节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-02-13
难易度:Medium
关键字:sprint, gorgeous, muscular, mumble
Today's lesson is a love story filled with love-related idioms like his heart
skipped a beat and it was love at first sight.
So far we've met Luke, who was in a hurry to get to band practice, and Emma,
whose books were scattered when Luke bumped into her.
He didn't do it on purpose, and he actually took a moment to help Emma collect
her books.
Let's find out what happens after Emma walked off.
(Music).
A Love Story.
"Hey! What are you doing?" yelled Luke's classmate Andrew.
There was no love lost between them.
Andrew was tall and muscular, and he liked to bully Luke.
Andrew towered over Luke, saying, "Stay away from the new girl.
She'd never want a loser like you." Luke didn't want to start a fight, so he
mumbled something and rushed off to band practice.
Luke saw Emma several times over the next few weeks.
She was smart, friendly and had a heart of gold.
His admiration for her grew, and soon he was head over heels in love.
(Music).
(Chinese).
And let's go to our teachers.
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, I don't know about you, Carolyn, but I wasn't expecting Andrew to show up.
I wasn't, either.
I'm not a fan of bullies, but I guess most stories have a bad guy or two.
That's true. It helps to keep the story interesting.
And it is certainly clear that there is no love lost between Luke and Andrew.
Now that's an interesting idiom from our lesson, and I think it's a good one to
talk about.
Of course you can look at the list of idioms in your magazine to find the
meaning, but this idiom has an interesting history.
It does.
For a long time this idiom could actually be used to show that there was a large
amount of love or there was no love at all.
So it could mean opposite things.
That sounds very confusing.
If a husband and wife had an argument, and you said that there was no love lost,
how would you know if they loved each other greatly or never wanted to speak to
each other again?
A good question.
It could be very hard to tell without further details.
Fortunately, we no longer need to worry about double meanings.
The idiom now only means one thing that the two people do not like each other.
Right. So if you're reading older stories, there may be some confusion.
But in our story today, it is very clear - there is no love lost between Luke
and Andrew.
They don't like each other at all.
We also read that Andrew towered over Luke.
We also read that Andrew towered over Luke.
What does this phrase mean, Gabe?
Well, if you tower over someone, that means you are much taller than the other
person.
It also means that you look down on them, maybe in a threatening way.
Well, that doesn't seem very nice.
But so it's... it's kind of like a tower that was used to defend a city.
The tower was much taller than everything else so that people could look down
and prevent people on the ground from entering the city.
Right. So this is not a very friendly action.
But you could also just use this phrase to say that someone is much taller than
the other person.
So I could say that Gabe towers over me.
He is much taller than me.
But of course I'm not towering over you in a mean way, Carolyn.
Of course not. Well, at least I hope not.
Of course not.
Oh, good. Well.
Andrew, unfortunately, is mean and calls Luke a loser.
This is not a very nice thing to say.
No. It really isn't a very nice thing to say.
But Steve and Ken have more for us on that word in the Information Cloud.
Let's go there now.
Those are some nice guys.
In life, there are winners and losers.
We all want to win, but very few people can win all the time.
So, what happens when we lose?
How do we deal with the loss?
If you have a bad reaction to losing, you might be considered a sore loser.
And nobody likes a sore loser because a sore loser is immature.
He might make excuses for the defeat, blame or shout at the other competitors.
So instead of being sore losers, we should try to be good losers and learn to
accept defeat with a smile and congratulate the winning team.
Another term for a good loser is a good sport.
And that's just someone who has a good attitude whether or not they win.
So a loser is someone who doesn't win.
But when used informally, loser can also refer to someone who is not cool.
Often you'll hear young people use this term to tease someone who's unsuccessful
in life.
And in this usage, loser can refer to someone who doesn't have a friend or job,
hobbies, a boyfriend or girlfriend,
or maybe that the person calling someone a loser simply does not like that
person.
Right.
But remember, calling someone a loser is pretty harsh, and you'll likely offend
that person.
