节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-07
难易度:High
关键字:frigid, traverse, minimal, disregard, junket
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you're joining us for day three of our lesson Adventures for a Cause.
There are many causes out there, many great reasons to support something in the
world, to make the world a better place.
And the Adventurists we've been learning about, they have a cause to save the
rain forests.
And they go on these eccentric, crazy adventures of over great distances to do
this.
What was one of the adventures we learned about over the last couple of days,
Carolyn?
Well, we've learned about quite a few.
The first one was the Mongol Derby, a 1,000-kilometer horse competition, or just
a journey across the plains of Mongolia.
And there was also the Mongol Rally, which is 16,000 kilometers between the U.K.
and Mongolia in a very small vehicle.
And those are both very exciting.
We also talked about the Rickshaw Run and the Bajai Rally, both involving
rickshaws, or tuk-tuks, or Bajais.
There are different names for this kind of three-wheeled vehicle with a very
small engine, but very exciting... very exciting adventures indeed.
So let's continue now learning about the Ice Run.
(Music).
Adventures for a Cause.
The Ice Run.
Those willing to brave frigid temperatures can try the Ice Run, driving old Ural
motorcycles across Siberia in February.
Usually rusty, with a design that has remained unchanged since before 1939,
these vehicles are sure to break down at some point.
But to the Adventurists, that's part of the excitement.
So is the weather, often with temperatures around -30 degrees Celsius, sometimes
colder, with 40 mile-per-hour winds.
The Mototaxi Junket.
Continuing the trend of traversing the world's wildest terrain in the world's
least reliable vehicles, the Adventurists present the Mototaxi Junket.
All right.
We'll continue learning about the Mototaxi Junket later.
But first, let's talk about some English from this first section in the Ice Run.
Those willing to brave frigid temperatures can try the Ice Run, driving old Ural
motorcycles across Siberia in February.
It sounds very cold to me, Carolyn.
Well, it does sound extremely cold.
And we even see in this sentence the word "frigid," which is from our Word Bank.
And if something is frigid, then it is very, very, very, very cold.
It is very, very, extremely cold.
I honestly don't know if I can say I've ever experienced frigid temperatures
anywhere.
Carolyn, have you ever been in frigid temperatures?
Well, I have been in negative temperatures.
And it was very cold as walking outside was actually considered a bit dangerous,
it was so cold.
So I think that might be frigid.
Yeah, maybe you could consider that frigid.
Maybe if it's... if it's not just a little bit cold, and maybe it's even like
Carolyn said even dangerous to walk outside because it's so cold, you could say
that is frigid temperatures.
Well, we're continuing to talk about this uh... this uh... adventure across
Siberia, which of course is very cold in February.
Usually rusty, with a design that has remained unchanged since before 1939,
these vehicles are sure to break down at some point.
These are old vehicles.
They are very old.
Well, the vehicles themselves might not be too old, but the design of them
hasn't changed since 1939.
You think about our cars, the first car was invented over 100 years ago.
But the designs have changed every year.
And so of course if the design hasn't changed, maybe it's sure to break down at
some point.
If something breaks down, that means it's broken.
You can't use it, and you have to fix it.
So we continue.
But to the Adventurists, that's part of the excitement.
Carolyn, does that sound exciting to you, going in one of these vehicles that
will break down at any point?
Well, I don't really enjoy the idea of being out in the middle of nowhere in
frigid temperatures in Siberia in the month of February in a broken-down
vehicle.
But, for these Adventurists, it is part of the excitement.
Well, if you love adventure like this, this would be exciting for you.
Maybe you can give it a try.
So, well, the excitement is there.
And uh, it's... the weather is also exciting here.
We see: So is the weather, often with temperatures around negative 30 degrees
Celsius, sometimes colder, with 40 mile-per-hour winds.
Oh, that... that would be below frigid, I think.
It's very, very, very cold, 30 degrees below zero, or 30 degrees Celsius below
zero.
Now that... that would be far too cold.
And there are 40 mile-per-hour winds, which means it probably feels even colder.
That's right.
And that brings us to our next point.
We want to share with you a phrase called "the wind chill factor." And of
course, it might be really cold outside.
It's cold enough without the wind.
And then you add the wind, it becomes even colder.
That's the wind chill factor.
That's right.
So many times getting ready for school in the morning in the middle of winter,
the school buses would not run because of the wind chill.
It was just too cold to ask students to wait outside for the bus.
And so that's why some people take jakcets that are special called windbreakers.
Maybe it's not very thick, but it blocks the wind, and it keeps you warm.
Well, it's time for us now to learn more with Steve and Ken in the Information
Cloud.
I never thought we'd ever see both metric and U.S. customary unit measurements
mentioned in the same sentence.
That is a rare occurrence, indeed.
It reminds me of Americans who more and more are living and working among both
systems of measurements.
Right, even though the United States is one of three countries in the world that
hasn't made the metric system mandatory.
The other two countries being Liberia and Myanmar.
There is evidence that metrication in the U.S. is happening albeit very slowly.
One statistic tells us 30 percent of products in the U.S. are now manufactured
using the metric system.
Most of these products displayed both U.S. customary units and metric units,
like on a car's speedometer and information on food product labels.
My water bottle has both measurements, as does my ruler.
Other American products are manufactured in metric units only.
There are fewer examples of this, but they do exist like the two-liter soda
bottle and medicines from the pharmaceutical industry.
OK. American opposition to enforce metrication is strong.
So using both systems at the same time, like we just saw in today's lesson, will
likely continue for some time.
(Chinese).
Thank you, guys.
Well, now let's continue learning about another kind of adventure: the Mototaxi
Junket.
And a junket is a journey that's just taken for pleasure.
And of course these adventures are all just for fun.
They're not competitions or races.
What do we learn about this, Carolyn?
Well, we see: Continuing the trend of traversing the world's wildest terrain in
the world's least reliable vehicles, the Adventurists present the Mototaxi
Junket.
So this sounds like a very exciting adventure.
And we see that they are continuing the trend of traversing the world's wildest
terrain.
So let's look at the word "traversing." It just means to cross, to go across an
area.
That's right.
And so these people are going to be using another kind of motorized vehicle to
traverse these different terrains.
Um, you don't have to use a vehicle like a car to traverse something.
You could just maybe go on foot.
We traversed the mountains on foot.
That's right.
Well, right now it is time for us to learn something with Michelle in the
Language Lab.