节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-06
难易度:High
关键字:rugged, utterly, impractical, prone, rally, rickshaw
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And I'm Carolyn.
And you are joining us for the second day of our lesson Adventures for a Cause.
Of course yesterday we began to learn about the Adventurists and how they raise
1,000 pounds each to go on these crazy, eccentric adventures.
But it's all for a noble purpose - all for the wonderful cause of rain forest
conservation.
Now if you went to join something or participate in an activity for a cause,
what kind of cause or reason would you do it?
Carolyn?
Well, I think I'd really like to raise money or support improving education.
OK.
There are a lot of schools that just don't have enough money to pay teachers
enough so that they don't get good teachers,
or they have to cut back on programs that would really help the students learn
and enjoy learning.
So I think that would be a really good cause to raise money for.
That's a great cause.
Another cause I can think of is helping people find jobs that are suitable for
them.
I think that people could be educated in that way as well.
Well, what cause can you think of?
What cause would you support?
Get creative.
Talk about it in English.
Right now it's time for us to continue learning about Adventures for a Cause.
(Music).
Adventures for a Cause.
What if you want to experience an adventure for a cause, but horses aren't your
thing?
Never fear; there are others to choose from - after raising that 1,000 pounds.
The Mongol Rally.
What's more exciting than a 16,000-kilometer road trip across mountains, deserts
and other rugged terrain?
Doing it in a vehicle with an engine smaller than 1.2 liters!
Mongol Rally participants follow another "un-route" that consists of a starting
point in the U.K., a finish line in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and nothing in
between.
After all, it's an adventure, not a guided tour.
(Music).
They do seem to enjoy their "un-routes." Well, going back to the beginning of
this lesson:
What if you want to experience an adventure for a cause, but horses aren't your
thing?
So yesterday we talked about the Mongol Derby, the longest horse race in the
world.
But maybe you aren't very interested in riding a horse, or you think it would be
too difficult to ride a horse that far.
1,000 kilometers is quite a long way.
So there are some other options.
It's true.
There are other options because horses may not be your thing.
Let's talk about that phrase: to be one's thing.
That means something that you are interested in, something that makes you
excited.
You could say: Yeah, that's my thing.
Usually I hear this in a negative way, though.
Oh, no, I don't want to do that because that's not my thing.
That's right.
Usually we use it to express things like: Oh, it's really not my thing.
Maybe you want to go see a concert, and your friend says: Oh. Well, that type of
music really isn't my thing, so I'm not going to go with you.
But continuing in our article:
Never fear.
If horses are not your thing, there are others to choose from - after raising
that 1,000 pounds.
Yes, of course.
That's a good reminder there at the end of this sentence.
Our author reminds us: Of course it costs a little bit of money, actually quite
a bit of money, you have to raise.
But I see a phrase here: never fear.
So that kind of means don't worry.
Never fear, or don't worry.
You can choose from other events... like what, Carolyn?
Well, yesterday we had the Mongol Derby.
And today we see the Mongol Rally.
What's more exciting than a 16,000-kilometer road trip across mountains, deserts
and other rugged terrain?
Oh, this is a good question.
It's a good question.
Uh... the answer is supposed to be "Not much can be more exciting," but perhaps
you can think of something more exciting.
However, this will be definitely a crazy adventure.
OK, so this is the Mongol Rally.
And a rally is... is a race.
But it's not a race on a track like you see in... in some races, some car races.
It's a race through other places, maybe unplanned territory or un... undriven
roads.
That's right.
And it is on rugged terrain.
So let's look at the word "rugged" from our Word Bank.
If something is rugged, then it's not smooth, and probably very difficult to get
across.
It's true.
So you might talk about rugged terrain, which is kind of how the Earth is in a
certain area.
Or maybe a rugged road.
OK, so they are driving these... these cars and the roads are not smooth.
OK. It's rugged terrain.
This is very exciting.
Now doing it in a vehicle with an engine smaller than 1.2 liters!
Carolyn, that's uh... that's not a very big engine.
No. That is very small.
So what could be more exciting than going on a 16,000-kilometer road trip across
places that are very difficult to drive on?
Doing it in a vehicle with an engine smaller than 1.2 liters!
I think this will be very challenging.
I do, too.
Mongol Rally participants follow another un-route that consists of starting...
of a starting point in the U.K.,
a finish line in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and nothing in between.
OK, so this is an incredibly long distance.
It is a very long distance going all the way from the United Kingdom in Europe
to Mongolia.
And oh, that sounds like a very difficult time because you are on another
un-route.
There's no path, no map.
And we find out in the next sentence:
After all, it's an adventure, not a guided tour.
Well, I kind of like that, Carolyn.
I like the way our author puts this: after all.
Of course you already know that this is not something that you can do every day.
It's not easy.
It's an adventure.
And she compares it to something, a guided tour, Carolyn.
What's a guided tour?
Well, a guided tour is what you might go on when you are traveling.
So if you go to another country, you might get a tour guide or a person who is
local to show you around so that you know the easiest way to go places and the
best places to go.
But this is not a guided tour, it's an adventure.
That's right.
So the idea is it's exciting, it's unplanned, not planned and safe.
It might be a little bit dangerous, but it can be a good thing for you to try
out.
Maybe you are interested in doing something like this.
Well, you should check out the Adventurists online and find out more.
For right now it's time for us to enjoy a video about this Mongol Rally.
Let's do that, and then join Michelle in the Language Lab.
(Music).
Did you not cross the bridge?
(Music).
Yeah!
(Background Noise).
(Music).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.