paint on Amber's poster - the janitor's monkey,
Cinnamon.
Well, I wasn't sure after yesterday's cliffhanger.
I thought it might have been Violet, the coworker she doesn't get along with.
You know, I thought so, too.
But Amber caught the monkey red-handed.
That's a great phrase.
Catching someone red-handed means that you catch them while they are doing
something they shouldn't do.
Sometimes it could be a serious crime that someone is caught doing.
But often we use this phrase kind of just for fun when someone isn't doing
something seriously wrong.
For example, let's say Gabe needed a Post-it note, and he didn't have one at his
desk.
So he came to my desk while I was away and took one of mine.
If I come back to my desk while he is writing on it, I could say: I caught you
red-handed.
That's right.
Have you ever been caught red-handed doing something?
If it's pretty serious, that could be pretty embarrassing.
Of course I hope you don't get caught doing anything bad because I hope you
aren't doing anything bad.
Well, back to the story.
Amber caught someone red-handed, and then she flicked on the lights.
Flick is one of those words that sounds like what it does.
If you go turn on the lights in your room, listen to the sound.
Maybe it sounds like a little flick.
And you can use this word to talk about turning on and off the lights.
You flick them on, and you flick them off.
Now this sentence actually has many teaching points, but we're going to let Liz,
Steve and Ken talk about those for a moment or two.
So first, let's go see Liz in the Grammar Gym about a sentence pattern.
And then we'll see Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud.
They're waiting to talk to us about Chinglish.
Hello, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
Here's today's Grammar Tip sentence:
... Amber shouted, flicking on the lights.
The subject is Amber, and she did two things.
Amber shouted, and Amber was flicking on the lights.
Notice the sentence pattern: [subject] + [verb1 with -ed], [verb2-ing].
When you have a subject who did something while doing something else, consider
using this sentence pattern.
For example: Angus yawned. Angus was stretching both of his arms over his head.
Put the two together and we have:
Angus yawned, stretching both of his arms over his head.
Or: Lynn stood still. Lynn was wondering where the funny sound came from.
Put the two together and we have:
Lynn stood still, wondering where the funny sound came from.
Now it's your turn to practice.
Think of something that you did while you were doing something else and practice
using this sentence pattern.
And if you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in
today's Grammar Tip section in you Studio Classroom magazine.
That's all the time we have for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
You can turn on the lights.
You can flick on the lights.
You can switch on the lights, and even hit the lights.
But you cannot open the lights.
"Open the lights" is Chinglish, which is English that is influenced by Chinese
vocabulary or grammar.
The results of Chinglish are often nonsensical, though sometimes delightfully
humorous.
So, whether it's a light, a TV or an air conditioner, the best way to describe
activating one of these electronic devices is: Turn it on.
Now another very common Chinglish mistake is saying I very like something.
Again, English words but Chinese grammar.
So if you're making a public sign, printing a menu or creating an advertisement
in English, be warned: Direct translations don't always work.
And while dictionaries and translation software are helpful, don't blindly put
all your faith in them.
Right.
Remember, languages are living and evolving.
They're not like fixed math equations that we plug numbers into to get the
results we need.
Right. By the way, this mixing of languages doesn't just happen with Chinese and
English.
It happens with all languages.
What do you get when you mix Spanish and English together?
Spanglish!
(Chinese).
Well, thank you so much, guys.
You know, Chinglish is certainly something to be careful of.
I know many Western people who come to live in Asia who end up speaking
Chinglish without even knowing it.
Really?
Yeah.
For example, in English, we don't really say, "I'll go first." That's a Chinese
thing to say.
(Chinese).
But since we hear it so much, we start saying it, too.
By the way, instead of saying "I'll go first," you should say, "I'm leaving" or
"I need to go." Or if you're going to see someone soon, say that.
See you there or see you soon.
Ah, good point.
Well, we found out that Cinnamon, the pet monkey, is the one doing all the
painting on Amber's poster.
Amber went to grab Cinnamon, but she was not ready to show the white flag.
And there we see another color idiom: to show the white flag.
This is another great phrase.
It means to surrender or to give up trying to fight or run away.
In battle, people actually show white flags to communicate that they want to
surrender.
If they don't show the white flag, it means they still want to fight.
So apparently, this little monkey, Cinnamon, still wanted to fight.
He wasn't ready to give up.
Ah, so what did he do?
Clutched an open paint can, jumped onto Amber's desk and darted across the
poster.
I think we should look at that word "clutch" for a moment.
It's something you do with your hands when you grab tightly onto something.
That's right.
It makes me think of amusement parks, the roller coasters.
People clutch the bar in front of them because they are so scared.
Well, if you have something valuable, you want to make sure you keep it safe, so
you clutch it in your hands.
The businessman clutched his briefcase because inside was a million dollars.
All right.
This word can also be a noun, meaning control or power.
We often use the plural form here.
For example, maybe someone you know is caught in the clutches of a bad habit or
addiction.
That means that thing is controlling their life.
Well, this little monkey clutched an open paint can and darted across Amber's
poster.
If you dart, you're going very quickly.
Cinnamon got stuck, however, on the poster's wet paint.
That's when Amber went and grabbed the monkey.
But he was still struggling until Bruno came to take him home.
Ah, that little monkey still wasn't ready to show the white flag.
Well, there is a bit more to the story.
And we will enjoy that afterthis.