So think twice before you call someone a loser.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
You're right, it's not nice to call someone mean names.
So don't bully other people by calling them names.
Or even better - don't bully anyone at all.
Well, Luke doesn't call Andrew mean names.
He just rushes off to band practice.
Good. He must be really late by now.
I think you're probably right about that.
Now let's take a moment to look at that phrase: rush off.
What does it mean if someone rushes off?
Well, if you rush, that means you do something very quickly.
So if you rush off, that means that you have to leave very quickly.
I see. So if you are going to be late for a meeting, you might have to rush off.
Right. And Luke needed to rush off to band practice.
Yes, he did.
Luke was fortunate that he didn't get into a fight with Andrew.
You're right.
Andrew seems much bigger than him and much meaner.
But Luke was also very fortunate because that was not the last time he saw Emma.
Very true.
They don't seem to have any classes together, but he does see her every now and
then.
Oh. That phrase isn't in our lesson, but it's a great one to know: every now and
then.
This is just another way for you to say sometimes or not often.
Right.
So you could say: I go to the movies every now and then.
I don't go every week, but I do go occasionally, every now and then.
Great.
You could also say: I go on business trips every now and then.
I don't go very often, but I do go sometimes.
Good example.
So what things do you do every now and then?
Talk about it in English.
Well, Luke saw Emma every now and then, and pretty soon he was head over heels
for this girl.
All right. Well, right now I'm actually in a hurry.
I need to rush off somewhere, OK.
Gabe... don't rush off.
We should continue talking about that phrase: head over heels.
It sounds really strange.
You're right. It does sound kind of strange.
But this is a very popular idiom that people use when they talk about having
feelings for somebody.
You're head over heels.
Carolyn, what is that picture of, anyway?
Your heels are over your head and your head is...
Yeah. It... it sounds like you're kind of going around in circles.
You're head over heels.
You don't know where your head is, where your feet are.
You are just in love.
Exactly. So this means that you're crazy about someone or you really, really,
really like someone.
As Carolyn said, you are in love.
We can also say: I'm head over heels in love with somebody.
That's right.
So, are you head over heels for anyone?
Well, if you have missed any of our lesson today, don't worry.
We get to enjoy a wonderful summary with our editor Linda.
Let's join her now.
Today Luke bumps into Emma at school - really bumps into her - and scatters her
books everywhere.
As he is picking them up, he realizes that he has never met this gorgeous girl
before.
And then along comes Andrew, who is always giving Luke a hard time.
And he tells Luke that Emma would never like a loser like him.
Over the next few weeks, Luke saw Emma a few times and came to admire her a
great deal because she was friendly and she had a heart of gold.
Thank you, Linda.
Well, today's love story has been quite exciting with new love, bullies and of
course lots and lots of idioms.
You're right about that.
And poor Luke is facing a lot right now with band practices, bullies and being
head over heels in love with a girl he barely talks to.
Not an easy position to be in for sure, but of course, we have learned a lot
from the beginning of this story.
Now there are some important lessons we can take from this story.
Of course nobody likes bullies, and there are many different kinds of bullies,
right?
Traditionally, I guess a bully would be someone who picks on somebody at school.
But Carolyn, it seems like today there are different ways to bully people,
right?
I mean, not just in school, maybe even online.
There are.
Now there is something called cyber bullying, which means that people are
bullied online or on the computer over the Internet.
And this has become something that is a very serious issue because it really
hurts students' self-esteem,
and maybe they don't even know who is saying such mean things about them.
And so it becomes a very difficult problem to address when you don't know who
the bully is.
That's right.
So I think it's important if you do see this problem, if there is a problem of
bullying at your school or even online to mention it to somebody.
I think something we mentioned earlier this year was that you can tell people
that someone is bullying you.
There are ways to do that without sounding like you're trying just to get
someone in trouble.
That's right.
It is important to seek help if you are in trouble.
So keep that in mind, and be sure to join us tomorrow to find out what happens
in the next part of our story.
All right. We'll see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.