节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2014-02-24
难易度:Low
关键字:possession, entertain, impressive, commercial, commercial, Super Bowl,
touchdown
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
Our lesson is Super Sports, Super Fan!
We will be learning about some of the most popular sports in America.
Yes. We will be learning about table tennis, sumo wrestling and mosquito
swatting - sports that everyone loves.
Uh, no, Gabe. Those are not America's most popular sports.
Mosquito swatting isn't even a sport.
We will be starting our lesson today learning about American football.
Oh, right.
Well, I've got a lot to learn.
Friends, open up your magazines and let's get started.
(Music).
Super Sports, Super Fan!
So many sports to choose from.
On "Super Bowl Sunday," millions of Americans are glued to their TVs.
They are eating pizza, chicken wings and chips and cheering every move.
They're watching the Super Bowl, the most popular American football game of the
year.
Why are Americans so crazy about American football?
Well, it is more exciting than other sports.
One team can lose possession of the ball in a minute, which may allow their
opponents to make a touchdown.
Then that team may win the game unexpectedly!
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.
(Chinese).
Thank you, Michelle.
Well, let's get right into it.
Perhaps the most popular sport in America is American football.
People start playing football at very young ages.
Most high schools have football teams and football practices for football season
begins in the heat of the summer.
And the season lasts for a long time.
The NFL, or National Football League, usually begins early September and ends
early February.
This year's Super Bowl was on February 2, so just a few weeks ago.
But if you do want to see some American football games, stay tuned for the 2014
NFL season,
which will start September 4 and end next February 1 with the Super Bowl.
Now you've heard us use that term "Super Bowl" a few times.
What is the Super Bowl?
Well, this is the final game of the NFL season, the game that determines the
winner of that year's football season.
And football games like the Super Bowl are held in huge places called stadiums.
The largest football stadium in the U.S. is Michigan Stadium, which can fit
107,000 fans.
Now that's a lot of football fans.
Why is called Super Bowl Sunday?
Well, because the Super Bowl is always on a Sunday.
And if you ever want to go to an American church on a day when it's not too
crowded, you could go on Super Bowl Sunday.
Unless it's my church, and then we do soup with S-O-U-P, Super Bowl Sunday.
That's pretty clever.
Well, many people do skip church to watch the Super Bowl.
And as we read in our lesson, millions of Americans are glued to their TVs.
You see that word "million," million with an S.
That means more than just one million people watch the Super Bowl on their TV.
Millions do.
And you can replace million with other large numbers.
Right, like thousand.
That zoo has thousands of animals.
Or hundred; hundreds of people came out to watch the show.
But it's not just hundreds or thousands of people watching the Super Bowl, it's
millions.
In fact, in 2011, 111 million people watched the Super Bowl.
They really were, as our lesson says, glued to their TVs.
Well, let's learn what this means with Liz in the Grammar Gym.
Hello, friends. I hope you're all doing well today.
Thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
In today's article, the writer begins with this sentence:
On "Super Bowl Sunday," millions of Americans are glued to their TVs.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus is on the word: glued.
We know what glue is.
It's that thing we use to make things stick together.
And when we use such a thing to stick things together, we use "glue" as a verb,
as in:
We glue the pieces of paper together.
But in today's article, the writer is not talking about sticking people to their
TVs with glue.
Instead, "glued" here is a cute way of meaning not willing to be apart from.
In other words, millions of Americans don't want to leave their TVs.
It's like they're glued to their TVs.
When you want to describe how someone does not want to be a part from something,
you can use "glue," like:
Betty is glued to her phone: She is always chatting with their friends.
You can also use "glued" to describe how someone or something is always together
with someone or something else.
For example, my dog is glued to its new toy.
He is always carrying it around.
If you want to see more example sentences, you can find them in today's Grammar
Tip section in your Studio Classroom magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, friends, we certainly appreciate when you are glued to your TVs during our
English lesson every day.
And we don't mind if you feel like eating pizza, chicken wings and chips while
you watch.
You can even cheer our every move.
This is what sports fans are doing as they watch the Super Bowl.
Yes. Many people have Super Bowl parties, where they invite many people over to
their homes just to eat and enjoy watching the game.
And the things mentioned here are popular things to eat at American parties.
Pizza is, of course, an all-time favorite not just in America.
Chicken wings, too!
They are delicious.
But there's actually another name for chicken wings that you might hear if you
visit America.
That's right - buffalo wings.
Now you may think that sounds strange, it sounds like buffalos have wings.
Well, they don't.
The reason chicken wings are called buffalo wings is because they were created
in the city of Buffalo, New York.
At least the popular way of cooking them was developed in Buffalo.
Whoo, and they're so good.
Anyway, if you do happen to visit the United States, don't be confused when you
see a menu item called buffalo wings.
Now you know that's another name for chicken wings.
And football fans eat chicken wings and chips.
And our author says they are cheering every move.
What does that mean?
Well, she means every move of the football players playing in the Super Bowl.
Now we don't have time to explain all the moves or rules of football here.
If you're curious, check them out online.
But in football, a move could be a throw, a catch, running with the ball a
certain distance or a tackle.
All right. And that's a word that's not in your magazine.
But it's very important in the game of football as you can see.
It's a move in which one or more people from one team stop the player from
another team who has the ball.
Tackles are part of what makes football fun to watch.
I think so, too.
Of course football players have to be careful.
There are many football injuries every year.
This is one reason why they wear so much padding.
Well, we see a question here.
Why are Americans so crazy about American football?
And that's a fun phrase: to be crazy about something.
What does that mean?
Well, that means you are a huge fan of something or you love it a lot.
You can use this phrase to talk about anything you love.
I'm crazy about (Chinese).
I'm crazy about jazz music.
I'm crazy about playing drums.
What's something that you're crazy about, Carolyn?
It could be a movie or food or anything.
Hmm, I would say that I'm crazy about Chinese culture.
I love learning more about Chinese culture.
All right. And I often describe people who are so in love like this:
He's crazy about his girlfriend; or she's crazy about her boyfriend.
Well, if someone is crazy about football, chances are they might be ignoring
other important things in their lives around the time of the Super Bowl.
Let's join Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud to learn more about this.
American football is, without a doubt, the most popular sport in the U.S.
People are fanatical about following their teams, the draft picks, who's hurt
and who will make the playoffs.
With preseason games beginning in August and the Super Bowl in early February,
football fans have a full six months to enjoy their favorite sport.
Now in that half year, something sad happens.
Thousands and thousands of women face the temporary death of their relationship
with their husbands.
They're called football widows.
Now normally, weekends are a time when women feel they can really connect with
their men.
But during the half-year-long football season, when some husbands watch games on
TV pretty much all weekend, wives feel left out, rejected and angry.
Right. It's a really big problem.
One football widow writes on her blog: A very big part of her husband dies
during the football season, only to be reborn in the spring.
And she hates what football does to her relationship with her husband.
Very sad.
But the good news is there are now lots of good resources to help couples get
through the football season without feeling like anyone has died.
(Chinese).
Thanks, guys.
Well, we have a lot more to learn about American football right after this.