节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-11-11
难易度:High
关键字:annoyance, deprive, resentment, clause


























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Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
Today we are saying goodbye.
Well, no, not really.
We're saying hello to everybody, but our lesson is called Saying Goodbye.
Of course over the last couple of months, you've gotten to learn with Ben and
his Uncle Bob as we learned about Ben's business.
Of course over the months, he has hired people to come work for him.
In today's lesson we're going to learn about maybe one of his employees having
to say goodbye.
I don't know what's going to happen, but he has to say goodbye.
He might be leaving the company.
Well, what kind of job do you have?
Have you ever had to say goodbye to a company you were working for?
Carolyn?
Well, actually, I have, Gabe.
I've had several jobs in the past.
And when you have more than one job, that means that you had to say goodbye to
the previous one.
So before I came to Taiwan, I worked in a restaurant for a while because I was
in school.
And I had to say goodbye to my co-workers and that workplace.
Well, Carolyn, was it easy or difficult to say goodbye to your friends there?
Well, it was difficult to say goodbye to my friends, but I was very excited to
be coming to Taiwan.
Well, I'm happy you're here as well.
Friends, what about you?
Have you ever had to say goodbye or quit working somewhere?
Let's learn something new in our lesson today: Saying Goodbye.
(Music).
Saying Goodbye.
Losing employees can be tough.
Hey, Uncle Bob.
I'm glad to see you.
I'm glad to see you, too, Ben.
You look tired.
Are you sleeping OK?
No, I've been having a rough time lately.
What seems to be the problem?
I'm losing one of my best employees Terry.
It's not really a problem, I guess.
It's more of an annoyance.
But it's still keeping you up at night.
Right.
He's been with the company for less than six months, and by leaving, he's
depriving me of a great worker.
All right.
Well, let's go back to the beginning of our lesson here today.
We read something here:
Losing employees can be tough.
And Ben is going to be losing one of his best employees here as we find out in
the conversation.
Well, what is Ben's first line?
And Carolyn, would you like to be Ben today?
Oh, sure! I can be Ben today.
He seems like a very important character.
Of course.
Yes. He says: Hey, Uncle Bob.
I'm glad to see you.
I'm glad to see you, too, Ben.
You look tired.
Are you sleeping OK?
Now let me just interrupt myself and this conversation.
Are you tired? Or you look tired.
Are you sleeping OK?
Now Carolyn, do you like it when anybody says you look tired?
I do not really like it when people tell me that I look tired.
Because if I feel tired, I don't want to look tired.
Exactly. I feel the same way.
However, Ben and Uncle Bob have a very good relationship.
Of course, Uncle Bob is concerned about Ben.
So he says this: You look tired.
Are you sleeping OK?
Well, that shows how concerned he is for his nephew.
Now when Ben said his first line, he said, "Hey!" Hey.
Well, I think we should say hey to Steve and Ken in the Information Cloud.
Hey, friends. Good to see you again.
Welcome to the Info Cloud.
Steve, you just said, "Hey, friends." Don't you usually say, "Hi, friends" or
"Hello, friends"?
I do, Ken.
But today I felt like being more casual.
That's why I said hey instead of hi.
I know it's very common for young people to say hey to a friend rather than hi.
But if we're meeting someone for the first time, especially someone much older
than us, then we should probably not say hey.
You're right, Ken.
That would be impolite.
That would be considered impolite.
So in that situation, say hi or hello.
Now a related topic is how to greet someone when we're writing an email.
Traditionally, the word "dear" is used.
But nowadays it's very common to see people use hi, hello and even hey.
I know some people feel the word "dear" is old-fashioned and out-of-date.
But in your initial correspondence with someone you've never met, still a good
idea to use "dear".
After you've established a relationship with the person, you can then switch to
hi or hello.
Also, be sure to include the person's name along with your greeting.
Don't just write "Hi," but write "Hi, Ken," or even "Hi, Mr. Lee" if Ken hasn't
given you permission to use his first name.
But with friends, you may be as informal as you like.
When I email Ken, I usually write: Yo, man. What's up?
Hey, peace, bro.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, hey, let's continue with this conversation between Uncle Bob and Ben.
