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
Today we're learning from a conversation between Peggy and Bennie about testing
your luck by playing the lottery.
They ran into each other outside a convenience store.
And Bennie is buying some lottery tickets.
But Peggy is not very excited for him.
Let's find out how she feels about buying lottery tickets in the next part of
the reading.
(Music).
Testing Your Luck.
It seems like you're wasting money to me.
It's a form of entertainment to me.
If I went to a movie, I'd pay $10 or $12.
So I just spend that on the lottery instead.
Well, it may be harmless for you.
But most lottery tickets are bought by people who can't afford them.
Well, everyone wants to win a big jackpot, right?
But they're just deceiving themselves.
Playing the lottery is gambling.
You're going to lose more often than you win.
Maybe. But it's different than playing games at a casino.
Oh, really? How?
(Music).
OK.
(Chinese).
And now let's go back to our teachers.
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, it sounds like Peggy is not very happy with Bennie.
No, she's not. She thinks playing the lottery is a waste of money.
But for Bennie, it's entertainment.
Hmm, that's a really good point.
He has fun playing the lottery, so he buys lotto tickets instead of movie
tickets.
It's also interesting to look at the verbs that are used when we talk about the
lottery.
We say "play" the lottery like it's a game.
But this can be a dangerous game to play, as Peggy points out.
She says that most of the people who buy lotto tickets can't afford them.
That is unfortunately true.
But before we talk about that, Gabe, you've used a word a couple of times:
lotto.
That's right, I have.
This is a shorter way to say lottery.
Actually, lottery can mean a lot of different things.
But lotto always refers to a game of chance or random numbers that are drawn to
determine the winner of a prize.
I see. So you could also say that Bennie really likes to buy lotto tickets or he
likes to play the lotto.
You're right, you could.
Now back to Peggy's claim that most people buying lotto tickets can't afford
them.
Well, she's right.
According to one study in the U.S., people making less than US$10,000 per year
spend almost $600 a year on lottery tickets.
Wow! That's a lot of money to be spending on lottery tickets when you don't make
very much money to begin with.
But as Bennie points out in the article, everyone hopes to win a big jackpot.
So even though very few people win the lottery, lots of people play because they
hope to win.
Hmm. That doesn't seem like a wise business decision.
Playing the lottery for fun is one thing, but playing the lottery in order to
make money doesn't seem like a good idea.
Well, I think you're right.
And while it is important to find ways to give yourself hope when facing
difficulties,
it's better if they're positive ways with a greater guarantee of being helpful
than just taking a chance and testing your luck.
I agree with you there.
People are going to lose a lot more often than they win.
Very true, Gabe.
And that's a great phrase: going to do something more often than you do
something else.
You know, you could say he's going to get good grades more often than he gets
bad grades.
Well, I certainly hope that's true.
You could also say she is going to buy tea more often than soda because she
doesn't like to drink lots of sugar.
And when it comes to the lottery, people are going to lose more often than they
win.
In fact, people lose about half of what they spend.
Whoa. So if you buy $10 worth of lottery tickets, you'd be lucky to win $5 back.
Yeah, you're right, though some people do get lucky like Bennie and win large
amounts like the $5,000 he won several years ago.
Well, it does happen occasionally.
We see that on the news when there's a big winner, but it doesn't happen often.
Well, the end of today's conversation gets us started on another topic.
But we'll have to wait to learn more about that tomorrow.
Right now it's time for our Editor's Summary with Linda.
Bennie runs into Peggy just as he is on his way to buy some lottery tickets.
So they discuss whether or not this is harmless fun or a big waste of money.
Bennie feels it is a form of entertainment while Peggy points out that people
who can't really afford to spend money on this type of entertainment are
deceiving themselves.
Well, today we've been looking at a heated argument over Testing Your Luck.
So Carolyn, what do you think?
Do you think lotteries are a good way to spend your money?
Not really.
If it's something that you do occasionally as a form of entertainment and you
don't actually expect to win anything, then I guess it's OK.
But it shouldn't be viewed as a way to get rich or solve financial problems.
And I agree with you there.
Now it's true, lots of people like to play the lottery or play the lotto; they
buy lottery tickets.
I have a friend who loves to get lottery tickets.
And he won a couple of times, and so it keeps him going back for more.
But of course most of the time, he loses.
Carolyn, do you know anybody who has won the lottery?
Actually, Gabe, there was a man in my hometown who won the lottery.
He won a huge jackpot of millions and millions of dollars.
Really!
But it actually caused a lot more problems than he thought.
Wait a minute. How could winning that much money cause a lot of problems?
Well, he was already fairly wealthy, so he didn't actually need the money.
But he had millions of dollars, so family members he hadn't talked to in years
would come to him and ask him for money.
Ask him to build them a house or buy them a car.
And he actually... he wanted to donate a lot of the money to a church.
And that sounds like a really great thing.
Yeah.
But most of the church members were divided on whether or not they should accept
gambling money.
Interesting. OK. So then what happened with the church?
Did they accept it or not?
Well, half of the congregation did, and they split from the church and built a
new one.
And it was a really terrible situation because they were such a good church
family before, and something like money split them in half.
That is really interesting story.
I would not have imagined that something like winning that much money would be
able to split or divide a group of people like that.
Well, that's all we have for today.
We, of course, will see you tomorrow to learn more about this lesson.
That's right.
So join us again for Testing Your Luck right here on Studio Classroom.
We'll see you then.