节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-10-28
难易度:Medium
关键字:overhear, establish, be composed of something, circumstance, pierce
(Music).
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And your English will improve today.
We're going to be talking about something I think is very unique - The Whistlers
of Mexico.
We're going to find out, in our lesson today, about this language that is
composed of whistles.
People whistle, and that is their language.
That's how they communicate with each other.
Well, I wonder what kind of languages you have heard or maybe heard about that
you find very interesting or unique.
Carolyn?
Well, there are many, many languages in the world, but really, I think Taiwanese
is a very interesting language.
I hear it a lot here in Taipei, but I don't really know that much about it.
I know it has a lot more tones than Chinese, which is what I've been studying.
And it just... it's very nasally and tonal and very unique.
That's right. And there are a lot of idioms in Taiwanese that you need to
understand in order to really get ahold of the language.
Another language I think is interesting is some of the South African languages
that actually have kind of a click sound that you really have to get used to
using.
Well, we're going to be learning about another language here in The Whistlers of
Mexico.
Let's get started.
The Whistlers of Mexico.
For the Chinantec people, whistling is a language.
If you find yourself in Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sul mountains, listen for a
whistle floating across the rugged peaks.
Then listen for an answer - you may overhear a conversation in a rare and
unusual language.
For centuries, the Chinantec people have lived in the mountains of Oaxaca,
Mexico.
They established villages and planted crops on the steep slopes.
But the rough landscape made travel - and communication - difficult.
Well, let's get right into our article here on The Whistlers of Mexico.
For the Chinantec people, whistling is a language.
Did you know that whistling could be a language, Gabe?
Did I know that?
No, I didn't - not before reading this article.
But it is for the Chinantec people.
And we're going to find that actually they can whistle almost anything in this
whistled language.
Let's get started here.
If you find yourself in Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sul mountains, listen for a
whistle floating across the rugged peaks.
Oh, that is such a beautiful sentence, Gabe.
It is very eloquent.
It just... it flows.
You can hear... listen for a whistle floating across the rugged peaks.
You can imagine that you're there.
That's right.
Now usually when I see this word "floating," I think of something um... like on
the water, like a boat that floats on the water.
Or maybe a feather floating in the wind.
But here we're talking about a sound, a sound that floats over the mountains.
Mmhm. That is right.
And you know, there is a nice little phrase at the beginning of this sentence:
if you find yourself in a place.
And right now we are about to find ourselves in the Grammar Gym with Liz.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym, friends.
My name is Liz.
In our article today we read this statement:
If you find yourself in Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sol mountains...
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Notice the phrase "find yourself." It doesn't mean you got lost and then you're
found, no.
Instead, "to find yourself" just means you are.
So in today's sentence, the writer is just commenting: If you're ever in
Mexico's Sierra Madre del Sul mountains...
Usually we use this phrase "finding oneself" or "to find oneself" when we're
commenting on how someone is in a particular situation.
For example: If you find yourself wondering what the tour guide is saying,
please don't hesitate to ask for clarification.
Or: After studying chemistry for two years, Dennis found himself feeling bored
in his classes.
If you have a copy of this month's magazine with you, be sure to check out
today's Grammar Tip section for more example sentences.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, just before the Grammar Gym, we were talking about this sound floating
through the mountains and over the peaks.
OK, we read here:
Then listen for an answer - you may overhear a conversation in a rare and
unusual language.
All right.
Let's take a look at a word here from our Word Bank: to overhear something. What
does that mean?
Well, if you overhear something, that means that you are listening to something
that's being said, probably a conversation, but you are not part of the
conversation.
You're listening to other people talking about something.
And actually, my desk here at Studio Classroom is really close to my boss's
office.
Sometimes I overhear conversations.
I don't mean to, but sometimes I hear something that, well, I think is kind of
interesting.
So do you ever overhear conversations?
You could say: I overheard an interesting conversation yesterday.
That's right.
So you are not part of it, but you can still hear what is being said.
Now continuing on.
For centuries, the Chinantec people have lived in the mountains of Oaxaca,
Mexico.
So there's a very interesting pronunciation of this word.
You see it's spelled O-A-X-A-C-A, but it's pronounced wa-ha-ka.
That's right.
Oaxaca. Say that.
Oaxaca. Nice.
But then the next word, Mexico, it also has an X.
Carolyn, why is that pronounced [mek-si-ko], but then the city, or the place is
called wa-ha-ka?
Well, actually in Spanish, Mexico is not pronounced with the hard X sound.
It's me-hi-ko, with a more of an H sound, so.
The country here, we say Mexico in English, but we still use the Spanish word
for the city.
That's right.
Well, actually it's more proper to say me-hi-ko.
All right.
So that is better - Oaxaca, Mexico.
And we're talking about this place.
The Chinantec people live there.
They established villages and planted crops on the steep slopes.
Let's talk about that word: to establish something.
If you establish something, that means you put it there, you make it secure.
You establish it.
That's right.
And it means that you are starting it.
There wasn't something there before.
So many times we think of establishing a company.
But here we are talking about establishing a place to live.
That's right.
Actually, I like that you said we establish a company sometimes.
Maybe you've seen shirts about a company, and it'll say EST, period, and then
since a year - established since 1999.
"EST." is short for established.
OK. So you can establish a company.
You can establish your reputation for people.
You can establish a relationship of some kind.
That's right.
So they established the villages in this mountainous area.
But the rough landscape made travel - and communication - difficult.
They had to find a solution for it.
But before we learn what that solution is, we need to visit Michelle in the
Language Lab.