节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-02-03
难易度:Medium
关键字:convenience store, lottery, harmless, deceive, jackpot, casino
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
My name is Carolyn.
And we have a very interesting lesson today.
We are starting the article Testing Your Luck.
We'll be learning from a conversation between two friends as they discuss
gambling.
This is a pretty big issue that many people feel strongly about, so.
Let's begin with the first part of the conversation.
And then we'll join Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
Testing Your Luck.
Should you gamble with your hard-earned money or not?
Peggy and Bennie run into each other outside a convenience store on a Saturday
afternoon.
Hey, Bennie!
Long time no see.
What are you up to?
Hi, Peggy!
I'm just buying some lottery tickets.
Lottery tickets?
Don't tell me you play the lottery.
Sure. It's just a little harmless fun.
I buy maybe 10 tickets a week.
Let's see. ... Each ticket costs $1, so you're spending $10 a week.
I hope that means you win often.
Often enough.
I haven't won much this year, but I won $5,000 three years ago.
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, it sounds like Bennie is actually pretty lucky.
Well, maybe that's why he enjoys playing the lottery.
That could be.
Now this first section is filled with lots of great words and phrases.
So let's take a look at the first one from our title: testing your luck.
What does it mean to test your luck, Carolyn?
Well, it means that you are doing something, but you don't know if it will be
successful or not.
You could also say that you are trying your luck.
That's right.
So one example would be he decided to test his luck by making a risky
investment.
If the company he invested in did well, he would make a lot of money.
But if it did poorly, he would lose a lot of money.
Well, hopefully he will be lucky.
Another example is the little girl really tried her luck when she asked her dad
for more shopping money.
She spent NT$6,000 on clothes last week.
So this phrase can be used to show that something may or may not succeed but
you're going to try anyway.
Right. So Bennie is testing or trying his luck by playing the lottery.
He doesn't know if he will win or not, but he's still going to buy lottery
tickets.
Hmm. And Peggy is not so sure that this is a good way to spend his hard-earned
money.
That's another really great phrase, Gabe: hard-eared.
If something is hard-eared, that means that it took a lot of hard work and
effort to achieve it.
Right. Usually we hear this term used to describe money.
You might hear people say hard-eared money or hard-eared cash.
But it can also be used to describe other things as well.
For example, after many years of research, the scientist's work finally received
its hard-eared recognition.
You could also say the businessman enjoyed his hard-eared vacation and went to
the beach for two weeks.
So how do you spend your hard-eared money?
Can you think of anything else that is hard-eared?
Yeah, see what you can think of.
There really are a lot of great phrases in this section.
Another one that we see is: run into.
If you run into someone, does that mean that you hit the other person while
you're running, Carolyn?
No, Gabe.
Sometimes it can mean that you actually bump against something or someone, but
usually it means that you meet someone unexpectedly.
Ah, I see, like when I saw my friend Hunter walking down the street, I had no
idea that he was going to be there.
Right. So you could say that you ran into him, but you didn't actually knock him
down because you were running.
Right.
So if you meet someone unexpectedly, you could say that you ran into that
person.
That's right.
And because they ran into each other, Peggy says a good phrase in her first
line: Long time no see.
And that is a pretty common phrase that you use when you haven't seen someone
for a long time.
Yes. So it means exactly what it sounds like.
But sometimes this phrase is also used when you are joking with a friend.
Maybe you just saw each other a few hours ago, but you want to be funny, so you
can say: Long time no see.
Of course it hasn't been a long time, but it's a fun way to joke with your
friends.
Eh, Carolyn.
Uh, yes, Gabe.
Long time no see.
Uh, Gabe, I haven't gone anywhere.
I know, I know. It was really just a joke.
Yes, we haven't seen each other in such a long time.
Right. But you know what? Actually, this is true.
There is someone we haven't seen in a while.
Oh? Who?
Liz! We should see what she has for us in the Grammar Gym.
That's a great idea.
Let's go there now.
Hi, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We see this sentence in today's lesson:
Don't tell me you play the lottery.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Notice the phrase at the beginning: Don't tell me.
This doesn't mean the speaker doesn't want to hear anything about playing the
lottery.
Instead, this phrase "Don't tell me" is an expression native speakers use to
mean I hope that something isn't happening.
In other words, the speaker is saying: I hope you're not playing the lottery.
This phrase "Don't tell me" is often found in informal conversations.
When you find yourself in a situation where you hear about something you don't
like, you can use this phrase.
For example, if you're allergic to cats and you find yourself sneezing as you're
standing in a room, you can say:
Don't tell me there's a cat in this room.
Or let's say you've repeatedly warned a co-worker not to be late with his work.
But once again you've discovered he hasn't finished his work on time.
So you can say:
Don't tell me he's late with his work again.
So give this phrase a try.
And if you turn to today's Grammar Tip section in your Studio Classroom
magazine, you'll find more example sentences there.
That's it for today, friends.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thanks, Liz.
Well, I hope we won't have to wait too long before we see you again.
Well, at the very least, we'll see her tomorrow.
Well, don't tell me we have to wait that long.
It's OK, Gabe.
We still have a whole lesson to teach on Testing Your Luck.
Ah, you're right.
And we can go see Ken and Steve in the Information Cloud.
Hey, let's go there now.
In today's text, we see a set of three evenly-spaced dots in Peggy's
conversation with Bennie.
What are they? And what do they mean?
They're called an ellipsis or an ellipsis mark.
This word comes from an ancient Greek word meaning omission.
Very appropriate because traditionally, the ellipsis signifies words or phrases
that are omitted from a sentence or quoted passage.
It can also indicate a pause or short silence, which is how it's used in today's
dialogue.
Right. A short pause because Peggy needs a little extra time to do a math
problem in her head.
Right.
These days, with informal emails, chat rooms and texting, the ellipsis has taken
on a few more duties.
For example, people use it as a way of "holding the floor" - that is a signal
that more information is on the way.
Or people will use the ellipsis to indicate an abrupt change in topic to show
disagreement, disappointment or confusion.
For formal writing, be warned: you can't just casually use an ellipsis or string
up ellipses together as some people do.
You can't do that just anywhere.
There are rules to follow, which you can find in any good English style manual.