节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-01
难易度:Low
关键字:participate, breathe, gradually, proceed, burner
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you are joining us for a lesson about Hualien From a Hot Air Balloon.
We're going to be joining our friend Nathanael as he shares his experiences in
Hualien.
Now Hualien is known for many things.
It's a city on the east coast of Taiwan.
Carolyn, what's something that Hualien is known for?
Well, as soon as I think of Hualien, I think of Taroko Gorge, which is a
beautiful marble gorge with rivers running through it and beautiful trees and
cliffs and great hiking trails.
And it's just a really wonderful place to go.
I think so, too.
Have you been hiking through the gorge before?
I have been there many, many times.
And I try to explore new trails when I go.
That's a great idea.
The gorge is very famous.
Of course, Hualien is known for some other things as well.
There's an aboriginal tribe there, the Taroko tribe, right near the Taroko
Gorge.
And of course many delicious foods come from Hualien, like (Chinese) and many
different kinds of seafood.
But is Hualien known for their hot air balloons?
Not really.
Let's get started in our lesson for today - Hualien From a Hot Air Balloon.
Hualien From a Hot Air Balloon.
You've never seen Hualien this way before!
I'd always wanted to visit Hualien.
The city is one of Taiwan's most pleasant, known for spectacular Taroko Gorge.
But on this trip, my friends and I had another mission.
We traveled there to participate in the county's first hot air balloon event.
In a flat, open field, two colorful balloons lay in a bundle under white cloth.
All visitors watched a platform where a red flag was standing.
A barrier between us and the sky, red meant the weather would not allow flight.
Well, we're going to continue learning about Nathanael's experiences.
But let's go back to the beginning of our lesson.
Nathanael wrote:
You've never seen Hualien this way before.
Maybe you've visited Hualien before, and you've experienced different things
there.
But you've never seen it from a hot air balloon.
Right, Carolyn?
That's right.
This is something that is very special.
And we will be learning more about that experience in our article.
Now Nathanael writes:
I'd always wanted to visit Hualien.
And he'd always wanted to do something.
So let's look at this phase: to always want to do something.
It means that for a very long time, you've thought about doing something.
It's something that you really want to do, but you just haven't had time or made
plans to do it.
That's true.
I've wanted to visit many countries in my life.
I've always wanted to visit Bali, Indonesia.
Carolyn, have you been to Bali before?
Actually I have, Gabe.
I have been to Bali, Indonesia.
I went there a couple of years ago.
And it was a really wonderful experience getting to sit out on the beach and
just enjoy the sunset.
I love hearing people's stories about Bali.
I've always wanted to go there.
What have you always wanted to do?
Carolyn?
Well, I've always wanted to go scuba diving.
I know it takes a lot of work and training and preparation, but it's something
that I think would be a lot of fun.
And I've always wanted to try.
All right.
Well, what have you always wanted to do?
Talk about that today.
Nathanael says he'd always wanted to visit Hualien.
The city is one of Taiwan's most pleasant, known for spectacular Taroko Gorge.
Of course we were sharing about Taroko Gorge earlier.
It's one of the first things that comes to people's mind when they think about
Hualien.
It is spectacular or an amazing sight.
It certainly is.
And I do enjoy going there.
But on this trip, my friends and I had another mission.
So our writer Nathanael was not going to Hualien to visit Taroko Gorge.
He and his friends had another mission.
A mission, Gabe?
That's right.
Well, they had another purpose.
They had something else they needed to do, that they wanted to get done.
So they were not going to visit Taroko Gorge.
Maybe Nathanael will find some other time to visit Taroko Gorge.
But what was their mission?
Well, we see: We traveled there to participate in the county's first hot air
balloon event.
And as we mentioned before, you've never seen Hualien this way before because
this is the first time that the county has had a hot air balloon event.
Now at the beginning of the sentence we saw a word from our Word Bank.
The word "participate." Now Gabe, what does it mean if you participate in
something?
That means you join an event.
You want to take part in that event.
You're not just standing on the side watching. You're actually doing the event
with other people.
Now what kinds of things have you participated in?
Often you'll see these words together: to participate in something.
What kinds of things do you participate in, Carolyn?
Well, I participate in a lot of different activities at my church.
I'm in the choir, so I sing in the English choir.
But I also help with the children's choir and lead a small group for young
adults.
So there are many different things that I participate in.
That's right.
So you can use this word to talk about things that you join.
You're taking part in something.
So this is what Nathanael is doing in this county's first hot air balloon event.
And he continues: In a flat, open field, two colorful balloons lay in a bundle
under white cloth.
So he's setting the stage here.
This is the beginning of this story.
You don't see the hot air balloon standing straight up at first.
They're just in a bundle.
That's right.
They're in a bundle.
And they're even covered up because they are under white cloth.
He continues to write: All visitors watched a platform where a red flag was
standing.
So there's a red flag on this platform, and everyone is watching this flag.
Why are they watching the flag, Gabe?
Well, everyone wants to know if you can fly in a hot air balloon that day or
not.
They're watching this flag. OK?
We continue learning about this.
A barrier between us and the sky, red meant the weather would not allow flight.
OK. So people saw a red flag.
And that red flag was between them and the sky.
And if it's red, that means that you're not going to fly in a hot air balloon
that day.
That's right.
As many of us know, red means stop.
So you can't continue forward.
You have to wait until the flag changes color.
That's right.
Now let's look at that word "barrier" at the beginning of this sentence.
There was a barrier between us and the sky.
This is kind of a negative word that Nathanael is using because of course you
want to fly in the hot air balloon, but the red flag is stopping you.
It's blocking you.
That's what a barrier is - it blocks you from doing or enjoying something.
That's right.
Well, we do not have a barrier today between us and Michelle.
So let's go over to the Language Lab and see what she has for us today.
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.