节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-10-22
难易度:Medium
关键字:urgent, attendance, emotional, awhile, mental health day, pop quiz,
uncomfortable
In today's lesson we're continuing this conversation between Violet and Miranda.
And of course, Violet doesn't think it's a good idea to skip morning classes to
study for a test.
But Miranda thinks, well, maybe there are some good reasons.
Maybe something urgent will come up.
And maybe they need to skip class for some reason.
There are some good reasons to skip classes.
But Violet doesn't think that they have any good reasons to skip.
Well, let's continue to see how this conversation plays out.
Skipping School.
Maybe for some people those are good reasons, but I think it's good to be in
class as much as possible.
Besides, what if we have a pop quiz in one of the classes we skip?
That wouldn't be good.
Well, that's true.
OK, if you really feel uncomfortable missing school, I guess I can stay awhile
longer before going home.
Thanks!
We might not agree on whether or not to skip school, but we can always agree to
help each other.
(Music).
Well, that is a pretty friendly conclusion to this argument, but we still have
some great points that these girls make with each other, so.
Let's see, uh, Violet, you begin this part of the conversation.
Ah, yes. OK.
So Miranda was just sharing with Violet some reasons why people might need to
skip class or miss school.
You might need to have a mental health day or take off for some emotional
reasons.
Violet says:
Maybe for some people those are good reasons, but I think it's good to be in
class as much as possible.
Now there's a phrase there: as much as possible.
Of course, Carolyn, you know the phrase "as soon as possible," right?
What can you shorten that to?
Well, if you have as soon as possible, that means that you want to do something
right away.
You don't want to wait.
That's right.
And you could say... or you could shorten it to ASAP.
Here we read "... as much as possible." But you can't shorten that to AMAP.
That's not a saying.
We say ASAP if you want to do something as soon as possible.
Now Violet continues here.
Besides, what if we have a pop quiz in one of the classes we skip?
Well, what's a pop quiz, Carolyn?
Well, that is a great question.
A pop quiz is a quiz that you did not know you were going to have.
You arrive in class, and your teacher says:
Today we are going to have a pop quiz.
Put away your books and take out your pencils.
It means that you didn't have extra time to study.
This was not a planned test.
And pop quizzes are usually very short and not too difficult.
It's just to see how well you remember the information that you've been studying
without the extra preparation time of preparing for an exam.
And I didn't like pop quizzes too much.
Well, Violet continues here.
She says that wouldn't be good.
It wouldn't be good to miss a pop quiz.
"Well, that's true," says Miranda.
And it is true.
You don't want to miss a pop quiz because you can't make that up later.
OK, if you really feel uncomfortable missing school, I guess I can stay awhile
longer before going home.
Wait a minute! Hold on a second.
Let's take a look at that word "awhile." If you're staying awhile longer, that
means you're going to stay for some time longer.
Well, how could you use that word "awhile"?
You might say I need to sleep awhile before dinner because I'm a little bit
tired.
Yes. So awhile, as one word, means just for a short time.
But if you separate that into two words - a (space) W-H-I-L-E, and make it two
words, a while - that means for a longer period of time.
It took me a while to get to work today because there was so much traffic.
That means it took a very long time.
So it's important to look and see if it's one word or two.
That's right.
I can stay for a while (That's two words).
Or I can stay awhile (That's one word).
Awhile simply means for a while.
OK, let's continue.
What does Violet say next?
Well, thanks.
We might not agree on whether or not to skip school, but we can always agree to
help each other.
Well, that's good.
They're study partners.
It's good to help each other, right?
That is very true.
It is good for them to be helping each other.
And Miranda seems to decide that even though she thinks it would be OK for them
to skip classes in the morning to study then and get some extra sleep tonight,
she is willing to stay and help her friend Violet study for this test.
And actually I like her reasoning here as well because she knows it makes her
friend uncomfortable.
If you're a good friend to somebody, then you notice what makes them
uncomfortable, what makes them feel not so good about making a decision.
They might feel uncomfortable.
You could say: You know, this idea just makes me feel uncomfortable.
Oh. Well, then let's do something else, Gabe.
I really don't want to make you feel uncomfortable.
And since we've finished this conversation, we can spend some time with Michelle
in the Language Lab.
Are you comfortable with that?
Yeah, I'm very comfortable with that.
Let... let's go enjoy some time with Michelle.
(Chinese).
Don't go away yet.
Keep watching as our lesson continues.
In our two-day article on Skipping School, we listen to a conversation about two
girls debating whether or not it was OK to skip school.
Now they were giving reasons why it might be OK to miss class.
But is there a difference between missing a class and skipping a class?
Gabe, what do you think?
Actually, I think there is a slight difference between these two words.
If you tell your friends, "I'm going to skip class," usually you don't have a
really good reason for skipping class or for missing that class.
If you tell your friends, "I need to miss class," or if you tell your teacher,
"I need to miss class," usually there's a good reason that you have for missing
class.
That's right.
So if you skip class, that's because you don't want to go - want!
If you miss class, then you can't go.
You need to do something else.
Maybe you are sick and you need to sleep.
But if you just want to sleep, that would be skipping.
All right.
Thanks for joining us today.
We'll see you next time right here at Studio Classroom.
See you.