I believe it's Ben's line.
Yes, yes. So Uncle Bob had asked if I was sleeping OK.
No, I've been having a rough time lately.
Aw, that's too bad.
That's why he's not sleeping OK.
He's been having a rough time lately.
Let's take a look at that word: rough.
Now there's another word similar to it right next to our title.
The word: tough.
Losing employees can be tough.
Life is rough; life can sometimes be tough.
Sometimes these words can mean a similar thing.
That's right.
They have very similar meanings.
Both mean that something is difficult.
But usually if I hear the word "rough," I think that there are lots of problems
that keep coming up.
"Tough" just means that something is really hard.
But "rough" means that it's hard and there are lots of problems.
All right.
So is anything rough in your life?
Maybe you're having a tough time at work with some kind of situation.
All right.
So there are different ways and places in life that you can use these words.
Or maybe someone thinks that your job is actually kind of easy compared to
theirs.
They might say:
You think you have it rough?
Well, look at my job. I have it even more rough.
That's right.
Well, Uncle Bob, you have the next line.
All right.
What does he say?
Well, what seems to be the problem?
It's a good question to ask if you're concerned for someone.
What seems to be the problem?
Well, I'm losing one of my best employees Terry.
It's not really a problem, I guess.
Well, hang on a second there, Carolyn... uh, Ben.
Ben says that he is losing one of his best employees.
Uh, when I think of losing, I think of maybe playing a game and there's a winner
and there's a loser.
But is that what he means here?
No, no. That is not what he means.
He means that one of his employees is leaving.
He won't be working at the company anymore.
But he says, "It's not really a problem, I guess." Well, let's take a look at
that phrase "I guess" in the Grammar Gym.
Liz has something she wants to share about that.
How are you doing today, friends?
My name is Liz, and thanks for joining me here at the Grammar Gym.
We see this sentence in today's article:
It's not really a problem, I guess.
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
And today we're focusing on the phrase at the end of the sentence: I guess.
Normally when we "guess," we're not sure about something, like:
If you don't know the answer, you can just guess.
But in today's sentence, "I guess" has a different meaning.
The speaker starts out by saying "It's not really a problem," but then adds "I
guess" at the end of the sentence.
Here "I guess" means that the speaker is not really sure about what was just
said.
In other words, we can say:
I suppose it's not really a problem.
This use of "I guess" at the end of the sentence is usually in informal
conversations.
For example:
I'm not sure what the plan is for this evening, but we can go watch a movie, I
guess.
Or: It's strange how Karen just started crying; she must be upset about
something, I guess.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, then check out today's Grammar
Tip section for more examples.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Now Ben continues with his line.
It's not really a problem, I guess.
It's more of an annoyance.
An annoyance.
Let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank.
Well, if something is an annoyance, that means it kind of bothers you or it
annoys you in some way.
That's right.
So if you are studying, loud noises might be an annoyance.
They prevent you from doing your work.
OK. Well, what annoys you?
When do you feel annoyed about something?
There are different forms of this word annoyance.
Well, how does this continue?
Uncle Bob says:
But it's still keeping you up at night.
Let's take a look at that phrase: to keep you up at night.
Well, what keeps you up at night?
What does that mean, Carolyn?
Well, it means that something is bothering you.
You really can't stop thinking about it.
And maybe it's not really keeping you up at night, but it's on your mind and you
can't think about anything else.
That's right.
And of course, maybe it doesn't really keep you awake at night.
But in Ben's situation, actually he can't sleep because it is keeping him up at
night.
Well, what does Ben say to this?
He says:
Right. He's been with the company for less than six months.
And by leaving, he's depriving me of a great worker.
Well, he's being deprived of a great worker.
But we are going to learn something new right now from the word: deprive.
If you are deprived of something, that means you lost it.
It was taken away from you.
That's right.
So don't deprive your friends of your smile.
Yes.
Go join them, have fun together and smile.
And sometimes you might feel like you're deprived of important things like
sleep.
Sometimes people say they are sleep deprived.
Maybe Ben is sleep deprived as well.
He needs more sleep.
Right now we need to go and join Michelle in the Language Lab.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.