节目资讯
刊物:空中英语教室
日期:2013-08-16
难易度:Medium
关键字:souvenir, awe, clutter, compliment, keychain
Today we're enjoying a lesson by Jo: Tips for Souvenir Shopping.
And of course if you go traveling somewhere, you don't have to go overseas.
You could even just go to a museum nearby and buy some souvenirs for people.
But you don't want to just buy everything that is there.
You want to think about the things that you are buying.
Jo has some tips so that you don't just collect junk when you go shopping in
other places.
So let's continue learning about these tips.
The first one is pick and choose.
Let's continue learning about this.
Tips for Souvenir Shopping.
I buy myself two or three small things that I really like.
They won't weigh me down on my trip, and they won't clutter up my room when I
get home.
Use it.
I get so many compliments on clothes and jewelry I bring back from trips.
I love saying, "Oh, I bought this at a little market in Thailand!" For you it
might be wall art, bags or maybe music.
Buy things you'll use; don't spend money on something that will just collect
dust!
Well, continuing talk about Jo's first tip to pick and choose, she says:
I buy myself two or three small things that I really like.
And I think that this is pretty good advice.
You don't need to buy five or ten things, and especially not big things but just
two or three small things that you really like.
And is this something that you do?
For me, it is something that I do.
I will usually buy something that I really like, that I really enjoy.
Jo continues.
They won't weigh me down on my trip, and they won't clutter up my room when I
get home.
All right.
So that's a great thing about just buying some small things.
They won't weigh you down.
Liz will share more about this in the Grammar Gym in a moment.
But for now, let's take a look at our Word Bank word there.
It is "clutter." Carolyn, what does that mean?
Well, it means that there are too many things in one area.
So there are just so many things.
Maybe you have a lot of clutter, or your desk is very cluttered.
That means that there are just too many things on your desk, and you don't
really have any space to work.
All right.
So you can use this word as a noun - you have a lot of clutter.
Or as a verb - it is... or an adjective - it is cluttered.
There's too much clutter.
And some things will clutter up your room when you get home from a vacation if
you buy too many things.
Right now it is time for us to learn more with Liz in the Grammar Gym about
something that weighs you down.
Hi, friends.
Welcome to the Grammar Gym.
My name is Liz.
We see this statement in today's article:
They won't weigh me down on my trip...
That's our Grammar Tip sentence.
Our focus is on the phrase: weigh me down.
To weigh someone down means to feel the trouble of carrying or dealing with
something.
In the case of today's sentence, the writer is saying that she just buys a few
little things while on vacation.
They're not big and heavy.
Big and heavy things will weigh her down on her trip.
OK, let's have a look at some other examples.
If you have to carry something heavy, it will certainly weigh you down, like:
Janet is carrying a lot of shopping bags and they are weighing her down.
You can also use this phrase to describe difficult situations that are hard to
deal with, like:
The stress from having three jobs and going to school every night is weighing
Scott down.
If you'd like to see some more example sentences, they're available in today's
Grammar Tip section in your magazine.
That's it for today.
This is Liz from the Grammar Gym.
See you next time.
Thank you, Liz.
It is a good idea to keep things from weighing us down.
We don't want to be weighed down.
And Jo doesn't want to be weighed down by vacation junk or things that she won't
actually use that she buys when she's on vacation or traveling.
And her first tip was to pick and choose.
But she has another tip for us.
She says: Use it.
Now Gabe, what does she mean by "use it"?
Well, she's talking about souvenirs that she gets for herself, right?
So you want it to be useful.
Use it.
So she says, "I get so many compliments on clothes and jewelry I bring back from
trips." So she is using these things.
She has... she's going to buy something that she's going to put on, maybe
clothes or jewelry.
And Carolyn, she has compliments on these things.
She does get compliments.
And that word is from our Word Bank.
If you... if you receive a compliment from someone, it means that they said
something very nice to you.
So I might give Gabe a compliment by saying: Gabe, you know, you're really nice
to work with.
Oh, Carolyn, thank you.
What a nice compliment!
You know, that's... that's wonderful.
And Carolyn, I just have to say, the way you explain the word "compliment" was
outstanding.
Oh, well, thank you, Gabe.
That was a very nice compliment.
Thank you for complimenting me.
Well, it's nice to compliment people.
Sometimes I think we don't compliment other people enough.
We don't say nice things enough.
It's important to compliment others on the good things that they do or the good
things that you notice about them.
That's right.
So if you see someone and you think that maybe they have a really nice smile,
and it makes you feel so happy and wonderful when you see them because they are
happy,
you might compliment them and tell them that you know, you have a really
wonderful smile, and it makes me feel a lot of joy.
Thanks, Carolyn.
Anyway, friends, as you can see, you can use this word as both a noun and a
verb.
You can compliment someone, give them a compliment.
Well, Jo continues.
I love saying: Oh, I bought this at a little market in Thailand.
So that's, for example, just one place she might have bought something, bought a
souvenir.
Of course it's nice to be able to say you bought it overseas at some special
place.
It is always very nice when someone compliments you.
And then you can tell them:
Oh. Well, actually this is something very special.
Let me tell you about it.
There is a story behind this T-shirt, or this bracelet or this necklace or
anything that you buy as a souvenir.
That's right.
And for Jo, it's clothes and jewelry.
But she says for you, it might be wall art, bags or maybe music, or something
completely different.
Carolyn, what is wall art?
Well, wall art would be a piece of art that you hang on your wall.
And actually, I bought some wall art while I was in Thailand.
You did not.
I did! I bought a beautiful picture of a tiger painted on black velvet.
Hey, that looks... that sounds pretty nice.
It sounds like it's very interesting.
Some of you like wall art as well.
Well, Jo continues.
Buy things you'll use.
Don't spend money on something that will just collect dust.
And Carolyn, there's a good phrase that has to do with collecting dust, right?
Yes. It is a dust collector.
And let's look at that phrase.
A dust collector is exactly what it sounds like - something that sits on your
shelf, and you can't use it but it just collects dust.
That's right.
Maybe you've put it there and it remains there for a long time, just collecting
dust.
You could call that a dust collector.
Well, it's time for us to learn something new with Michelle right now in the
Language Lab.
OK.
(Chinese).
And now let's see what our teachers are doing.
Well, today we've been learning a little bit from Jo about some tips for going
souvenir shopping when you're on vacation or traveling around the world.
And I just kind of wonder what kind of souvenirs do you like to buy.
Do you like to buy useful things or do you prefer to buy things that you can
just enjoy looking at?
What about you, Gabe?
Hmm... actually, I enjoy buying things like shirts and sunglasses.
I bought this cardigan in the United States recently.
I like to buy things that are useful so that other people can look at them.
Well, I certainly understand that.
I also like to buy things that are useful.
But sometimes it's also nice to just buy something that's very beautiful or
unique, maybe some handmade craft that you can just enjoy looking at.
That's right.
There are some things that are just good for decoration.
Well, thank you for joining us today.
And of course we have more to learn, more Tips for Souvenir Shopping in our next
lesson here at Studio Classroom.
See you.