节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-11-16
难易度:Medium
关键字:follow in someone's footsteps, substantial, invest, communication, vocal
So far today we're learning about how Mae Whitman, the famous actress, was
following in her mother's footsteps.
She was following in her mother's footsteps by becoming a voice actor.
And of course, she voiced the character Katara in Avatar: The Last Airbender.
And also, she voiced the classic character Tinker Bell from Peter Pan.
Well, she also did more.
She was in some movies as well, but she was more established in TV.
And even today she is more established in TV shows.
Let's continue learning about Mae Whitman.
(Music).
Mae Whitman.
She has a substantial part in Parenthood, now in its fifth season, and is
featured in the returning series Arrested Development.
Her voice is also being used in a new TV version of Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles.
Making good on her parents' advice, she's invested in every role, whether
live-action or cartoon, with love and hope.
"Hopefully that communication has maybe made some people feel less alone," she
says of her roles.
Someone's grown up since waiting for Mom.
Well, her career is moving right along.
She's gone through a lot of changes.
And right now we're learning all about her career as a TV actor.
We read:
She has a substantial part in Parenthood, now in its fifth season, and is
featured in the returning series Arrested Development.
So she's very popular in these TV shows.
That's right.
Parenthood and Arrested Development.
Well, let's take a look at a word from our Word Bank here:
substantial.
If you have a substantial part in a show, that means it's not a small part;
actually, it makes quite a big difference.
That's right.
So she has a very important role in this show - Parenthood.
You could also say that other things are substantial as well.
You might say studying for the test made a substantial difference in my score.
I didn't study before and I got a very bad score.
But this time I studied and it was much better.
It made a substantial difference.
Yes, it is important to study.
Or you could talk about a substantial paycheck.
You don't want to make just a little bit of money.
You want to have a substantial paycheck; make a substantial amount of money.
Well, here we're talking about acting.
And maybe if you're acting, you want to have a substantial role.
You don't just want to be an extra with a few lines.
You want to have a substantial role that makes a difference.
And Mae has a substantial role in Parenthood.
And she said... It says she is featured in the returning series Arrested
Development.
If she's just featured, that means the role is not as big.
That's right.
So she doesn't have a substantial role in the other show.
Just one.
Continuing:
Her voice is also being used in a new TV version of Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles.
Now that was a very popular series when I was growing up, and I think even
before then.
They have movies and cartoons and video games about Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles.
And it sounds like they are making a new TV series featuring Mae Whitman's
voice.
Well, I think this should be quite interesting and fun to watch and listen to,
of course.
Well, we continue here.
Making good on her parents' advice, she's invested in every role, whether
live-action or cartoon, with love and hope.
All right. There's a lot to look at there in that sentence.
First, we want to talk about the phrase: to make good on something.
Usually this means you made a promise and you followed through with your
promise.
Or you owed someone money and you paid them back.
Here it means that she followed her parents' advice.
That's right.
So there are lots of ways that you can use this phrase.
You might say he made good on his promise that he would help me move all of my
furniture.
It was very heavy and I needed some help.
He said he would do it and he made good on it.
Or my dad made good on his promise that he would come to my baseball game.
He said he was going to be there and he showed up.
So he made good on that promise.
So we see here that Mae has also made good on following her parents' advice that
she's invested in every role with love and hope.
Let's take a look at our Word Bank word: invest.
What does that mean?
How can you use it?
Well, if you invest in something, that means you put a lot of work into it or a
lot of money or time into it.
So it's not something that is worthless to you.
It's something very important and you work hard to make it do its very best.
And if you are an actor or actress, you want to pursue this kind of career.
It's important to invest into every role.
Don't just go in with 50 percent of your energy and heart.
You want to invest fully; be fully committed.
OK. It's very important.
Whatever you do, be fully invested into it.
Well, here we're talking about being invested in every role, whether live-action
or cartoon, with love and hope.
So she's investing all of these roles... into all of these roles with love and
hope.
That's right. She is.
And she did good with following her parents' advice.
And we want to learn more about advice with Steve and Ken in the Information
Cloud.
In our lesson today, we see that Mae Whitman is making good on her parents'
advice.
Why don't we take a look at this word: advice?
It is uncountable.
So even if Mae's parents had given her several suggestions, we would not say
advices.
No, we wouldn't.
We should never add an S at the end of advice.
However, the word "suggestion" is countable.
So we could say Mae's parents have given her lots of helpful suggestions -
plural.
OK. So how do we count something that's uncountable?
Well, we know we cannot say one advice, but we can say a piece of advice or a
word of advice.
Also, be aware of the pronunciation.
We need to remember that advice, A-D-V-I-C-E, is a noun.
Advice.
But the verb A-D-V-I-S-E is pronounced advise.
The end of the word has a "z," Z sound.
OK. Thanks for advising our students, Ken.
Good advice.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, let's continue with something that Mae said.
She says, "Hopefully that communication has maybe made some people feel less
alone." She says of her roles.
All right.
So, of course she has a plan.
She's not just acting with half of her heart.
She's invested and she wants her roles to make a difference in people's lives.
That's right.
And she uses that word "communication," a word from our Word Bank.
Now communication is the way you communicate with someone.
So communication could be through words, actions...
Maybe you write a letter or an e-mail or even a text message.
Those are all forms of communication.
That's right, forms of communication.
People communicate in so many different ways.
And animals communicate with each other.
We can communicate in so many different ways.
Now it's good to have good communication skills.
That's something that your employer might look at if you're applying for a new
job.
You need to have good communication skills.
OK. Right now it's time for us to...
Well, actually, there's one more line here.
I like this line a lot.
Someone's grown up since waiting for Mom.
Now who is that someone?
Well, that his Mae Whitman.
Remember? We started with a quote, and now we have ended with a quote.
And there is a big difference between the two.
Mmhm.
She has certainly grown up.
Well, right now it is time for us to enjoy a review skit.
And then we'll learn something with Michelle in the Language Lab.
What are you, some kind of knucklehead?
Excuse me?
I said, "What are you, some kind of knucklehead?".
No. And don't call me that again.
I'm not calling you a knucklehead.
I'm practicing, uh, to become a voice artist.
That's a strange line to practice.
Well, not really.
With those words, Mae Whitman's impressive career was born and defined.
Mae Whitman?
Yes. She is the daughter of Meg Ryan in When a Man Loves a Woman.
Mae Whitman?
George Clooney is her father in One Fine Day.
Mae Whitman?
Sandra Bullock is her mother in Hope Floats.
Mae Whitman?
Daughter of the president in Independence Day!
Mae Whitman! Oh, she's a good screen actor.
Yeah. And she is following in her mother's footsteps as a voice actor.
Her real mother.
Yes.
Mae provided the voice for Katara in Avatar, oh, and Disney's Tinker Bell.
Oh, that's impressive.
She does film and TV, too.
She's invested in every role.
That's very impressive.
And it all started with "What are you, some kind of knucklehead?".
What are you, some kind of knucklehead?
Yes.
I... I mean no.
I mean maybe.
OK. (Chinese).
And now let's continue our lesson.
The past two days we've been enjoying learning about Mae Whitman and her career
as a young actor.
Well, have you seen her in any of these movies or TV shows or heard her voice
and anything?
I've seen Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Perks of Being a Wallflower and
Independence Day.
Gabe, have you seen anything that she's been in?
Well, Carolyn, I really did enjoy Independence Day.
It was one of the first movies I saw in the theater when I was twelve years old.
And she did a great job.
Of course, she's always doing a great job.
Thank you, friends, for joining us today, learning all about Mae Whitman.
And of course, we hope to see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.
See you.