节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-08
难易度:Medium
关键字:halt, unhook, goods, getaway, fireman
Hello, and welcome to Studio Classroom.
My name is Gabe.
And my name is Carolyn.
And you're joining us for a lesson called The Great Train Robbery.
Of course a robbery is when one or more people go in and steal something from
somewhere.
Sometimes people might go to a bank and steal money from the bank.
But this is a famous robbery in history - the Great Train Robbery.
Are there any other famous robberies that you know about?
Carolyn?
Well, there are a lot of famous robberies.
And sometimes people decide to steal things because they want to be known for
doing something like this.
Now one that occurred a little more recently was in 1987 on July 12.
A group of men went into the Kingston Bank.
They went uh, to Kingston, England, and they went to a bank there, and they
wanted to open a safety deposit box.
But instead of opening an account, they stole $111 million!
Shoo! That a lot of money.
That is a big robbery!
Of course some movies are made about robberies.
Ocean's Eleven, The Pink Panther, these are movies about robberies.
And there are other famous robberies you can find out about in your magazine on
page 20.
But let's get started with our lesson right now - The Great Train Robbery.
(Music).
The Great Train Robbery.
50 years ago to the day...
1963, at about 3:00 in the morning.
The Night Flyer rolled to an unexpected stop.
The train was traveling from Glasgow, Scotland, to London, England, but had been
halted by a red signal light.
Seeking an emergency phone, a fireman stepped off the train only to be seized by
robbers dressed as track workers.
The men then entered the cab of the train and hit the driver over the head.
Once they had unhooked the train's engine and first two cars from the rest, the
Night Flyer moved on.
Well, this is a very interesting tale, a very exciting story.
But let's go back to the top before we hear anymore about it.
50 years ago to the day...
So this is the Great Train Robbery, and it occurred 50 years ago to the day.
I think that's a really great phrase, Gabe.
Let's take a look at it.
All right, to the day.
That means we're not talking about approximately or it's not just nearly 50
years ago or around 50 years ago.
No. To the day.
So today is August 8. And 50 years ago in 1963 on August 8, the Great Train
Robbery occurred.
So you could use this phrase in other ways.
Thirty years ago and one month to the day, I was born.
Wow! That is impressive, Gabe.
Well, you can use this phrase "to the day" to show how exact something is.
You could also change "day" to another time word.
You could say "to the hour," or "to the minute." So you can use this phrase in a
couple of different ways.
But getting into our article, how do we start, Gabe?
All right.
In 1963, at about 3:00 in the morning.
That's how we start this story.
It's 3 a.m., and the Night Flyer rolled to an unexpected stop.
The Night Flyer is the name of this train.
And it came to an unexpected stop.
It was an unplanned stop.
That's right.
So they didn't think they would be stopping here.
And they rolled to this stop.
Now Liz has something she wants to tell us about that word in the Grammar Gym.
Hi there, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
And here's our Grammar Tip sentence for today.
The Night Flyer rolled to an unexpected stop.
Our focus today is on the word "rolled." Normally we use "roll" to talk about
how something round moves from one place to another, like:
The ball rolled across the floor.
But in today's sentence, the writer is not saying that the Night Flyer was
moving like a ball.
Instead, the word "rolled" is used to mean to move smoothly.
In other words, the Night Flyer was moving smoothly, and it came to an
unexpected stop.
We normally use "roll" like this when we want to describe how something big is
moving smoothly, like transportation.
Besides trains, we can use it to talk about cars, like:
We jumped into our car and rolled down to the beach.
Or: The truck rolled into the parking lot.
If you'd like to see some more examples, they're available in today's Grammar
Tip section in your magazine.
And that's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
I'll see you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
Well, we're continuing to learn about this train, the Night Flyer, it came to an
unexpected stop.
The train was traveling from Glasgow, Scotland, to London, England, but had been
halted by a red signal light.
Let's take a look at that word from our Word Bank.
It is "halt." If something is halted, that's another word for stopped.
That's right.
So the train came to a stop, or it was stopped by this red light.
That's right, so it was halted.
Now uh, you might hear this word... someone might yell this word to someone if
they want them to stop.
They might say, "Halt!" Don't move any further.
I don't usually hear this word very much.
I would hear the word "stop" more often.
But this is still a common word in the English language.
So the train was halted, it was stopped by a red signal light.
And then how does the story continue?
Well, we see: Seeking an emergency phone, a fireman stepped off the train only
to be seized by robbers dressed as track workers.
So the fireman got off the train,
trying to find the emergency phone so he could find out why the train was
stopped when he was seized by these robbers who were pretending to be workers
at... on the railroad.
That's right.
And there's another word in that sentence that kind of means halt or stop.
It's the word "seized." And if you are seized, that means you're stopped by
people, maybe kind of captured in a way, and you can't move any further.
You can't do anything else.
You're seized.
But there's another word here, the word "fireman." Now I don't want you think
about firefighters when you think about this word fireman.
The fireman, in this case, on this train, is the person who is in charge of the
fire.
Of course in that time, trains used coal and fire to get going.
That's right.
So this is a different kind of a fireman.
He is in charge of keeping the fire going so that the train will continue
moving.
Well, the men then entered the cab of the train and hit the driver over the
head.
So they've seized the fireman, and they've knocked the driver out.
So no one is controlling the train anymore.
That's right.
I like that phrase you use, Carolyn: They knocked the driver out.
That's kind of an idiom to say that someone was knocked so that they're not
awake anymore.
They were hit so that they're not awake.
They were knocked out.
Well, this driver's knocked out.
He was hit over the head.
And once they had unhooked the train's engine and first two cars from the rest,
the Night Flyer moved on.
All right. It seems like they're... they're getting away with it so far.
It seems like nothing is going to happen to them.
But first, let's take a look at this word from our Word Bank.
It is "unhook." If something is unhooked, that means it is detached.
It was attached before, but now it is detached.
It's unhooked.
That's right.
So it could also mean to release something or to separate it.
Maybe you like to wear necklaces.
And before you go to bed, you need to take it off.
So you should unhook your necklace so that the chain is separated.
It is no longer closed but opened.
And of course the opposite of this word is hooked.
When you attach something, like your necklace, then it is hooked.
So in this story, once these people had unhooked the train's engine from the
first two cars... from the rest, then the Night Flyer moved on.
Well, it's time for us to learn something new with Steve and Ken in the
Information Cloud.
You might have seen that word "cab" and "engine" and the word "car." These could
have different definitions.
Let's go see the Information Cloud.
And then we'll go to the Language Lab.
Hi, friends.
When you look up a word in the dictionary, are you paying attention to all the
definitions?
You should because a lot of times, the first definition is not the one you're
looking for.
Let's take a look at three words in today's lesson: car, engine and cab.
Now you probably think they're so familiar that there's no need to look them up.
But in the lesson, the word "car" is not referring to an automobile, which is
the first definition of car in most dictionaries.
Instead, it's referring to a railway carriage.
And that's the fourth definition of "car" in my dictionary.
Likewise, the word "engine" is not referring to a machine, which is the first
definition of "engine" in most dictionaries.
The engine in our lesson today is actually the locomotive that pulls a train.
And finally, the word "cab" does not mean a taxicab in the lesson, but is
referring to the enclosed compartment of a locomotive.
So remember to always look through all the definitions when looking up a word to
make sure you grasp its real meaning.
(Chinese).
Hi, everyone. I'm Michelle.