节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-02-11
难易度:High
关键字:adage, investor, pledge, incentive, philanthropy
(Music).
Hello, everyone.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
Welcome to Studio Classroom.
And today our lesson is called Giving Until it Hurts.
We'll be learning about some very rich people and what they are doing with their
money.
Well, what are rich people doing with their money?
Spending it? Saving it? Using it to buy property all over the world?
Taking expensive vacations every day of the year?
Gabe... did you read the title?
Giving! We will learn about how they are giving until it hurts.
Hmm... really!
If they are giving until it hurts, they must be giving a lot of their money.
I'm curious about this.
Open up your magazine and let's get started.
(Music).
Giving Until it Hurts.
A short look at why people donate money.
You've probably heard the old saying about family wealth only lasting three
generations.
According to the adage, the first generation makes the family fortune through
hard work.
The second generation manages that family wealth, and the third generation
spends it.
But not all wealthy families share this fate.
In fact, a growing number of very wealthy people are choosing to give their
money to charity rather than to their children.
The most famous examples are probably Bill and Melinda Gates of Microsoft fame
and the hugely successful investor Warren Buffett.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, let's take another look at our title today - Giving Until it Hurts.
Sometimes we use this phrase, to do something until it hurts, to say that we do
something a lot.
That's right.
If it hurts, that means it's a real sacrifice.
It may be uncomfortable to give that much.
It may make you feel like you are losing something valuable, but it's good to
give until it hurts because it's good to be generous.
And we usually use this phrase with the idea of giving.
Of course, you could use other words that might not be a good thing.
For example, you could eat until it hurts, but that's probably not healthy for
you.
But what's another good thing you can do until it hurts?
Uh, maybe laugh.
Laugh until it hurts.
Sometimes you laugh so hard at something you actually start to hurt.
It feels good to laugh until it hurts.
That's good for you.
And you know what else?
It's good to love until it hurts.
When you really love someone, it might cost you something, it might hurt
sometimes.
So today we're learning about rich people who are choosing to give lots of money
away.
We read here:
This is a short look at why people donate money.
Donate is another word for give, especially giving to certain organizations.
And today we're taking a short look at something.
We could also say it's a brief look at something or a quick look.
Let's take a quick look at why people donate money.
Let's take some time to examine this idea.
And we read on here:
You've probably heard the old saying about family wealth only lasting three
generations.
Have you heard that saying?
Some people say wealth doesn't last three generations or wealth doesn't pass
three generations.
You might know this phrase in your language.
It's from the Chinese saying, (Chinese).
Well, let's take a look at the word generation.
That can mean different things.
But here it means family generations.
For example, my grandfather, my dad and me and my siblings represent three
generations of my family.
Or sometimes we talk about how long a family has been in a country.
For example, you could say:
My family has been in this country for seven generations.
Many families in America came from other countries in the past.
Maybe an Italian family has been living in New York for nine generations.
How many generations has your family been in a place?
Well, we're talking about how many people think wealth only lasts three
generations.
Of course lots of people feel this way.
And we see a word here: adage.
An adage is a saying that expresses a general truth or a fact that many people
believe.
Some proverbs are adages.
Hey, we learned about some adages last year, right, Carolyn?
Right.
Maybe you remember learning the adage "Don't judge a book by its cover," which
means don't judge someone or something just because of how they appear on the
outside.
Get to know them.
And one of my favorites is the grass is always greener on the other side,
which means no matter where you are, you feel like the situation somewhere else
is better.
If you're not a content person, you may feel this way.
But it's much better to be content with what you have.
I agree.
Well, the adage we are talking about today is that wealth doesn't last three
generations.
People think that the first generation makes the family fortune.
The second generation manages the wealth, and the third generation spends it.
I guess that has happened enough in history to be true in many cases.
Yes. Now let's take a look at the words fortune and wealth.
Here we read about family fortune and family wealth.
And here these words basically mean the same thing, and that is a lot of money
or material possessions.
Well, what do you think, Carolyn?
Does wealth always stop with the third generation?
Hmm. Actually, no, Gabe.
I can think of some cases where the third and fourth generations still manage
the family wealth well.
And as we read on in our lesson, not all wealthy families share this fate.
Now let's look at that word "fate" for a moment.
Sometimes we don't know why certain things happen in life, and some people call
it fate.
Right. And that could be good or bad.
But sometimes fate can just be negative.
And I think that's how our author uses the word today because it's a negative
thought that the third generation just spends the family fortune.
There has to be a better way to use your wealth.
Now there's another word in this sentence, the word share.
Carolyn, what does it mean here?
Good question.
Here it means to have something in common with something else.
If someone shares a fate with someone else, that means they experience the same
fate.
You could use the word "share" in other ways, too.
For example, my belief in God is shared by many people.
Well, I share your beliefs, Carolyn.
Or you can use the word "share" to express that you are interested in the same
thing as your friend.
That's right. You could say that you share the same interests as your friend.
Well, there are many things that we share.
And right now it's time for us to share our time with Steve and Ken in the
Information Cloud.
Some people in this world are rich.
There are others like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett who are rich-rich.
When people use a word twice, back to back as Steve just did, we call it
reduplication.
And as you would expect, when a word is repeated, it changes meaning.
Rich, of course, describes a person with a lot of money.
Rich-rich, in contrast, describes a person who has the ability to give everyone
on Earth a hongbao with $10 in it and still have billions left over.
So as we can see, a reduplication is stronger, more real and more intense in
meaning than just the single word by itself.
That's right.
Another example is up and up-up.
Let's say someone calls you on the phone at six o'clock in the morning and asks
if you're sleeping.
You say: I'm up but I'm not up-up.
Up means awake.
Up-up, in contrast, means you're out of bed and ready to face a new day.
Some people say reduplications are a no-no and immature and lazy way of
expressing oneself.
Granted, reduplication is not formal, but it is fun and it does a great job of
creating contrast.